Kinki Studio EX-M1


I’ve always wanted something simple and not a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to my stereo. KISS (keep it simple, stupid) is something I use in my approach to most things in life. Why overcomplicate? The Kinki EX-M1 is just an integrated, and that’s not meant as a pejorative. There’s no DAC or streaming capabilities, or room correction algorithms built in, and it won’t fold you laundry. There are 4 inputs out back, three unbalanced (RCA) and one balanced (XLR) which I’ve read is a simple and not a true balanced. Either way, it adds another type of input which can come in handy. The binding post are copies of WBT versions and are a joy to work with.

It has a frequency response of 10-150kHz (+/- 3db) and outputs 215W into 8ohms. It retails for approx. $2,200. Here is a link to more specs:
https://www.vinshineaudio.com/product-page/kinki-studio-ex-m1

Because of it’s silvery finish it has an imposing appearance but compared to my black Marantz PM-15S2b, it’s about the same size. Personally, I love the look. When they say it’s built like a vault, this is the vault they refer to. The weight is imposing as well (55.12 lbs.) so take care when maneuvering it. You can turn it on with the remote or by pressing in the selector knob on the left. Turning it off is done by pressing and holding the same knob for 5 seconds, or by remote. The default volume setting when turned on is set at 10 so make sure to turn it down to 0 before playing anything unless your speakers are of low sensitivity. A well made manual is supplied but alas, it’s only in Chinese, but Alvin told me they’re making one in English.

Having 255 steps of attenuation gives one extraordinary range to get to exactly where you like to listen. You can go up 10 to 15 steps and not notice much of a change, at first, until something dynamic asserts itself or when you realize that in general, it’s now more impactful. Using the remote allows you to quickly go through the steps and adjust on the fly. I find this most handy and now use it to tailor the song or piece of music to my tastes.

As an integrated, it simply excels in it’s purpose. As verbose as I can tend to be, it leaves me speechless in describing it. It does nothing to detract. It does everything to commend. It’s incredibly fast and yet so utterly smooth. Musical presence is immediate but not etched, hyped or shrill. It’s light on it’s feet but can pounce and stomp when called for.

Liu, the amp’s designer, does not believe in exaggerated base and yet this amp goes lower, tighter and simply growls tone, details and ambience that I haven’t heard before. Lower registers of the piano left me slack jawed as I basked in the reverberations of the soundboard. The same goes for cello, guitar, percussion and massed strings. Imaging is the best I’ve heard in my system. Nothing wavers (unless done in post production) and separation is tops. With The Milk Carton Kids, the two of them finally are completely separated and at a greater distance apart than what I’ve been used to or thought they’d be. Small chamber music pieces have me scanning the soundstage as different pieces play distinctly in their own space. Back up vocals are distinct as well with no smearing. They may harmonize but they are clearly different.

Highs are fully extended, again, beyond what I’m accustomed to hearing. They can go on well into a piece and you can hear the decay even when some bigger play takes center stage. Bells and chimes can tickle like the real thing. And speaking of stage, it’s of one piece, the same no matter where you care to go. All the way left, right, up or down, even as far back as you care to look. The strength of the music lies everywhere you care to listen. The only limits are what was done in the recording.

It has no noise floor that I can detect. On Abdullah Ibrahim’s The Song Is My Story, he’s not up on stage, as usual, but I’m sitting next to him while he plays (I listen in the near field so that helps). The piano is the full width of the soundstage, steady as a rock, and the notes flow out around, up, and beneath me (great mike placement). Notes can and do come out of a completely black background unless the recording is done with less tricks and then you easily hear the venue, the room, the stage, the setting. And, I never thought I’d say this but FM now sounds pretty fantastic, considering it’s limits.

The sound is so pure that it’s reoriented the way I listen to music. I no longer listen analytically but for the sheer pleasure. It’s so rewarding and relaxing. Listening to favorites, I’ve noticed that some sound different enough for me to notice that there was some exaggeration or emphasis of certain parts of the frequency with my older set up. Whether it was the house sound that some say certain brands have or just the limits of the design I can’t rightly say. Maybe it’s all the extra circuitry added to accommodate all the extra features I have no use for. No matter. I’m content. Happy as a puppy with two pee pees.

Also, I have to give thanks to Alvin for his great customer service. He’s the most attentive distributor I’ve dealt with. His response to any question I had were immediate and thorough, as long as one is mindful of the time differences (just check your clock on your smartphone to coordinate appropriate time zones). 👍 He even followed up with shipping notices, delivery times, and any question I had with the unit’s operation or features, which reminds me, since it draws about 30-40 watts when on, make sure to leave it in standby when not is use. It can get very warm to kind of hot, but not hot enough for me to lay my hand on it for any length of time. If I had more space it wouldn’t be a concern (it cools off quickly). That leads me to believe that maybe since my JBL 4319 monitors are 92db, and that it doesn’t take much to make them sing, that the EX-M1, which is a Class A/B design, operates in Class A for the first several watts, which could account for the warmth of the unit along with the wonderful tonal density and texture. Someone with more know how can look into that.

