Who remembers California Audio Labs?

There are so many hidden treasures from the 1980s / 90s.  A handful of years ago, I saw a great deal on a CAL Alpha DAC and had to go for it.  And what a find indeed!  This is the kind of thing you read about finding at a garage sale or thrift store that you take home and it just knocks your socks off.

The Alpha has been a great match with a $300 4wpc integrated tube amp and budget bookshelf speakers to build this vintage system connected to a desktop computer system.  I use the computer's audio board's TOSLINK output to the Alpha but it also has RCA SPDIF, ATT glass and AES/EBU inputs.

The Alpha was pretty good with the Sovtek tubes, but a pair of 1960s Telefunken 12AX7's was quite a refinement in smoothness.  Throwing in some spare $$$$ power cables and ICs lying around provided another revelation.  If such cables can be justified in a $20k DAC, why not try them in the Alpha?

Due to the speakers' and amp's limitations, I can't fairly evaluate the Alpha's frequency extremes capabilities, but the Alpha and the budget amp bring on a level of musicality that I have heard many 5-figure systems fail miserably.   I have been wanting to try this against the Lampi B6 DAC in my main system but it's such a pain to tear systems down and move around components......so maybe one of these days.

One final note: I was surprised to see no ventilation atop the unit's chassis. Even though the unit barely gets warm, I had a friend with a drill press drill a couple rows of 1/8" holes above the tube pair.  

@bojack 

You have a point- I did have to have my Icon repaired a few times. 
Fortunately, almost all of my hifi gear has been trouble-free. 

Great sound, but plagued by numerous quality control issues. After my fourth unit, I was done.

I remember - had CAL-15 cd player for many years.

It was an excellent sounding player - resolving, with deep bass and non-fatuquing sound.

I upgraded it to Sony 5400ES super audio player and cannot state that Sony sounded better with red book CDs. 

I still have, and listen to, my pop's hand-me-down Aria CD player. Everything works fine, even the remote. 

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5oGQwprgkNY/maxresdefault.jpg

(The above image is not mine but is an example of the unit) 

Admittedly it doesn't get much use as all of my CDs are ripped but now and then I'll pop in a CD just to keep it limber. 

Happy listening.

I had the CAL Delta and Alpha combo. Very warm and musical, but resolution wasn’t its strength. I still have them, but I have to say that streaming through my Bluesound Node II is more resolving.
 

what sank CAL from memory was their movement into video. They had a tremendous universal player that was also extremely fragile. I bought two used that had the laser system broken in shipping, despite decent and original packaging both times.

I believe the Adcom GCD-750 (still have as a backup) was a CAL design.  I have a schematic with their name on it.

I have a CAL CD player I bought on EBay. The seller either didn't know or neglected to tell me it doesn't work. I put it aside until I get around to fixing it. So far I suspect the on/off switch as it won't turn on/light up.

I had a CAL Tercet mk III back in the day. It was the best CD player I had hear at that time. 

dekay - I still have one too (since the late 90s!) and it sounds great, imo. It’s my backup, to a Rega which is excellent too. The CalAudio is very close in performance. I mostly stream now, with all my CDs ripped to a Roon server.

i see the sigma and  alpha DACs for sale every time i visit used sites. might be the same two.

I had the cal audio labs combo , at the time when much digital was not that good 

these guys were great for the money .

I'm still running and enjoying a Delta transport/Sigma II DAC (24/96) combination in a secondary system. 

I'm still running an Icon MkII.

DeKay

I had a CAL CL-10 5-disc CD player.  The transport carousel design was not robust and it broke twice.  I sent it back for repair the first time but I junked it after the second time.  Despite the mechanics, the sound was good; I felt bad about saying goodbye.

Yes I remember CAL and their products, at the time they were quite cutting edge. I believe that their transport and CD players were built on the Phillips machines utilizing the CD4 transport system. Although never owning any of their products I did run the big Phillips CD80 cd player, first as a player and then as a transport digitally linked out to the original PS Audio Digital Link and adding the Audio Alchemy Digital DTI filter in the chain when they became available. This system I ran for a good 12 years and had me just purchasing CDs and neglecting my analog setup. Happy to say I am back on the analog side of things as my primary. Enjoy the music

I had a CAL Alpha 24/96 DAC and Delta transport.   It was a great combo, it replaced a CD player and Audio Alchemy DAC and was a step up for sure.  

GoVideo bought them and that was the end....  

I remember CAL. They made a decent transport. If they were still in business my guess is that they would be similar to, but a more lower priced Wadia.