Can anyone describe the sound of the Kharma...

The 1.0 Ceramique could not possibly be termed bright.If it is termed anything other than neutral it may be a touch on the smooth or dark side ( very slightly )which to me is fine. I would say they are the most pleasing speakers I have every heard or owned.
I "think" the speaker review that the previous gentleman was reffering to, was the 2.0 Ceramique which was supposedly addressed in the 2.1 revision. I do agree that these are not the speaker to buy for Rock Music ,because they are just to clean sounding and refuse to do anything else but sound clean and natural.Any music that should sound clean and natural will sound wonderful with Kharma Ceramiques. Speaker placement with all Ceramiques is very,very "critcal". If you listen to music such as Pat Barber,Diane Krall,Jascintha,Nat King Cole,Cassandra Wilson, Piano Jazz etc... "it don't get any better"

As you can tell I love my Kharma 1.0

Nov. 2000. I would recommend any interested parties read that article. Thanks.

TAS in the Oct/Nov 2000 #120 reviewed the 1.0. Those interested in an in depth assessment are urged to read it.

Jayme, I have read this review (several times in fact) prior to purchasing the Kharma Ceramiques 1.0. It made me somewhat (quite a bit) nervous because it seemed to imply that the speaker fell decidedly on the analytical side, though still an excellent speaker. After owning and loving the Avalon Eclipse (very coherent and musical and to me, better suited than even the Eidolon), I could not stand the idea of spending this much money and not having more of the magic of the Eclipses.

But alas... my desire (need?) to venture beyond (and hopefully above) what I had experienced in the past, along with some excellent advice/feedback from Jtinn and Thorman as well as others, drove me to purchase the Kharma Ceramiques 1.0's. I received them this week and couldn't be happier!!!

First off: as I am building my system from scratch (again, why do I do this???), I am only able to get music by playing the Kharma's with a 60w integrated amp, a $100 DVD player, $30 ic's, and home terminated 50c/foot speaker cable at this time. I couldn't wait to listen so this was my only option. The first time I played a disc I knew I had made the right decision.

Instead of highlighting all the nasties in my system (and there are plenty) and the software, the Kharma's let me first hear the music. I was about knocked over by Diana Krall's voice and piano (the first disc I played). I played disc after disc enjoying the music. The midrange was incredibly clear (particularly given the associated comps) and MUSICAL!! It was like having the Avalon Eclipses back from my brother, but without the power requirements the Avalon's require to really sing, with greater potential for low-end and seemingly greater potential for the highs as well.

The next EXTREMELY important test for my enjoyment is how does it do Dylan. His recordings are not usually very good, but if a system can communicate the emotion of Dylan and basically just make me smile and tap my foot, I know I've found a winner. And a winner I've found.

To be fair, I could not listen for nearly as long as I could with my previous system, which had on the order of $17k worth of supporting equipment powering the Avalon Eclipses, without having my ears really close down. So obviously, there is quite a bit of glare, hash, etc coming from the cheap comps and cables.

Yesterday, I changed out my 50c/foot speaker cable and replaced it with Synergistic Designer Reference .5's. Whoaaa!! Significant hash gone, dynamics and bass much better, can listen now for longer (though still not long by past standards).

Next step is a good pair of tube amps, either Joule OTL's, Atmasphere OTL's, VTL, Manley, Cary. Then I'll look at a direct to amp CD player such as Wadia, Audio Aero, or Resolution ref. Lastly, I'll dial in my cables.

I suppose my point in writing this long and possibly confusing reply is that my impressions of the "potential" of the Kharma's is much different than the review in TAS. I'll write more as I upgrade the rest of my system over the next couple of months.

What do you make of the current Stereophile review?