"it is not a speaker which has unlimited SPL capabilities.....it will not knock the house down with bass slam.....no matter what amp you use."
"the Kharma is very demanding of naturalness in an amplifier and so the choices of enough power, naturalness and clarity are limited."
Great posting, great reply from Mike with which i can FULLY agree in my experiences.
if i would pick out any Kharma if money was no object i would buy the Ref 1D.
I have listened to the 1D in a smallish room and on more then one occasion and enjoyed it very much besides that the room had limited acoustics and this particular 1D was like new.
the Midi also did not pressurise my room -which is very big- and needed big amps to do *some* bass and scale.
with the Lohengrin things are not just a bit better, a bit more of this or that.. they put a smile on my face every time. if i would summon up everything one word comes to mind for me: endless.
the Lohengrin and Ref 1D are in the same price category however.
at the moment i pair the Lohengrin with MP150 Kharma class D amps. a David and Goliath situation :-) but it is just scary what these little bricks do and they give great synergy too.
to adress the 'superiority' of Lohengrin over the Ref 1D?
my choice of Lohengrin over Ref1D is an easy choice living with Lohengrin for longer time.
-disclaimer- i did not have the 1D in house.
both need extremely good matching with amps to really shine. it is an easy thought that the Lohengrin could do well with any tube amp if you look at the 95dB and nominal 8 ohm.. after many amps i can heartedly say: wrong thinking.
very likely that accounts for Ref1D too. i partnered the Midi to best results with CAT JL3 which i had at that time.
any Kharma will do superb with CAT amp. for reasons i will not enter the CAT camp anytime again.
i find the best advice in your quest hard to give.
it is not only about 'superiority' of the one opposed to the other. we never listen to speakers, we listen to complete gear. once again i feel not embaressed to report that even with Lohengrin some very good amps only gave meager results besides costing a great amount of money.
So i can only agree with Mike 100% as to the Ref1D for now.
it will likely work very well in smaller rooms, that is not the difficulty, but any room will only be as good as it's acoustics.
i have a very large room, in which the Midi did a reasonable job as for impact bass slam etc. and only reasonable at that time.
the Lohengrin otoh rides in like a caterpillar and my ears are the only limit as for SPL's. besides the impact and full scale they are soo delicate and have a very natural and homogenic almost holistic approach to music. and can turn on a dime to offer you full orchestral scale if amps allow..
well nuff said, i hope our experiences give you more insight and will result in a good choice.
maybe the best advice given you smaller room could be: don't rule out the Exquisite Midi and the Sarastro.
cheers
"the Kharma is very demanding of naturalness in an amplifier and so the choices of enough power, naturalness and clarity are limited."
Great posting, great reply from Mike with which i can FULLY agree in my experiences.
if i would pick out any Kharma if money was no object i would buy the Ref 1D.
I have listened to the 1D in a smallish room and on more then one occasion and enjoyed it very much besides that the room had limited acoustics and this particular 1D was like new.
the Midi also did not pressurise my room -which is very big- and needed big amps to do *some* bass and scale.
with the Lohengrin things are not just a bit better, a bit more of this or that.. they put a smile on my face every time. if i would summon up everything one word comes to mind for me: endless.
the Lohengrin and Ref 1D are in the same price category however.
at the moment i pair the Lohengrin with MP150 Kharma class D amps. a David and Goliath situation :-) but it is just scary what these little bricks do and they give great synergy too.
to adress the 'superiority' of Lohengrin over the Ref 1D?
my choice of Lohengrin over Ref1D is an easy choice living with Lohengrin for longer time.
-disclaimer- i did not have the 1D in house.
both need extremely good matching with amps to really shine. it is an easy thought that the Lohengrin could do well with any tube amp if you look at the 95dB and nominal 8 ohm.. after many amps i can heartedly say: wrong thinking.
very likely that accounts for Ref1D too. i partnered the Midi to best results with CAT JL3 which i had at that time.
any Kharma will do superb with CAT amp. for reasons i will not enter the CAT camp anytime again.
i find the best advice in your quest hard to give.
it is not only about 'superiority' of the one opposed to the other. we never listen to speakers, we listen to complete gear. once again i feel not embaressed to report that even with Lohengrin some very good amps only gave meager results besides costing a great amount of money.
So i can only agree with Mike 100% as to the Ref1D for now.
it will likely work very well in smaller rooms, that is not the difficulty, but any room will only be as good as it's acoustics.
i have a very large room, in which the Midi did a reasonable job as for impact bass slam etc. and only reasonable at that time.
the Lohengrin otoh rides in like a caterpillar and my ears are the only limit as for SPL's. besides the impact and full scale they are soo delicate and have a very natural and homogenic almost holistic approach to music. and can turn on a dime to offer you full orchestral scale if amps allow..
well nuff said, i hope our experiences give you more insight and will result in a good choice.
maybe the best advice given you smaller room could be: don't rule out the Exquisite Midi and the Sarastro.
cheers