CAS 2011

I walked into the Margules room and was welcomed by Peter Frampton’s funny cover of Soundgarden’s late grunge-era hit, “Black Hole Sun,” with all the fuzzy, phasey, talk boxy effects you might expect from Frampton held perfectly in check, well-focused within the wide soundstage.

Margules’ Grand Orpheus loudspeakers ($30,000/pair) were mated to the company’s 40Wpc U280 power amplifier and F220 preamplifier ($3000). Source was the M6 CD player ($2500) and cables were all Cardas.

Whether playing solo piano or large-scale orchestral, I was impressed by the system’s sense of flow and by the big speakers’ ability to disappear. Like a few other systems I heard at the California Audio Show, this system was capable of sounding big when the music called for it, and delicate when the music called for it.