Digital Drive: REVIEW: California Audio Labs Icon MKII Power Boss CD Player/Recorder by Luminator Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

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Model:	Icon MKII Power Boss
Category:	CD Player/Recorder
Suggested Retail Price:	$1445
Description:	20 bits HDCD CD player
Manufacturer URL:	California Audio Labs
Model Picture:	View

Review by Luminator on September 06, 2009 at 22:29:05 IP Address: 75.25.148.121

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August 1992. I remember it well. I was at my first job, teacher’s aide for a 4th grade summer school class. The weather was typical San Francisco – fog in the morning, sunshine during the say, fog in the evening. Despite the recession, the people on S.F.’s streets did not seem particularly upset that summer. The only brouhaha was the quarterback controversy between Joe Montana and Steve Young. And actually, since those were the pre-free agency days, the NFL was king.

The NHL was on the map, assuming you had one. That is, the San Jose Sharks came into existence, and played at Daly City’s Cow Palace, while the Shark Tank was being built. While the Sharks had nothing but 3rd-liners, Super Mario somehow came back and led the Penguins, despite a so-so regular season record, to repeat as champions. Actually, the season ended late, due, IIRC, to a labor dispute. Moreover, these were the days of the Divisions, so some really bad losing teams made the playoffs, while some mediocre teams did not. The Sharks missed out on Eric Lindros, and had, sigh, Pat Falloon. Still, we wondered why anyone would trade what seemed like half a team of all-stars for one guy, Lindros.

The San Francisco Giants appeared headed for Tampa-St. Pete. A not-very-good A’s team somehow would win enough games to win the AL West.

Summer school got out at lunchtime. I had a little paper route in Japantown at 5p. My dad left for Hawaii, to join my brother and mom who were already there. So, for the first time in my life, I had the place all to myself. Furthermore, I had lots of free time, free time to read up on high-end audio, listen to music, and keep in touch with friends who were also back in S.F. for the summer.

My aunt from the U.K. had sent Def Leppard’s Adrenalize , which I was listening to one afternoon, when the phone rang. My friend Ken said that he, Julian, and Roy were coming over with some new music.

You see, by now, grunge had totally wiped out the popular music scene. Anything in rock which was not considered “alternative” did not get any attention. But my friends were rockers, so we dug deeply. They brought over a stack of CDs. I remember Iron Maiden’s Fear Of The Dark . I do not know which friend had radio station connections, but he had a promo of Lillian Axe’s Poetic Justice. Roy had the just-released single of Megadeth’s “Symphony Of Destruction.” But he was most excited with one we had never heard before, Dream Theater’s Images And Words . We agreed that it sounded “like Rush.”

While this was going on, I showed my friends a copy of the July 1992 issue of Stereophile. In it, my letter to the editor was published. But. It said “disfunctional,” instead of “dysfunctional.” I was pissed!

That issue also included Jack English’s review of the California Audio Labs Icon Mk.II. I read and re-read that review. With my teaching and route monies, I certainly could afford one. But I already had the NAD 5000, so, in my judgment, going to an Icon Mk.II would represent just an incremental upgrade.

So my friends, while jamming along with my NAD 5000/B&K Pro10MC/Muse Model 100, mentioned that, even though nobody seemed to care, many Bay Area artists had just come out with new albums. We listened to Joe Satriani’s The Extremist , Testament’s The Ritual , and Vicious Rumors’ Welcome To The Ball . And my friends had learned that Exodus were about to release Force Of Habit .

That summer, my friends and I went to The Stone (San Francisco), The Omni (Oakland), and One Step Beyond (Palo Alto) to see the likes of Cannibal Corpse, Forbidden, Heathen, Malevolent Creation, Obituary, and Vicious Rumors. We also called up some other friends, and played softball at Rossi Playground. And I bowled league at Japantown Bowl, which no longer exists.

Through everything I did that summer, I could not stop thinking about the CAL Icon Mk.II. Even when I went back to Santa Cruz for my senior year of undergrad, I brought my Stereophile magazines with me. While the more expensive brands were wet dream material, I always had a soft spot for the CAL Icon Mk.II.

After I graduated from college, I returned home to San Francisco. Initially, Audio Excellence was the only CAL dealer. But they were more interested in promoting Classe’ and Theta Digital. Eventually, Harmony Audio/Video would pick up Cal, but their customers were more into mid-fi and Rotel. So when Ultimate Sound started to carry CAL, the Icon Mk.II, Delta, and Sigma II sold like hot cakes.

In the mid-90s, CAL took advantage of Pacific Microsonics’ PDM-100 chip, and incorporated the so-called Power Boss upgrade to the Icon Mk.II. To see the details, click on these links:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

With the CAL Icon Mk.II Power Boss as the source, I am listening to Lillian Axe’s Poetic Justice . It is not an airy recording, and the IconM2PB does not make it one. But the notes have a way of going one after another, and the music moves along. It does conjure up images of those August 1992 afternoons. As much as I liked Poetic Justice , there just was not any market for it back then. Nor is there demand for this kind of music now. Therefore, the IconM2PB makes me glad that I do have a copy of this album.

The IconM2PB does let you know that Iron Maiden’s Fear Of The Dark is a solid recording, but with too much filler, which would weigh the album down, as it rapidly fell off the charts, back in late Spring 1992 [FYI - Iron Maiden played the Cow Palace on July 1, 1992]. But with the IconM2PB, there is enough energy there, that you can easily see that “From Here To Eternity” and “Afraid To Shoot Strangers” [on many high-end audio CD players, this song can sound too slow, too plodding] would work better live. The IconM2PB does not capture the full body and impact of “Wasting Love,” so this power ballad does not move me as emotionally as with other CD players. But there is enough clarity, that you should have no problem playing along.

