Solid-State Power Amp Adventures

My wife is already wondering why the heck all my equipment is named “Schiit”, I don’t know how she’d react if I then brought in something called “Kinki”...

That said, I would actually be interested in more specifics about it from you and/or @direstraitsfan98 , including overall sound signature and what you would have compared it to.

 

It's also Japanese for "taboo" (禁忌)

...but that may not be any better...

 

Fast, open, dynamic, balanced, smooth, very detailed and in general along the lines of resolving, transparent amp without grain and enormous bass slam. At least that was the impression one of our crew members tells us.

 

That literally describes the perfect amp lol

 

...or rather a specific sound profile, similar to i.e. JOB. The key thing to understand here is that products like these work great with thick sounding spekers or fairly even at best but both demanding. Instead of class A romance you get performance and hi rez not good for i.e. high efficiency products. Also amps that favor clarity (that's EX-M1) don't get along well with speakers sounding similarly.

There's no such thing as a perfect amp. Perfect can be only a combination of two items that like each other and synergy is how we call it

 

Class A doesn't automatically equate to a "romantic" sound just the same as tubes don't all equate to "bloomy and ethereal."

Nevertheless, I'd certainly like to try the amp, mono'd, in my setup.

 

Of course not, we sketched the general difference to have the gist easily understandable, that's all.

 

Instead of mono'ing two EX-M1 you'd be better off getting his monoblocks which just came out.

 

Eesh I think I bit off more than I can chew (financially). Too rich for my blood.

https://www.mikepowellaudio.com/shop/kinki-studio-ex-b7-solid-state-monoblock-power-amplifiers

 

yeah, the difficulty with going aegir monoblocks is it puts you in the price range of some stuff (used) that 1) has a more proven history of reliability, etc., and, 2) has a bunch more ears on it/reviews. I'm not knocking marv's feedback on the pre-production units he heard, but I'm not throwing a pair into my system based only on his impressions. and to add, that kinki stuff is just a touch too expensive with only goofy-ass 6moons reviews (mostly...) to warrant simple turn-around on a-gon to make it worth trying if it does actually sound like ass. IOW, try, not buy at this point. If the aegir sounds anything like the Lyr3 on speakers, tho... that's some good schiit.

 

I wouldn't trust a site that says "$100 can be saved by paying via bank wire or personal check or PP Friends."

 

You can just buy it from vinshine audio but keep in mind no matter what you're going to be dealing with Mike if you have any warranty issues. I bought mine from him. Just laying it out there. But I don't think the guy is untrustworthy. Besides it drop ships straight from China since Mike doesn't have any in stock since they're all sold out.

 

I am curious about the Linns - I see that they (LK100 for example) cannot be run as monoblocks (i do not see it mentioned in the user manual, and some comments on a forum stating that it is not possible due to the way they are designed?), so would there be any actual benefit of having a pair of them - for example, using only one channel of each amp connected to a single speaker? Or line out from one amp fed to the line in of the next and they power speakers that way?

Ive got Harbeth P3ESRs so no need/possibility of using the active filters or bi-amping

 

Hmm, makes sense but that doesnt work for me right now - the harbeth doesnt have two terminals :/

I'll look at getting just one LK100 for the time being. Trying to make the transition from integrated to power+pre amp. I'll start with a cheap power amp and then move up later

 

I am currently looking to move to a power amp setup, I would like to use it with my Code-X and 2-channel speakers. I am a little overwhelmed with options, and I know this may go against the grain, but does anyone have any recommendations for a solid-state power amp with a fairly "warm" signature (emphasized performance on the low-end) that is under $1200 - $1500? Bonus points if it has VU meters. It can be vintage, new, used, anything really. I had originally had my sights set on the McIntosh MC2505, but I wanted to ask the opinion of the many experienced ears here before committing to anything.

 

Having owned the mc 2505, while it does have them vu meters and it certainly was not bright. But I wouldn't call it particularly warm in general either, and tbh the treble was a tad on the grainy side. Still, powerful dynamic sound with decent resolution and staging.
That being said, since it was a vintage amp it did have a fair share of noise and transformer problems, which i needed to throw some money to fix it. The price I got it for was under your price range (1200 cad or 900 usd), but I had to throw a few 100 canuk bucks to fix it's problems.

I did write some impressions on the 2505 (and a few other things) here but it paints a better picture than what I'm saying right now. I've heard better amps (both ss and tube) since then, but it's still a solid choice if you can get it cheap and in good condition.

 

Vidar.

Slightly warm with great driver control for exceptional bass quality and quantity. Add a Saga or SYS and be done.

Aside: I'm not familiar with your source, so this is the best that I'd suggest with certainty of a good synergy with the Code-X... given my suggestion, your source would likely be the bottle-neck, and only stepping up to say a GungnirMB A2 or other similar performing DAC at a minimum would yield better returns.

 

Great piece if (as you wrote) bought cheap and in good shape. How much is "cheap" for it these days btw.?

 

they used to be 800 -900 dollars, but now the prices have risen to about 1.1 to 1.2k, retards trying to sell it for over 2000 dollars not withstanding. From what I experienced, people actually don't raise the price by much if the 2505 comes with a wood casing.