Prelude
The setting of the Prelude to our opera, The Margules Saga, is the California Audio Show, in August 2012. There, on first hearing Margules Audio's tube electronics, I wrote in my notebook, "great inner vitality, warm but with a welcome and appropriate bite." An encounter the following January inspired me to write, of a system that included an earlier version of the company's U280 amplifier, "The sound? Beautiful and warm. I've heard these electronics at two shows, and each time, I've left the room feeling good."
Enter Julian Margules, owner and chief designer of Margules…
Also on the top deck are blue LEDs to indicate the power tubes' bias and operation. These light up only after several minutes, when autobiasing is completed and the U280-SC is ready to be used, and change intensity with the output level. If an LED's illumination remains constant, dims, or is rarely activated, there's likely a problem with the associated tube.
Act I: Where's the Soprano?
The U280-SC Blacks arrived the same day that John Quick and Brad O'Toole of dCS stopped by with review samples of the dCS Vivaldi 2.0 and Network Bridge. As I prepared lunch for our starving fish and…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Tubed stereo power amplifier, strappable for mono, with selectable output transformer taps (8, 4, or 2 ohms) and modes (Ultralinear, Triode). Tube complement: four 12AU7, four KT88 (or 6550, KT99, KT100, KT120, KT150). All measurements at 8 ohms 1 khz input voltage 127V AC. Rated power output before clipping: stereo mode, 50Wpc Ultralinear (17dBW), 25Wpc Triode (14dBW); monoblock mode, 100W Ultralinear (20dBW), 55W Triode (17.4dBW); Inputs: 1 pair unbalanced (RCA). Outputs: 2 pairs binding posts. THD at 7V RMS output: 0.08%. Power consumption: 170W…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: dCS Paganini SACD/CD transport & Rossini DAC & Scarlatti Clock; Oppo Digital UDP-205 universal BD player; Apple MacBook Pro with Intel i7, SSD, 8GB RAM; external hard drives, USB sticks.
Power Amplifiers: Pass Labs XA200.8 monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia, Harbeth M40.1.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Diamond (FireWire, Ethernet), Wireworld Platinum Starlight Cat8 (Ethernet), Nordost Odin 1 & Odin 2 & Valhalla 2 (USB). Interconnect, Speaker, AC: Nordost Odin 2.
Accessories: Grand Prix…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured one of the the Margules U280-SC Blacks (S/N B-50003950517) using my top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). With two modes of output stage—Triode and Ultralinear—three choices of output-transformer tap, and the option of having its two channels strapped for mono operation, the Margules U280-SC is actually 14 different amplifiers in one enclosure. Although Jason Victor Serinus exclusively used the amplifiers as a pair of monoblocks, I performed a complete set of measurements for all 14 mono and stereo modes…
Manufacturers' Comment
Editor: Thank you for your time and effort put into the measurements of our amplifiers for this review. Your measurements are correct, but we must point out that the Margules U280-SC Black is definitely not a conventional tube amplifier. It has a different design approach, so it should be treated as such, and your comments are a good opportunity to explain the engineering behind the amplifier and to shed light on why Jason Victor Serinus's auditory evaluation and your technical measurements have differing outcomes.
Respectfully, and in the interest of…
That is me you see hanging out the car window like an old hound dog—ears flappin' in the slipstream—a big smile on my face. I am happy in the wind 'cause I am heading down to Rockville, Maryland to Capital Audio fest (starting today, November 3, and running though Sunday November 5) where I will see at least 60 fine audio rooms and I'll chatter on a panel about "The Virtues of Vintage" with old pals, Art Dudley, Joe Roberts, and Blackie Pagano. I'll be cruising the Rockville Hilton Hotel halls meeting new people and visiting the rooms of some old and (hopefully) some new friends. Tickets for…
Perhaps you've heard this before, but it bears repeating: Veteran exhibitors and attendees alike have a great deal of loyalty and affection for this seven-year-old show and its busy founder, Gary Gill. I was reminded of that during my very first stop on day one of Capital AudioFest 2017, when Kevin Hayes of VAC described the reasoning behind the decision to assemble such a large, expensive, and distinctly ambitious playback system: "In light of the move to this time of year, we wanted to help Gary and the show by doing something exceptional." The result: a system built around the mighty Von…
Although Halloween has just passed, I've just experienced a vinyl horror courtesy of the US Mail.
Recently, while idly combing the Web for LPs (something I rarely do), I came upon a 1962 deep-groove, mono reissue of pianist Tadd Dameron's 1957 release Mating Call with John Coltrane on Prestige Records. The cover was still in the shrink with a 77 cent price sticker on it. It had the Bergenfield, NJ address on its yellow labels. And the LP itself was billed as being in VG++ condition. The seller, therecordparlour is his eBay name, wanted $50. While it wasn't a first pressing, it was a…
I like the word tenacious. I consider myself tenacious. I admire tenacity. But I have to ask, what is Tenacious Sound? It is an audio dealer in Syracuse, New York, that is about to "tenaciously" open a new store in Nashville, TN. Tenacious had two rooms at the 2017 Capital Audio fest. The first was upscale and featured John Bevier demonstrating the hottest speaker of the moment, one I think sounds fast and lucid in a sometimes-thrilling way, the TAD ME-1K ($14,290/pair). The TADs, which JA tells me will be reviewed by Thomas J. Norton in the January 2018 issue of Stereophile, were driven and…
