Once upon the time, there was a great hi-end audio man who said that:
"The best love power amp yesterday is your heartbreak today."
Robert Koda has revealed most Hi end power amp's deficiency. Mr. DV is now with me. When we talk about the up coming match, he smile.........like the joker!!
PT is the operational guy. The critical ears belong to JLAM. We all know Mr.DV's critical listening skills well too. When both JLAM and Mr.DV are present, they always listen "seriously". Mr.DV could listen unfamiliar recordings and still be able to give valuable insights. JLAM brought his own "recordings" to test including numerous type of music. Then, share findings and provide remedies. That was what happened yesterday afternoon.
PT was under pressure because I only had two hours to prepare. The Amps are totally new, there are no SRA Ohio XL+2 underneath them. There are no feet. I just use some "magazines" to put underneath the amp to do isolation. And during the installation, some of the ground wires from the Tripoint were detached. I weren't noticed until JLAM and MR.DV felt something wrong although they did not know the ground wires were detached during installation. That means their demand is very very high!
If I closed my eyes and listened, I have a feeling of listening to "single end tube amp" but without colorations. I believe I am confident to say this point after living with the Sunray for 2 months and has direct experiences with the single end design amp such as Shindo, Wavac, and Zanden for many years. The transients of this amp, or maybe I should better say, the progressively development of transients, is unique. It was delivered in a musical way, not the "dissection of details" school. The Flow factor is excellent.
JLAM/MR.DV felt the Takumi belongs to the "ENERGY, HIGH RESOLUTION" type of design after their 2 hours of auditioning with all kind of problem. JLAM did test the Gladiator disc, which almost blew up one speakers during the Munich show - and so far the best performance was played via Charles' 833/Algame system. Both of them were quite sure the Takumi delivers the Gladiator in a much more refined manner but the power/energy factor remains extremely abundant. That's why Mr.DV had a smile like Joker when we talk about the upcoming match.
However, they both feel the bass lines resolution could be better. Also, I had never listened to my Alpha One with such much more beef in the bass before. For me, I was excited but for the critical listeners, they felt the amp needs to warm up more to increase the "control" factor. It could be mechanical vibration as three big aluminum blocks directly sitting on floor. Later, I find out the ground wires from Tripoint were detached from the back. After reconnection, both of them had a better smile on their faces. I was relieved. Then, I was very tired.
Last evening at around 9pm, I turned up the amp as my son went asleep earlier. I played it causally for another 1 hour before I played some Cello recording via the Da Viinci Unison turntable by Daniel Shafran which I just listed the night before with Tron Telstar 211 amplifier. The presence of the Cello is very strong and natural, and as I mentioned earlier, the delivery of transients is unique. It will not draw too much of your attention to details although they are there if you want to look for them. It flows, develops, and yields a musical result. As the night developed further, the amp sounded better and better. At 1100pm, I was quite contented despite the absence of SRA.
This is by no means a review. I merely described what happened yesterday with some of our frank impressions. During the course of the afternoon, we received many SMS and phone calls enquiring about the Takumi.
I am sure we will have a lot more to say going forward. The Skyline (both preamp and poweramp) from Germany will land next Tuesday.
The amp war will definitely be held. We will invite Robert Koda from Japan to meet all of you and be present during the Amp War. The date is yet to fix.
When Mr.DV auditioned the arrival of the Takumi last Friday, he asked me, "Is the ORB Kyoto in the system?"
I said NO.
He replied, "Without the Kyoto, I feel the bass could not integrate well with the mid range."
I said to him, "That's the speed inconsistency of the 16inch bass and the super fast compression mid range driver."
Mr.DV said, "You got to use one here".
This morning, I went to Alec's place to set up the Grimm CC1 clock. I spotted the Kyoto there with everything including the power amplifier plugging into it. Indeed, the whole frequency blends very well.
Tonight, I opened up the "Kamamura" which is the 1/2 version of the Kyoto with vertical orientation. Due to space limitation, I just plugged the Tron Syren into the Kamamura which is brand new. I hit the play button.
Mr.DV is right again. But I believe the technical explanation for the improvement of better integration is the Kamamura cleans up a lot of AC dirts, thereby freeing up the lost resolution/details in the lower mid-range and upper mid-bass.
Our customers are getting better and better now. Their ears are very demanding. But that's the very spirit that pushes the envelope further.
