took a big turn in system change. moving towards dynamics system which get me closer to live music. still fighting with room acoustics and compact room size. Pleasure of vinyl surpass cd by a miles.. almost happy for now but need to KEEP WALKING
Voraratc: did you ever try the replacement fuses suggested by Rtn1 in the Karan? If so, did it make a large difference? Also, you mention the Esoteric benefits from grounding, something I know to be true from my P/D/G combo. Did you ever try the Granite Audio Ground Zero star-grounding station? I use on and it's never leaving my system; it made one hell of a difference!
Very nice system. I know the Karan sound. I used to have the Kai-180 integrated and a friend of mine has the Kas-450. I keep wanting to go back to tubes and every time we compare tube amps to the 450(including SET's), I really cant tell much of a difference except, the Karan has more muscle. It really does hold its own in the midrange compared to SET's for such a big s/s amp. I am tempted by the Kas -270 and the Kal Ref mk2 preamp. Happy listening.
Very nice. May I suggest that you open the Karan and replace all of the fuses with HiFI gold fuses. There are two in the back, and a set of circuit boards in the front with probably 8 more. The orientation is marked -/+ on the circuit board. I also put contact enhancer on all the fuses, and the copper bus bar inside. It became much more smooth, transparent, and open. The Karan really has a wonderful mid-range if matched properly with a preamp and cables.
thanks.. before moving to karan, i did try a couple amp my self. First was the ASR Emitter II, the ASR was very quiet and smooth and sweet. what it lack was dynamic and ambient, The only music prefer with the ASR was vocal. next searching for a more dynamic capability, i moved to Mark Levinson 33H. the power was great but high and mid are some what hash and dry. and it is very hot. then i finally move to Karan which give me a really smooth sound like the ASR and dynamics (more than levinson) in my point of view. so i am happy for now. Fore the Preamp, the viola labs is extremely transparent preamp. it give dramatic improvement over my two previous preamp [spectral DMC 30SL and Gryphon sonata allegro]. i never achieved a sound stage and transparency that i have now with the previous pre. the viola is really amazing it need to be heard to believe..
That's a great looking system; I'm an Edge NL fan for amps myself but have heard the Karan amps spoken of with similar fanaticism by several friends. What else did you listen to in order to arrive at Karan and how do you like them? I'm not familiar with the Viola Labs piece. Can you shoot me some details on email or on this thread? Happy Listening!
