I love his amp designs…if I were starting again…I would certainly check Dan’s amps out…but not rule out Naim…..
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Thought Dan had left his company, so you are buying the name, perhaps i have that wrong.
As far as I know, he left Krell and founded D’Agostino afterwards.
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Apologies……he is still there, and long may that be with other family members.
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Went to a Moon Audio presentation–even when connected to Wilson Audio Sabrina speakers, the Moon 371 integrated amp and streamer did nothing for me. Tunes that rocked with my 222/250 and Kanta 2s, were less than impressive with the Moon.
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The Kinki Studio Dazzle arrived yesterday. It is astonishingly good. I’ll wait for it to settle before writing more but initial impressions are that this thing is special, not to mention incredible value for money.
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$8,5000? Interesting
Martin
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Can we incriminate the Moon? Not the same speakers and not the same room…
Have you tried an interconnect with attenuation? My Nait XS3 has a channel imbalance at lower volumes (seems to be a characteristic of the alps volume control). I am going to try a Russ Andrews DIN-DIN interconnect with -14db attenuation in the cable.
Yes. There’s a bit of information out there on the internet. 2-3 reviews with good details on the specs.
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It seems we are experiencing different issues.
So I decided on the new Kinki Studio Dazzle. Some would see this as an unusual choice, given the above options, but I must say, I’m absolutely astonished at how good this amp is for GBP6,500. This thing oozes quality and high performance.
Some interesting specs: It is a 300W per channel into 8 ohms integrated with 8 sets of internal power supplies, dual mono design, and EXICON MOSFET (12 per channel), plus some cryogenic stuff! It is extremely well built and weighs 33kg.
The sound is somewhere between a high powered SN3 and “clean and transparent” – the result is exactly the sound I’m looking for.
The bass is the first thing I noticed - it is the best I’ve heard, and that includes the 332+250 in a demo room. It is so easy to follow, the bass notes are carved out beautifully. Vocals are clean and powerful. Drums very realistic. It doesn’t have the visceral punch of the SN3, but instead presents a more sophisticated and controlled sound and the PRaT is all there. Nicely transparent mids and the high end, which is not quite as strong as the SN3, works very well with the Kanta’s Beryllium tweeter – not too much, just right. It does transients incredibly well and feels like it can handle anything. The speakers disappear etc.
It took a lot to convince me to move away from Naim in this instance, with the lack of replacement integrated being a an important factor - I understand the reasons (SN3 discontinued abruptly). I still have the NDX2 playing into the Kinki (that name will take some getting used to) - it works very well and this has helped maintain the “Naim sound”. I don’t feel that I’ve lost anything switching interconnects from DIN to RCA. Mine is dark grey which matches nicely with the NDX2.
So, it is not a total Naim departure whilst still using the NDX2, I still have the Nova in the lounge and I need to figure out what to do with the repaired/replaced SN3 (TBC…). Overall, I’m very very pleased with the outcome. The music is back.
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Interesting, a Chinese amp > British amp. Though at £6.5k it’s not surprising the Supernait 3 is falling behind. The build quality of the Kinki Studio Dazzle looks impressive though.
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Plus the point that the Dazzle is punching far above its weight at this price - more like double or triple…
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There it lost my interest ,thanks for the write up🙏
Understand, if this is what you want/need. It has made me realise that the SN3 was “overdoing it” in this regard and was a tad blunt… The Kinki still has slam.
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Looks like an awesome amp, and a good write up. Very interesting.
It’s a brave move and it sounds like it’s paid off. I salute you, James, for trying something a bit different.
I couldn’t help notice the base and feet on which the ndx2 sits - have you tried placing the ndx2 directly on to the surface of the cupboard recently just to sense check that the isolation is indeed still having a positive effect? I find these things can be a bit hit and miss, and those springy feet don’t fill me with hope. Could be completely wrong though, having never tried those particular feet.
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Did you get any reply from NAIM? Was this issue ever resolved?
It reminds me a lot like a soulnote a2, but looks like good value for the price.
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I will try and report back, thank you for the suggestion.