All in all, it’s the best money I’ve spent and now I have no desire to upgrade to some PC based system. My CDs and SACDs sound fantastic, even the old ones along with the reissues. To think you’re getting a real taste of what the well heeled have been enjoying for a fraction of the price makes this a true bargain if there ever was one. Let me also add that I received no consideration from the manufacturer or distributor and these are my views and opinions.

All the best,
Nonoise






128x128nonoise
Any 3 volt button. I’m using a cr2025 as I recall. The various 3 volt button cells vary only in millamp capacity. 
Back to Canada- Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer, Sue Foley, Colter Wall, Danny Michel and way down south from Lawrence County Kentucky , Tyler Childers


O.K., The Roches. South of your border, Mary Chaplin Carter, Ralph Stanley, or back to Canada, The Nylons!  🏂
O.K., Canadians, whether you like the music or not, the soundstage on Emmylou Harris’ “All the Roadrunning” is staggering, even on high gain! 👍. Want more? Try the Wailin’ Jennys. Need more? The McGarrigles, Matapedia....😘
@coldears no worries I can kind of see how my post seemed kind of confrontational toward you now, not what I intended, sorry.
Canadians are incredibly savvy when it comes to consumer purchasing. We do our research. If we view a product as having inferior value, we won’t touch it. Clever marketing is not enough. Perfect example of this is the way Parasound left the Canadian marketplace with its tail between its legs.

Another example is the rate at which Paradigms new Persona line of speakers was(is) selling. Now I don’t have any hard proof, but I HIGHLY suspect that Paradigm isn’t moving their new line in a volume they would like, at least here in Canada. They gave away $100k in speakers and electronics on twitter last year, I suppose to push the new line on everyone. Canadians are very aware of Paradigm as a brand. It’s not like they needed to push awareness.

All this brings me back to my initial point, that us Canadians are a scrupulous lot, even amongst audiophiles.
d2girls
You’re right ... nobody has been on the bull horn calling it a giant killer and yet comparisons to Esoteric, Coda, T A. These could be considered giants and the comparisons were maybe to show diminishing returns or possibly inferred as a challenge. All in all , everything in context. It really doesn’t matter it means jack. Just fun to pull up to the lights in a sleeper and  see where it goes. It’s a nice amp at a more than fair price. Hope you enjoy the Kinki as much as I do. 
Once again, the Canadians have it!  Context is everything, said the wag!  Budda, I love this amp. 👍🔚
@coldear interesting observations. Also interesting that you're throwing around the often used term "giant killer" as I don't recall anyone claiming the Kinky was a giant killer! Just calling it what it is: well made, good sounding and killer value. 
It’s a funny thing. I put my Kinki up against a Mark Levinson No 585. Just for a giggle of course. Levinson more 3 dimensional and retrieved more information etc. The Levinson of course a far more diverse amp and then taking into consideration the dac you had to be careful in the comparison. I just didn’t love the sound. We ended the evening leaving in the Kinki because we could play a lot more music, no picking and choosing. Slaying giants is a tricky business. 
Your post is funny and reminds me of the old joke such that, “Joe isn’t a bad guy, I mean he is fat, dumpy, stingy, has bad breath and body odor, but he’s a decent guy.”  😼
Just thought this could be of interest to the discussion. Over the weekend, I brought the EX-M1s to a friend's place and compared it against his Esoteric F-03A. While the Kinki didn't exactly slay the japanese dragon (lost in terms of high extension refinement, detail retrieval, timbre, placement of instruments in the soundstage), it still put up a pretty good fight. Then again, the F-03A costs about 6-7 times more than the EX-M1.
0 c and snowing today. Lake Louise at Christmas will be fantastic. I will be just a few km down the road in Banff.
Mine made customs in less than a day. 1 week from the time it left China until it arrived DHL. 
All of them are drop shipped from China regardless of where you buy.

DHL is very quick to deliver, but Canadian customs will slow it down.

Are you in B.C.?

You WILL be delighted. I am a reformed skeptic, I know. 

I’m around 300 or more hours and doubted more improvement but played two Emmylou Harris albums, today, and found MORE clear and detailed soundstage than day before yesterday. 

Is it real, or apparent?  

