new integrated amp

marvda1

here's his system.
My sources are a Marantz Reference SA-15S2b SACD, Marantz tuner. I use Triode Wire Labs Amercian Digital power cords for the EX-M1 and the SACD player and a Zu Mission power cord for the tuner. For interconnects I use Darwin Ascension Silver ICs on the SACD player and Darwin Silver on the tuner. My speakers are JBL 4319 Studio Monitors. speaker cables are Tempo Electric speaker cables, 14 GA.

Clipdat

I can't be the only one on here who likes to fondle gear from time to time.

What? Don't look at me like that!

motorhead43026 wrote: »

Why do you touch the faceplate?

marvda1

just look at those two big ole knobs with the inverted nipples.
here is the big main thread.
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/kinki-studio-ex-m1-200wpc-integrated-amplifier

mhardy6647

marvda1 wrote: »

here's his system.
My sources are a Marantz Reference SA-15S2b SACD, Marantz tuner. I use Triode Wire Labs Amercian Digital power cords for the EX-M1 and the SACD player and a Zu Mission power cord for the tuner. For interconnects I use Darwin Ascension Silver ICs on the SACD player and Darwin Silver on the tuner. My speakers are JBL 4319 Studio Monitors. speaker cables are Tempo Electric speaker cables, 14 GA.

Thanks.... the speakers were of primary interest (although one does wonder what media he used for source material... perhaps SACDs?!).

mhardy6647

Interesting chatter in that A-gon thread about the amp.

tonyb

Looks beastly, but no pre-outs is an oversight if you ask me. No on/off switch either so it's always in stand-by mode.

I'd wait for some more reviews to come in. Some notes on dependability too. If we all had a nickel for every new product to hit the door with massive hype behind it only to find out later it was just so-so.....

mhardy6647

Indeed.

FWIW, I'd be curious to know what the flat audio bandwidth is at full rated output power.

marvda1

just placed my order for the amp and will be writing a review.

msg

Man, I like this. Just did a little reading/skimming. Looks like some quality parts went into it - Furutech for example.

Ever since I had a chance at a big dual-mono integrated in an HK 990 that ultimately went back due to shipping damage, though not before audition, I've had a curiosity for impactful, controlled integrateds, with nice channel separation designs and big toroids. That 990 did things to speakers that I hadn't experienced before.

I typically prefer warmer sounding, but that's just because I was scarred by RTi10ss early on in my audio journey. This sounds like a nice balance.
From the review on 6Moons

The Ex-M1 is silky smooth, not warm, fast as hell, its overall macro-dynamics give a powerful presentation, there is no noise therefore it is extremely detailed but not analytical, colours are true to life and the bass control is iron-fisted. It also develops an excellent soundstage with precise placement of the players on the stage. I refer to this sound as the "Swiss-European" taste: clean, clear, accurate, coming right up to the point without crossing it of being analytical/electrical sounding. Listeners with this taste will love this integrated. It also would be a great amplifier to power a speaker that is somewhat slow and lacking in speed as it would infuse life into a system lacking it."

Curious to hear your impressions with this one, Marvin.


I like the simple presentation, as well. This is something I used to hate about my B&K stuff, but quickly grew to appreciate.

msg

Btw, I've just become certified as a US Repair Center.
I got a sack of Kinki Nuts and ready to dole them out.

Here's a photo of my first repair.

marvda1

was reading one guy's review from 7/5 and he said the gain was a little high and the upper midrange needed smoothing out some and the amp would be a steal.
plus he said kinki was to provide a resistor kit to lower the gain.
guess what, at the end of his review he said kinki had fixed the gain problem and smoothed the upper midrange on all future amps.

talk about fast response to customer feedback.
msg, where are you located?

marvda1

msg wrote: »

Btw, I've just become certified as a US Repair Center.
I got a sack of Kinki Nuts and ready to dole them out.

Here's a photo of my first repair.

what was the problem with the amp ?
i've got a full tube dac to warm it up.

motorhead43026

^^it was missing a kinki nut?

marvda1

found out what kinki means.
Kinki is the English name of the designer's soul partner.

msg

What are the blue caps? I've seen those before in other equipment, like DACs. Is that some sort of shielding?

(Virginia Beach, Marvin, but was just kidding around about the Certified Repair Center. All I can really do is make bad Photoshop jokes)

marvda1

if you mean the four on each side, I read somewhere that they are the same caps used by a real expensive amplifier manufacturer.
if you mean the two blue things on the center circuit board, they are power supplies.

msg

Yeah, the two on the center board. Power supplies. Do the covers offer shielding of some sort?

marvda1

don't know, I had a belles preamp that had two of them in it. think they stay on to power the display and remote

mhardy6647

They appear to be (toroidal) transformers; dual 115V primaries. One has dual 12V secondaries, the other dual 15V secondaries.

I cannot quite read the power ratings but they appear to be low power (i.e., maybe, as surmised, for display and idle functions); looks like maybe 12.5 VA (= 12.5 watts, if the power factor is 1)?

marvda1

can't wait now! this is the follow up to a review by the guy on audiogon who bought one of the amps.


The unit continues to break in fine. The base is deepening as already reported, and the music has a propulsive quality, making it hard to keep one's limbs still. If this is PRAT, then the Kinki has it in SPADES.

It's a bit strange to hear things done differently as the tonal balance coupled with the complete stage rendering has shifted some of the prominence of certain instruments and vocals accordingly.

Instruments on the extreme sides of the stage are now, properly louder but not overbearing. Things that had a bigger perspective in or near the center have, but not all the time, taken a step or two back but with more focus and image specificity. Layering is first rate as well, when it's recorded that way.

