Norma Audio IPA-140 integrated

Super useful review, wish there were more like this one. But the Kinki integrated mentioned is less than 3K delivered, big $ difference, the Norma should show a huge improvement instead of in just one parameter. Hard to beat the Chinese now at the numbers game in manufacturing, an unfortunate reality for our struggling economy.

i didn't have the kinki on hand, only the mastersound.  the norma blows the kinki out the water.

I went and found an older review from 2013 of the Norma at 6moons where Srajan compared it to the Bakoon, Job 225 and a couple other, similar, ultra wide bandwidth gear and found the Norma to not be as incisive, detailed and clear sounding as the others.

He had to go through a several speakers he had on hand before he found a good enough match. I guess it all boils down to taste and preferences.

Having said that, I'm having a lot of fun having gone back to my Marantz PM15S2b integrated. I swapped out the Telos fuses for the HiFi Tuning Silverstars in it and the SACD player and it's hitting all the same notes now as the Kinki EX-M1 while retaining that Marantz house sound, which is quite a treat. It's not as incisive as the Kinki, but it has a more full bodied, natural and organic sound.

There are tradeoffs, as one would expect, and I do miss a lot that the Kinki does better than the Marantz, but will continue to see if I can extract some more performance from my Marantz with the Isoacoustic Oreas that I'll be getting shortly.

All the best,
Nonoise

there are quite a few other more recent reviews out there that don't share that opinion including mine.

That wasn't meant as a knock: just an observation. I hope you saw it that way. That, and the fact that I'm liking my Marantz again says a lot. The Kinki is great but it doesn't sound all that real compared to live music.
It has more of that "in the studio with headphones" sound. 

It could very well be that the Marantz sound more closely aligns with the Norma sound but comes up short in the detail and separation department which could be what I'd like. Hard to say, but I still liked your review.

All the best,
Nonoise