K&K any comments?

I had the opportunity for an extended evaluation of the K&K Phono Preamp. I wanted to like it; assumed I'd enjoy it; was predisposed to buying it, but decided against it. Whether it works for you depends very much on your system attributes. While you can easily interpret my comments as a negative review, I intend them as descriptive of what I experienced. In a system where phono is the primary source and you have brightness to compensate for elsewhere in the system, the K&K may be quite viable for you. Certainly 30 years ago as the phono section of a full preamp, it would have been considered excellent.

The K&K is superbly smooth, to a fault. It has a creamy signature sound that is euphonic, unintrusive, tonally commendable, and is certainly very easy to live with. But it is dynamically unexpressive, always damping musical excitement. I found it tonally accurate but softening of detail, obscuring of articulation, quite old-school in being creamy but uninvolving. No snap or jump. It chisels off every edge it encounters. It spackles over the textures in brass instruments, which many people like because it makes horns sound like they wished they sounded, rather than with the brightness and sometimes harsh texture horns in real life actually have. Guitars, harps, plucked strings are harmonically correct but their energy is damped. Dynamic projection is tamped. The sound stays on the other side of the room behind the baffle plane of your speakers. But everything is buttery smooth.

Spatial imaging, soundstaging are excellent. Among the best. Noise is higher than I'd like to hear in a contemporary design.

I'm tube-centric but impressed by some solid state phono gain stages. I directly compared the K&K to Manley Steelhead (tubes), Jasmine LP 2.0 (solid state), Bel Canto Phono 1 (solid state). Cartridge is Denon DL103D. Linestage, Klimo Merlino Gold. Amp, Audion Black Shadow 845 monoblocks; also Audiopax 88 monoblocks. Speakers, Zu Definition. Also listened on Stax headphones driven by a vintage Stax SRA 3a tube headphone driver. The Zu Definitions are wideband, exceedingly revealing, lots of dynamic jump factor. The K&K sounds beautifully smooth, dynamically anemic, uniformly softening in detail on my gear.

Build quality, parts selection and quality, overall execution is to a high standard. Tube rolling did little to change the essential dynamic blandness of the K&K. For me, this phono pre came in fourth among the units directly compared. It committed no sins of commission and for that alone it can earn a place in some listeners' systems. However, for me, the K&K's sins of omission preclude me recommending it.

Phil

Phil, I think he already decided on the K&K so why rain on the parade? And you want to compare units that retail at 3 and 4 times the price?

He asked. Not raining on the parade. Aside from that, these threads are used subsequently by others to inform decisions later. And it isn't clear the order for the K&K has been placed.

The poster could infer from my post how to compensate.

The K&K is nearly $2,000. The Jasmine LP 2.0 is under $1,000. The Bel Canto Phono 1, when it was still in the Bel Canto line, was $1195. The Manley Steelhead is $7300 -- the outlyer -- and I just happened to be able to audition one at the same time. The Bel Canto handily beat the Steelhead, by the way, so Steelhead did not set the pace for this comparison.

Phil

I could not agree any less with you Cobra, particularly in the areas you find to be the weakest. Then you go on to say "tube rolling". Please tell us what tubes you rolled through the K&K, if you don't mind.

Dynamically unimpressive, chisels off the edges? Were you listening to the same phono stage as many of thes rest of us?
"The sound stays on the other side of the room behind the baffle plane of your speakers." Sounds like the rest of your system (speakers or amp) is the culprit, perhaps.

I (and about 8 others), did a comparison awhile back at a local audio dealer's place and we threw the K&K up against quite a number of others. Don't recall everyone right now (I could check) but I know the EAR, a Klyne, a Pass Xono, an Aesthetix Rhea, and about four others were in the mix. In summary, it bested everything up to $5K in a virtually unanimous opinion. The characteristics most often sited was almost diametrically opposite of what you have stated above – and that one of its BEST attributes was that it was NOT buttery smooth as gone overboard by some tube stages but, by virtue of its hybrid design, captured the best of both worlds (something like a Boulder notwithstanding, of course).

Another thing to consider might possibly be break in time, which is why I ask the OP if they had ordered yet. When mine was new, and again when I had some resistors replaced in the MC stage, the soundstage, imaging, and refinement of presentation took a good 80 hours to FULLY develop. I found the soundstage a bid constricted at first. But then, it widened, then it deepened, then it widened and deepened again, all the while becoming both more tight and more refined (if that can be appreciated).

Anyway, just another point of view (and that of about 8-12 others I know personally).

I would REALLY like to have you comment on what tubes you rolled in the K&K. Thanks

I know what Phil is getting at in his description, but the K&K will remain in my system for the forseeable future. I have'nt heard the others, but the K&K clearly bested the Bel Canto to my ears. As always, it comes down to the sound you like and I am using this "smooth" stage with a smooth cartridge, a Koetsu Rosewood Signature and am entranced by the sound. I find very fast stages that etch the leading edge of notes, wearing. For example the TE Groove is a wonderful phonostage and I see why people like it, but I would find it wearing. So listen to it if you can, I bought it unheard(I live in the UK) a dangerous thing, but it is way the best and quietest stage I have had in my system. That is one thing I strongly disagree with Phil about, I think it is very quiet, with excellent RFI rejection.