I’ve always had a soft spot for products from Margules. This Mexican company produces beautiful tubed amps and preamps, and elegant, stylish speakers. They’re physical works of art, and the sound is always superb—well-balanced and tuneful.
We had just about finished our show coverage when we discovered that Margules was presenting their new turntable, the TD‑25, in the room shared with Deep Dive Audio, a high-end retailer based in Palm Bay, Florida. I also noticed that I hadn’t yet covered any analog products. This was an oversight I needed to correct.
The TD‑25 ($6900, all prices in USD) looks deceptively simple, but there’s a lot going on. The tonearm is also made by Margules and is a new design. It’s an internally damped aluminum unipivot, adjustable for VTA via a clever armboard that accommodates most tonearms. The motor is an extremely-low-torque design, so much so that in order to stop the platter, you don’t need to cut the power—just physically stop it, and the motor stalls. Flip the record and restart the platter by giving it a spin. It’s a tactile pleasure. The platter is a solid piece of machined aluminum.
Even the clamp is clever—it uses an anti-resonant technology employed in earthquake-proofing.
As with other Margules products, the TD‑25 is partially illuminated in a tasteful orange glow, and the plinth is carved from a beautifully figured solid oak to match the company’s speakers and amplifiers.
Speakers in this system were the Orpheo Century Intermezzos ($30,000 per pair), a substantial design made with Durock cement-board sides combined with HDF fiberboard. The front baffle is a thick slice of that beautiful oak. The Intermezzo employs first-order crossovers, drivers with lightweight papyrus cones, and an AMT tweeter.
The U280 SC 30th Anniversary SE ($12,000) is a stereo tube amplifier using two KT88s per channel. It can be run in pentode or triode mode, and is bridgeable into mono. There were two amplifiers running in this system, each running in bridged mono. The U280 SC is a full class‑A design, and it uses a clever control circuit instead of negative feedback.
All cables in this system were from Athena Muse, a company previously unknown to us that we learned is based in Korea.
Owner Julian Margules and Jason Thorpe
Although I fully intended to focus on the turntable, the system as presented made that difficult. There weren’t many records on hand, but I found three in the pile that I just love. We started with Blue Bell Knoll by Cocteau Twins. It’s lovely music, but the pressing is terrible—thin and reedy. The TD‑25 made the best of it, thoroughly listenable, with fantastic imaging and a rock-solid soundstage.
After we tossed that aside, we listened to a good pressing of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by David Byrne and Brian Eno. I sang along with “Help Me Somebody,” because I couldn’t help it. He’s so wide you can’t get around him, the evangelist testified, and the TD‑25 infused that lo-fi sample with deep emotion. It was a wonderful presentation—the synergy between the products was clearly evident.
The kicker was 90125 by Yes. “Owner of a Lonely Heart” was huge when I was 20 years old, and I still love it today. This Japanese pressing sounded amazing via the TD‑25. The Margules system presented an easeful, detailed, punchy sound that straddled the line between dredging up tons of detail and presenting a rich, tuneful tonal balance.
It’s been a long time since SoundStage! has reviewed a Margules product. We need to fix that.
Jason Thorpe
Senior Editor, SoundStage!