It's not my style to speculate. I can only share after I listened to the Takumi with my own ears. Frankly, it is hard for me to speculate given the "hybrid" design and VR rightly pointed out it has never been any successful stories. On the other hand, I also trust AE's solid track record of locating exotic gears.
I appreciate PT's frank description of the Takumi. The problematic part to me is especially interesting because it helps me visualize the impact of the problems on the sound in particular we are all using SRA underneath the amps.
I will do so tonight. I do have a high expectation of it and before it was delivered, I told PT that my bet is on Takumi among 833, Skyline and Takumi. I have heard both 833 and Skyline but interestingly, due to the open gesture of PT to discuss this in the forum even before he had a chance to listen to it, this does not happen before and this behavior of PT gives me a high confidence that this amp is something revolutionary. VR and Raymond shed some doubt on the hybrid design but to a laymen like me, technology behind always come after the sonical performance.
Will share more after the audition tonight.
Marvel
Takumi is certainly a very strong contender rivaling all other amp giants! It was delivered to PT’s system on last Friday without a proper isolation feet and not even to mention the SRA platform which has become a norm setup for most of our systems. Yet, on listening to CD sourced from the Zanden 2500 Signature, it delivers the rich (but not overly rich) tonality and vividness of a superb tube amplification like DaVinci and has the speed and control of an outstanding SS amp like Tidal. Rather than shedding doubt on such hybrid design, my laymen impression on this amp is that it can leverage the strength of both camps with a seamless integration of the two technologies into one physical box (in fact 3 boxes).
Takumi’s delivery of music can be best described as resourceful. It has the energy and control to drive the 16” drivers of the Cessaro to operate as and when the original recording demands and yet it does not over energize or put emphasis on any part of the music in order to make the amplification ear catching and implanted in mind a kind of signature sound. It can produces big holistic soundstage with very solid and context rich images. When we listened to Beyond Live Concert, I felt like sitting on Row 10 in Hung Hom Stadium with 30K audience surrounding me.
Discounting the performance between my Zanden 2000P/Vekian DAC and PT’s Zanden one piece player, I can imagine if Takumi is put in replacement of my 805Mk2, it would undoubtedly enhance the overall ‘engulfing’ factor on the soundstage. Due to the lack of the feet and SRA platforms, I think the background quietness and transparency can still go a few notches higher as it is already very quiet by connecting to the Tripoint in PT’s case. My current conclusion is 805MkII would have no edge over this new beast when its feet and SRA are in place.
Marvel, how does it stack against my 833? How can it be Da Vinci and Tidal at the same time? This is not easy for me to imagine. Two camps are contradicting to each other. Can you elaborate further? What type of music did you listen to?
Comments
"The best love power amp yesterday is your heartbreak today."
Robert Koda has revealed most Hi end power amp's deficiency. Mr. DV is now with me. When we talk about the up coming match, he smile.........like the joker!!
Danny, we are on the same boat now. Good choice. Without the craze rack and (tripoint), all we are listening to NOISES.
PT was under pressure because I only had two hours to prepare. The Amps are totally new, there are no SRA Ohio XL+2 underneath them. There are no feet. I just use some "magazines" to put underneath the amp to do isolation. And during the installation, some of the ground wires from the Tripoint were detached. I weren't noticed until JLAM and MR.DV felt something wrong although they did not know the ground wires were detached during installation. That means their demand is very very high!
If I closed my eyes and listened, I have a feeling of listening to "single end tube amp" but without colorations. I believe I am confident to say this point after living with the Sunray for 2 months and has direct experiences with the single end design amp such as Shindo, Wavac, and Zanden for many years. The transients of this amp, or maybe I should better say, the progressively development of transients, is unique. It was delivered in a musical way, not the "dissection of details" school. The Flow factor is excellent.
JLAM/MR.DV felt the Takumi belongs to the "ENERGY, HIGH RESOLUTION" type of design after their 2 hours of auditioning with all kind of problem. JLAM did test the Gladiator disc, which almost blew up one speakers during the Munich show - and so far the best performance was played via Charles' 833/Algame system. Both of them were quite sure the Takumi delivers the Gladiator in a much more refined manner but the power/energy factor remains extremely abundant. That's why Mr.DV had a smile like Joker when we talk about the upcoming match.
