With the new power and furniture arrangements in my multichannel room, I've begun to reexamine all the other things that affect system performance, including power conditioning and signal cables. However, I could not get my wife to accept the presence in that room of an <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/904music/index1.html">ASC Sub Trap</A>, which lifted my <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/955">Paradigm Servo-15</A> subwoofer to eye level. Not that I protested the Trap's departure all that much&mdash;at that height, Trap and sub partly blocked direct radiation from my rear left speaker. But I felt its absence immediately, as my system returned to the usual somewhat boomy, overly punchy bass. The ASC left me with the determination to deal with room problems, particularly in the bass.

With the new power and furniture arrangements in my multichannel room, I've begun to reexamine all the other things that affect system performance, including power conditioning and signal cables. However, I could not get my wife to accept the presence in that room of an <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/904music/index1.html">ASC Sub Trap</A>, which lifted my <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/955">Paradigm Servo-15</A> subwoofer to eye level. Not that I protested the Trap's departure all that much&mdash;at that height, Trap and sub partly blocked direct radiation from my rear left speaker. But I felt its absence immediately, as my system returned to the usual somewhat boomy, overly punchy bass. The ASC left me with the determination to deal with room problems, particularly in the bass.

With the new power and furniture arrangements in my multichannel room, I've begun to reexamine all the other things that affect system performance, including power conditioning and signal cables. However, I could not get my wife to accept the presence in that room of an <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/904music/index1.html">ASC Sub Trap</A>, which lifted my <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/955">Paradigm Servo-15</A> subwoofer to eye level. Not that I protested the Trap's departure all that much&mdash;at that height, Trap and sub partly blocked direct radiation from my rear left speaker. But I felt its absence immediately, as my system returned to the usual somewhat boomy, overly punchy bass. The ASC left me with the determination to deal with room problems, particularly in the bass.

When <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/232">Ken Kantor</A> helped to found Now Hear This, Inc. (most commonly referred to by its initials, NHT) in 1986, he brought with him a wealth of design and production experience learned from stints with NAD and Acoustic Research. He also brought a desire to build and market products that a wide range of people could afford. NHT began by producing small, two-way designs distinguished by the angled front baffle which remains the company's trademark. The latter is no gimmick, but was designed to optimize the loudspeakers' radiation pattern, a matter of keen interest to Kantor ever since his undergraduate thesis work at MIT. This interest continued at AR, where he was responsible for the MGC-1 loudspeaker&mdash;probably his best known pre-NHT loudspeaker design.

When <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/232">Ken Kantor</A> helped to found Now Hear This, Inc. (most commonly referred to by its initials, NHT) in 1986, he brought with him a wealth of design and production experience learned from stints with NAD and Acoustic Research. He also brought a desire to build and market products that a wide range of people could afford. NHT began by producing small, two-way designs distinguished by the angled front baffle which remains the company's trademark. The latter is no gimmick, but was designed to optimize the loudspeakers' radiation pattern, a matter of keen interest to Kantor ever since his undergraduate thesis work at MIT. This interest continued at AR, where he was responsible for the MGC-1 loudspeaker&mdash;probably his best known pre-NHT loudspeaker design.

When <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/232">Ken Kantor</A> helped to found Now Hear This, Inc. (most commonly referred to by its initials, NHT) in 1986, he brought with him a wealth of design and production experience learned from stints with NAD and Acoustic Research. He also brought a desire to build and market products that a wide range of people could afford. NHT began by producing small, two-way designs distinguished by the angled front baffle which remains the company's trademark. The latter is no gimmick, but was designed to optimize the loudspeakers' radiation pattern, a matter of keen interest to Kantor ever since his undergraduate thesis work at MIT. This interest continued at AR, where he was responsible for the MGC-1 loudspeaker&mdash;probably his best known pre-NHT loudspeaker design.

When <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/232">Ken Kantor</A> helped to found Now Hear This, Inc. (most commonly referred to by its initials, NHT) in 1986, he brought with him a wealth of design and production experience learned from stints with NAD and Acoustic Research. He also brought a desire to build and market products that a wide range of people could afford. NHT began by producing small, two-way designs distinguished by the angled front baffle which remains the company's trademark. The latter is no gimmick, but was designed to optimize the loudspeakers' radiation pattern, a matter of keen interest to Kantor ever since his undergraduate thesis work at MIT. This interest continued at AR, where he was responsible for the MGC-1 loudspeaker&mdash;probably his best known pre-NHT loudspeaker design.

When <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/232">Ken Kantor</A> helped to found Now Hear This, Inc. (most commonly referred to by its initials, NHT) in 1986, he brought with him a wealth of design and production experience learned from stints with NAD and Acoustic Research. He also brought a desire to build and market products that a wide range of people could afford. NHT began by producing small, two-way designs distinguished by the angled front baffle which remains the company's trademark. The latter is no gimmick, but was designed to optimize the loudspeakers' radiation pattern, a matter of keen interest to Kantor ever since his undergraduate thesis work at MIT. This interest continued at AR, where he was responsible for the MGC-1 loudspeaker&mdash;probably his best known pre-NHT loudspeaker design.

<B>HistoriCAL Introduction</B>
<BR>
California Audio Labs is a child of the digital age. Originally, they made a noise by offering <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/654">modified CD players with tube output stages</A>, a practice for which I found no intellectual justification. On the other hand, the results were successful, even if (probably) due to the CAL units' softening of the harshness of early digital sound.