@noble100
I find this review of the Kalugas by Audiodrom to be interesting in that they seem to hear some of the same stuff that I heard from the Atsahs but they have different take-always than in the Mono & Stereo review and believe the Kalugas to be reference caliber.
http://www.audiodrom.net/en/power-amplifiers/detail/33-power-amplifiers/556-mola-mola-kaluga
A couple of quotes from the review,
I find this review of the Kalugas by Audiodrom to be interesting in that they seem to hear some of the same stuff that I heard from the Atsahs but they have different take-always than in the Mono & Stereo review and believe the Kalugas to be reference caliber.
http://www.audiodrom.net/en/power-amplifiers/detail/33-power-amplifiers/556-mola-mola-kaluga
A couple of quotes from the review,
Spatial presentation of the Kaluga monos is enhanced by excellent separation and focus, and brought down a little by slightly subdued ambience – it is as if some part of the spatiality was encoded in the harmonics that are suppressed by NuCore architecture. I could hear the soft ambient echoes of a cello playing in a church, for example, but the trailing off was unnecessarily fast to my ears. However, the width and depth of the macroimage was excellent and images were locked with surgical precision and authority.The subdued ambience thing is my main downside to NC1200, even more so than the bass, which I could live with by using subs for the lower frequencies. Below is an interesting observation they make about the bass,
The dark side of the Mola Mola Kaluga’s bass? Due to no overhang and smear it sounds different from what we are used to. Thus it actually may sound ‘less developed’ to some ears. The audiophile desire to hear the things ‘as they are recorded’ conflicts with the audiophile desire to hear the things ‘as I like them to hear’. Sorry guys, the Mola Mola Kaluga is the former case.