However, they both feel the bass lines resolution could be better. Also, I had never listened to my Alpha One with such much more beef in the bass before. For me, I was excited but for the critical listeners, they felt the amp needs to warm up more to increase the "control" factor. It could be mechanical vibration as three big aluminum blocks directly sitting on floor. Later, I find out the ground wires from Tripoint were detached from the back. After reconnection, both of them had a better smile on their faces. I was relieved. Then, I was very tired.
Last evening at around 9pm, I turned up the amp as my son went asleep earlier. I played it causally for another 1 hour before I played some Cello recording via the Da Viinci Unison turntable by Daniel Shafran which I just listed the night before with Tron Telstar 211 amplifier. The presence of the Cello is very strong and natural, and as I mentioned earlier, the delivery of transients is unique. It will not draw too much of your attention to details although they are there if you want to look for them. It flows, develops, and yields a musical result. As the night developed further, the amp sounded better and better. At 1100pm, I was quite contented despite the absence of SRA.
This is by no means a review. I merely described what happened yesterday with some of our frank impressions. During the course of the afternoon, we received many SMS and phone calls enquiring about the Takumi.
I am sure we will have a lot more to say going forward. The Skyline (both preamp and poweramp) from Germany will land next Tuesday.
The amp war will definitely be held. We will invite Robert Koda from Japan to meet all of you and be present during the Amp War. The date is yet to fix.
To all 833 users (including myself), this war is going to be brutal.
I said NO.
He replied, "Without the Kyoto, I feel the bass could not integrate well with the mid range."
I said to him, "That's the speed inconsistency of the 16inch bass and the super fast compression mid range driver."
Mr.DV said, "You got to use one here".
This morning, I went to Alec's place to set up the Grimm CC1 clock. I spotted the Kyoto there with everything including the power amplifier plugging into it. Indeed, the whole frequency blends very well.
Tonight, I opened up the "Kamamura" which is the 1/2 version of the Kyoto with vertical orientation. Due to space limitation, I just plugged the Tron Syren into the Kamamura which is brand new. I hit the play button.
Mr.DV is right again. But I believe the technical explanation for the improvement of better integration is the Kamamura cleans up a lot of AC dirts, thereby freeing up the lost resolution/details in the lower mid-range and upper mid-bass.
Our customers are getting better and better now. Their ears are very demanding. But that's the very spirit that pushes the envelope further.
It's not my style to speculate. I can only share after I listened to the Takumi with my own ears. Frankly, it is hard for me to speculate given the "hybrid" design and VR rightly pointed out it has never been any successful stories. On the other hand, I also trust AE's solid track record of locating exotic gears.
I appreciate PT's frank description of the Takumi. The problematic part to me is especially interesting because it helps me visualize the impact of the problems on the sound in particular we are all using SRA underneath the amps.
Ray
I will do so tonight. I do have a high expectation of it and before it was delivered, I told PT that my bet is on Takumi among 833, Skyline and Takumi. I have heard both 833 and Skyline but interestingly, due to the open gesture of PT to discuss this in the forum even before he had a chance to listen to it, this does not happen before and this behavior of PT gives me a high confidence that this amp is something revolutionary. VR and Raymond shed some doubt on the hybrid design but to a laymen like me, technology behind always come after the sonical performance.
Will share more after the audition tonight.
Marvel
How was the Takumi?
WChow
Takumi’s delivery of music can be best described as resourceful. It has the energy and control to drive the 16” drivers of the Cessaro to operate as and when the original recording demands and yet it does not over energize or put emphasis on any part of the music in order to make the amplification ear catching and implanted in mind a kind of signature sound. It can produces big holistic soundstage with very solid and context rich images. When we listened to Beyond Live Concert, I felt like sitting on Row 10 in Hung Hom Stadium with 30K audience surrounding me.
Discounting the performance between my Zanden 2000P/Vekian DAC and PT’s Zanden one piece player, I can imagine if Takumi is put in replacement of my 805Mk2, it would undoubtedly enhance the overall ‘engulfing’ factor on the soundstage. Due to the lack of the feet and SRA platforms, I think the background quietness and transparency can still go a few notches higher as it is already very quiet by connecting to the Tripoint in PT’s case. My current conclusion is 805MkII would have no edge over this new beast when its feet and SRA are in place.
Marvel