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Further updates on Kinergetics KCD Ultra 55 + Lampizator Amber board

Posted by morricab (S) on August 30, 2015 at 12:46:53

So, it has been a few months now since modding my Kinergetics KCD-55 Ultra with a Lampizator Amber DAC analog output stage "kit".

First, the Kinergetics is using 2 of the best R2R ladder DACs ever devised, the Ultra Analog 20 bit D20400 along with 8x oversampling and a modded (by Kinergetics) Yamaha input receiver. The original discrete SS output stage sounded quite good...until it blew out. So, I decided to go Lampizator and I can say as good as the SS output stage was the tube output stage is far better. The previous one had a signature that made it clear it was SS and this was definitely limiting the enjoyment even though the resolution and soundstage and even for the most part tone were superb. My Monarchy Audio M24 simply sounded more organic and musical.

Now it is a different story. The resolution, imaging, tone etc. are at least as good as before but the "something" that gave away its SS nature is gone and it is replaced by organic flow and no edge, however, it is not rounded off.

I was listening to some Itzahk Pearlman today (various pieces with piano accompaniment) and it was stunning, resolution, tone, 3d body, spatial resolution between piano and violin...all very natural.

I haven't done a shootout yet with my Monarchy but it seems to me that the Monarchy might very well lose this fight

The only place the old SS output was probably superior is with a more potent bass...not a big surprise but sometimes that grunt was quite nice to have. Still, with most of my music I won't miss it at all...I didn't miss it with the Monarchy as it was also lighter in the bass than the SS version of the Kinergetics.

So, I would recommend to anyone who is handy with a soldering iron and has an old cd player or DAC with nice R2R ladder DACS from days of yore to step up and make a world class player/DAC out of it. For less than 200 euro and a couple hours of my time I did just that. It is very analog sounding digital.

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