On one of those August 1992 afternoons, I fell asleep, one of the few times I took a nap since pre-school. When I woke up from that nap, I heard children’s voices outside. That inspired me to play Vicious Rumors’ “Children.” It is now 17 years later, and into the IconM2PB goes Vicious Rumors’ Welcome To The Ball . The background silence is more like sucking the air out, rather than having a “black” background upon which minute sounds can breathe. This is evident on Vicious Rumors’ “Children.” But it does make me look back fondly.

Joe Satriani’s The Extremist has a hot top end. As is common from a high-end player, the IconM2PB slightly strips away the burning mid-treble. While this does make for a less fatiguing presentation, it is inaccurate. One Saturday in the summer of 1992, I did make it over to dB Audio in Berkeley. Since the hills face westward, they get hit by the afternoon sun. That sun can be hot golden yellow, the visual equivalent of Satriani’s The Extremist [I think Satriani was living in Berkeley in 1992]. Still, the IconM2PB has the requisite quickness on drums, to make this CD compelling.

Testament’s The Ritual has fuzzy black and white photography. It depicts the mood when the fog reaches and hangs over Oakland. Somewhat concomitantly, the recording is also somewhat smeared. And Chuck Billy sounds as if he is singing into a toilet bowl. But you know what? When we saw Testament that year, that is how their concert sounded like. The IconM2PB does not mess this fact up. And, The Ritual is nowhere near as puffed up and dynamically squeezed as today’s recordings. Back in 1992, we were lamenting how “it was all over” for quality popular music. Playing these 1992 recordings on the IconM2PB makes us readjust our perspectives. Compared to the wasteland of pop music in the 2000s, 1992 seems like a golden age.

Up against the Creek CD53

A few years after the demise of California Audio Labs, Creek came out with the CD53. At a U.S. price of $1500, the CD53 was identical to the old IconM2PB. I had these two simultaneously, so I could compare then head-to-head.

The CD53 has balanced outputs, but they sound duller up top than the single-ended outputs. The CD53’s case work seems flimsier than the IconM2PB’s. The CD53 does not have tape recording functions. The CD53 does not have the elapsed disc time function. The CD53 does have a silver faceplate, and is shorter than the IconM2PB. The CD53 can be used with any Philips remote, but the transport often gets tripped up with CDs which are long and have a lot of tracks.

My friends and I find the CD53 to be finicky, regarding cabling. The wrong powercord can distort the imaging and soudstaging. With many interconnects, the CD53 sounds shut-in. One friend likened it to a hermit crab, which, despite having no predators nearby, refuses to come out of its shell.

Interestingly, both the CD53 and IconM2PB sound great into Creek’s Destiny integrated amp. But here, it is obvious that the CD53’s output is usefully a little lower than that of the IconM2PB [according to the specs, the CD53 has a 2.2V output, while the IconM2PB’s is 2.7V].

When optimized, the CD53 can reproduce soundstage depth better, with more intricacy within that space. The IconM2PB doesn’t capture image depth that well, yet, each image can be picked out, despite the overall sound being like a blanket. While both are good at PRAT, the IconM2PB chews through riffs more strongly, while the CD53 brings more attention to kick drums. But the IconM2Pb does a more credible job in doing justice to drums’ snap, pop, and urgency.

One of my audio buddies said that the CD53 is like a “poor man’s dCS Puccini,” while the IconM2PB is like a “poor man’s Wadia 581i.”

Bring it on home

It is no secret that I detest many of the CD players, which have come out in the past decade. Many sound overly processed. Many operate glacially slowly. The IconM2PB harkens to a better time. Its jacks are well-spaced, so you can go hog wild with your after-market powercords and interconnects. It loads relatively quickly. It has all four time modes. It does not make noise or generate heat. It does not hog rack space. Despite some sonic shortcomings in soundstage breadth, image size, believable textures, treble fullness, and musical presence/force, the IconM2PB still does right by a wide variety of music. It will do justice to the thrash and glam metal highlighted above. It does not foul up Hawaiian slack key guitar. It does not make Oakland’s Jack London Square jazz festivals sound like they have been moved inland, or, worse, onto the Bay waters. While it makes San Francisco’s Davies Hall sound like a small-scale model, it does capture the vibe. And it does convey enough emotion of a Boz Scaggs ballad.

In the mid-to-late 90s, I was at Ultimate Sound, where a customer was picking up his upgraded Icon Mk.II Power Boss. A few weeks later, I went over to his house. His system with a Rega Planar 3 and some British integrated amp was really all he needed. His attitude was spot-on. With the IconM2PB, he did not thrash his budget or need gobs of space and air conditioning. It gave him the music. And at the same time, it left him with the time and money to enjoy other facets of Bay Area life, such as going out to eat, attending shows, going to concerts, visiting parks, working out, riding a bike, and using public transportation to take in the sights and sounds.

-Lummy The Seahorse

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Product Weakness:	display, though informative, is too small to see from across a room; 2.7V output voltage is too high
Product Strengths:	full-featured; well spaced-out jacks; decent ergonomics; black finish actually looks nice; all four time modes; no heat; fast search ramps up quickly enough

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Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier:	Jeff Rowland 312; Creek Destiny
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Jeff Rowland Criterion
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Creek CD53; dCS Puccini; NAD 5000; Wadia 581i and 781i
Speakers:	Totem The One
Cables/Interconnects:	Wireworld Platinum Eclipse
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	rock, pop, metal, R&B, Hawaiian
Time Period/Length of Audition:	13 years
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

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