Over the last two days I've been transfixed in my listening seat and simply and pleasantly, subtly, stunned by what's transpiring. I even went and did something I shouldn't have and bought some new speaker cables on a lark. Now I have two items to break in but the pairing is most copasetic. They are like an appendage of the EX-M1 instead of an add on to be judged independently. I've never experienced such a level of image focus before.

It's too early to say anything final but I'm keeping the cables. Just like the Kinki, they're reasonably priced, if not a bargain, for what the level they perform on. It's another example of you don't know what you're missing until you hear it.

All the best.
Nonoise

marvda1

marvda1 wrote: »

was reading one guy's review from 7/5 and he said the gain was a little high and the upper midrange needed smoothing out some and the amp would be a steal.
plus he said kinki was to provide a resistor kit to lower the gain.
guess what, at the end of his review he said kinki had fixed the gain problem and smoothed the upper midrange on all future amps.

talk about fast response to customer feedback.
msg, where are you located?

for the gain problem they added a high/low gain switch on the rear.

Clipdat

What are the speaker cables that he bought? Might be worth asking, if he just figured out a potential nice synergy.

This sounds like a nice integrated from the descriptions I'm reading. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it Marvin!

marvda1 wrote: »

Over the last two days I've been transfixed in my listening seat and simply and pleasantly, subtly, stunned by what's transpiring. I even went and did something I shouldn't have and bought some new speaker cables on a lark. Now I have two items to break in but the pairing is most copasetic. They are like an appendage of the EX-M1 instead of an add on to be judged independently. I've never experienced such a level of image focus before.

It's too early to say anything final but I'm keeping the cables. Just like the Kinki, they're reasonably priced, if not a bargain, for what the level they perform on. It's another example of you don't know what you're missing until you hear it.

All the best.
Nonoise

marvda1

Cabledyne Silver Synergy speaker cables

Clipdat

Nice, they aren't excessively priced!

marvda1

asked him about the high gain and new speaker cables.

The gain is high, comparatively speaking, but I now enjoy not having to crank things up to hear them. Also, with 256 steps, each @ .5db, I can finely tune things, sometimes from track to track. I find this most useful and wonder why no one else has done this by now. The volume reacts almost instantaneously to inputs and I've gotten really good at nailing the desired setting. Having written this, I don't see why someone would complain unless they're not used to it.

As for my new speaker cables, they're the Cabledyne Silver Synergy speaker cables. Like my Tempo Electric SCs, they use silver conductors but that's about where the similarity ends.

The Synergy are 12 GA, four nines, stranded silver and cryo'd, whereas the Tempo are 14 GA, four nines, solid silver. Where the Tempo are in oversized Teflon tubing and use a gentle twisting to alleviate interference, the Synergy use a high purity copper weaved braiding for the entire length and call it a non electrical shield, chichis over their own, oversized tubing. They say you can see the improvement on an O scope. Also, the Tempo use bare ends and the Synergy use 24K gold plated BFA bananas that are some of the tightest I've ever encountered when making a connection.

Apparently that shielding goes a long way towards presenting the most tightly focused imaging I've heard. They're coming along nicely and now have equal base footing with the Tempo but have much better definition. They also quelled what I felt to be some glare on a certain singers voice that at times made me wince. Now it just show off her pipes as she effortlessly scales the SPLs.

That extreme focus, without etch or hype, allows me to see much further into the soundstage's nether regions. It's so relaxed and effortless in it's execution but not at the expense of highlighting a thing. It's just all laid bare to be heard.

I like them so much that I just ordered two sets of their Synergy RCA ICs to see how they fare against my more expensive Darwin ICs, which aren't shielded. I say that as all the cables at Cabledyne have that copper shield on them. Some say that ICs don't benefit that much from shielding but behind my rack it's like a rat's nest of criss crossing cables (most at right angles) so I'm eager to see if I can accrue more of a benefit from the design. Again, the speaker cables seem to be a match made in heaven for the EX-M1.

All the best,
Nonoise

Clipdat

If I ordered this bad boy I'd want to see if they could make the front panel just flat aluminum instead of the textured ocular migraine inducing finish shown in the photos.

Or better yet, an anodized black faceplate instead of the silver!

marvda1

Hey David,

Here's the "field report" comparing the Kinki EX-M1 to the latest generation T+A integrated amplifier.

My assumption that the EX-M1 would come very close to the performance of the vastly more expensive German built T+A piece was incorrect. The T+A reference was clearly superior in the following areas:

1) An even higher level of transparency that allowed more of the micro-details to be easily heard.

2) The size of the sound-stage was not that different, but the air between players and how 3D the images were was at a higher level.

3) There was a purity/finesse to the overall presentation that was more effortless with the T+A.

4) Ezra and Allen would disagree on this last point, but I did not hear that much of a difference in bottom end control or extension between the two integrated amplifiers.

So, this does not change my position regrading the excellence of the Kinki EX-M1 overall and to match its performance you would have to spend a lot more money. However, in this comparison you could clearly hear what another $18000.00 gets you into a qualitative higher level of performance.

mhardy6647

Clipdat wrote: »

If I ordered this bad boy I'd want to see if they could make the front panel just flat aluminum instead of the textured ocular migraine inducing finish shown in the photos.

Or better yet, an anodized black faceplate instead of the silver!

[emphasis added]

Textured ocular migraine... finish.

I love that! Man, you could write advertising copy!




PS These last posts have me wonderin' whether there will be folks running $6k cables with this $3k amplifier.

PPS As far as a black finish, I'd suggest a rattlecan of black paint, but we all
know how danged hard that stuff is to find.

marvda1

$2200 amp

mhardy6647

marvda1 wrote: »

$2200 amp

Right, sorry! I was too lazy to go back & look. I remembered the currency issue, but forgot which was which.