I dont know, but I love it. And, yes, it sounds better after 30 minutes or so. Go figure. 
I got it from Mike but he doesn't have any in stock so it was shipped from china via DHL express. It's actually already state side. But I'm Canadian so I have to wait a little longer. For the record I've had a brawny class AB amp before, an anthem 225. I've never met anyone review the anthem as enthusiastically as you guys have been reviewing the kinky, tho. Should be awesome :)
I believe it's going to transform you Harbeths to the degree that you'll think that maybe you should have passed on the JBLs. 

Don't.

When you pair up the JBLs with the Kinki, you'll be glad you got both.

All the best,
Nonoise
Did you buy from Alvin? If not, U.S. delivery is very quick!

i can’t wait for your comments. 👍
It got shipped out yesterday! I'm excited to try it out. I'll have a few days to play with it on my Harbeth 30.2 come Monday, since I'm not getting my JBL until Thursday. 
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The suspected issue was the earth wasn’t connected in the dac-1

It was something to do with earth/ground loop. The fix is simple, connect the earth cable to the DAC1 AC input filter board will do. 

New batch comes with a jumper, should customer experience earth/ground loop issue, just adjust the jumper to float/engage the earth connection.

No rocket science for sure :)

Rgds,
Alvin @ Vinshine Audio
@benlyz
 "Suspected issue with the grounding/earthing of the dac, causing some potential difference btwn the dac-1 and ex-m1, resulting in the pops I've been hearing. Anywho, the problem has already been looked into and all new units shouldn't have this problem."

So what is Kinki going to do to resolve your problem?
The suspected issue was the earth wasn’t connected in the dac-1 and no, I have not tried grounding both equipment to the same point externally. Previously I was using an AIO Job INT, and didn’t find the need to venture into ’proper’ grounding. Now that I have separate devices, maybe the time is now :)

The Kinki dac and amp are both connected to the same furutech ncf receptacle on my power conditioner, an 8 socket custom made conditioner with furutech internal cabling, with each receptacle star grounded to a common copper bar within the chassis.
is your kinki directly connected to the wall outlet or is it connected to some power conditioners ? if power conditioners, what are you using ?
D2girls nice, I hope you like the pairing with your jbl.  Did you get inspired to get the jbl from wTching kenrick sounds d videos on YouTube?
Have you tried a grounding wire to ground both units to the same point?  

Excellent point Jack. Does the DAC has 3-pin ICE ? are you connected to the same outlet on the same circuit or a power conditioner ?
@maritime and @nonoise thanks for the details.
The first day I hooked up the amp, it sounded pretty good to me, especially the highs. It immediately stuck me that this amp has a great potential. Later I also changed to a new speaker cable (longer in length than the one I was using) and thought I should save time and break-in both at the same time. So I put the break-in file in repeat mode and left it there. The 2nd day I came from work, it sounded pretty awful and all the sweet highs were gone, it sounded a bit harsher as well. Not sure if its the amp or the spkr cable. Today the sound is settling down back again but from experience I have a feeling that it would improve by a good margin. Will keep posted.
Have you tried a grounding wire to ground both units to the same point?  
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Engineering change?  Very occasionally, my Bluesound Node 2 pops, quietly, only once.  I wonder....
Suspected issue with the grounding/earthing of the dac, causing some potential difference btwn the dac-1 and ex-m1, resulting in the pops I've been hearing. Anywho, the problem has already been looked into and all new units shouldn't have this problem. 
I can only attest to break in up to around the 40-50 hour mark since I broke my ICs and had to get some new ones which resulted in concurrent break in (new ICs and the Kinki). Also, I ran a test burn in CD several times to speed things up in both scenarios.

Having said that, in my experience, the Kinki just got cleaner, went deeper, got cleaner and more extended in the highs, and developed better texture and tone. As the soundstage matures, it will go back deeper with better layering. Soundstaging side to side was outstanding right out of the gate. It was gradual and not in keeping with really big steps of improvement I experienced with other gear since it’s really great sounding out of the box.

If you like/love what you hear as of now, you will not go through that roller coaster ride like you did with your previous gear. It will simply get better and sound much more real and authentic as it continues to break in. Alvin told me to expect improvement up to the 300 hour mark, and to be impressed by what I hear at that time.

So far, I have no reason to doubt him. 👍😄

All the best,
Nonoise
By 40, most of the good stuff was mostly there for me, but I’m around 250 and I’d swear detail, fullness and depth are still slightly increasing b
what are folks experience with the break-in ? How long do you think it takes ? I am close to 40hrs so far. Some of the Class D amps I have had earlier goes into a roller coaster ride with dramatic transformation in the end. Wondering what to expect with Kinki :-)
I think U.S. buyers will soon pay it given the current tariff wars. I’d be real careful to research whether they do, or soon will apply. Seizure would suck. 💰