General Asylum: REVIEW: Kora Triode Preamplifier (Tube) by sjb

Why Kora?

I came to this preamplifier quite by accident. I' ve been taking moderate upgrade steps from some very low end gear uo thru Rotel seperate's with Paradigm speakers and Music Metre cabling. I had reached a point where I felt pretty satisfied. The sound I was hearing in my home was better than I'd ever heard and I'd rediscovered and deepened my love for listening to music. After a little while I started to feel less satisfied. I attributed a lot of it to frequenting AA and AR and looking at manufacturer's and dealer's website's. Everyday I'd read about this amp or that speaker and how they would provide ever greater levels of sonic bliss. I tried to resist the feeling that something was wrong. Then on a whim I went and auditioned some B&W 805's and Dynaudio Contour 1.8MKII's. Yikes! There WAS something missing. A sense of air and 3 dimensional reality. My system was providing me with great imaging and neutrality but it was missing some life. This began a speaker quest that is still in progress. One stop on my speaker listening rounds found me listening to Vandersteen 2CE sig's through about 40k of ARC gear. What I felt I can't describe. I can only say that for about 3 hours afterwards the feeling (like a line of energy from my navel to my heart) was still with me. The dealer gave me an Audible Illusions M3 preamp to take home and demo. I lloved what it did to the sound but I wasn't into the dual volume knobs.

This began some research into and auditioning of tubed preamps. Through this sight I was turned onto the Rogue Audio 66 and went to audition it first. I listened to it through my amp (Rotel 991 - 200W) and some Contour 1.8MKII's in direct comparison to my preamp (Rotel 995) and with my CD player (Rotel 971). I loved what the Rogue did for the texture of the music but I felt it suffered dynamicaly and didn't compare favorably in the bass slam/impact department. The dealer put a CJ PV10 in the system and the bass impact and slam returned but it sounded a little spitty. I attributed this to not being fully warmed up. The dealer then tried to sell me a new CJ PV14L. It retails for $2000 which is only $200 less than I'd spent on my whole system ($2,200 vs list $3,300). A little more research led me to the Blue Circle BC21.

I found a local dealer who had these and I went to hear it a week ago. This dealer (Sound Asylum in Venice, CA) was awesome. He didn't even want me to listen to it in the shop because it would tell me nothing about how it would sound in my system. So he boxed it up and gave it to me to take home. Well I don't know if it just doesn't like my amp or if it had a bad tube or tubes, or if I was doing something wrong but it was echoing and buzzing. I tried grounding it to the amp and a cheat plug but it wouldn't behave. I called the dealer and he had me come over to give me a Kora Triode so I could see if it was a system/power problem or the Blue Circle itself. I hooked the Kora up, plugged it in, turned it on, and all was quiet. I wound up sitting there for 3 hours popping in various cd's and reveling in the sound. I brought the BC21 back that afternoon and have had the Kora playing virtually non-stop until this afternoon.

Impressions,

I know that there are people here who don't think too highly of Rotel and Paradigm but I firmly believe that both provide exceptional value and a true taste of high end sound. I have spent many hours absorbed in the music with this gear and if I'd stopped audtioning (and stayed away from the board's) I could have been happy with it for many years. That said, the Kora Triode has, in one week, taken my enjoyment to a whole new level.

I doubt the unit was fully broken in when I brought it home because the sound got sweeter and sweeter as the week went on. It played music for probably 110 of the 168 hours possible and it was powered on the whole time.

Let's start with the bass. I can't get over how rich, textured and tuneful it was, while remaining (to my ears) tight, defined and accurate. The bass became a 3 dimensional foundation to the music. It held the space for the mids and highs to sing and float and breathe and dance. I really can't think of words that do justice to the difference in the tonal quality and texture of the bass with the Triode in line. The added bonus was that for all of the aesthetic pleasure I was hearing, more inner detail was being resolved so that the nuances of the bass playing were brought forth to enhance my experience even more. I listen to a lot of world music/percussion and everything above applies equaly to drums.

The mids. I'm into singer's. I can appreciate vocal talent but to really be into an artist I have to like 3 things about a singer. Their voice, how much they seem to mean what they're singing, and the lyrics. Some of my fave's are (male) Cat Steven's, Karl Wallinger, Peter Gabriel, Thom Yorke, Leonard Cohen, Robbie Robertson, the deep voiced singer from the band Gomez, Tom Waits and (female) Natalie Merchant, Sheila Chandra, Sarah MacLachlan, Loreena McKennitt, and the singer from VAS. The Kora presented all of them (and more) with feeling, grip and a sweetness that made me feel like they were here in my room with me. The Kora brought out the emotional intangibles to the extent that they felt quite tangible (does that make any sense?). The slightest breaths and growls at the ends of words could be heard. It was like I could hear what the singer was feeling.

The highs were just the icing on the cake. A lot of the music I like has a fair amount of bells, zils, cymbal,s etc. I didn't realize how much smooth, articulate and airy highs could impact the listening experience. I would hear these ringing beauties float through the music take hold of me and pull me into this mysterious space where I felt like I was inside of the recording. Again words escape me but the best I can do is to say that the quality of the highs added the 3rd dimension for me.

In addition to the amount of feeling the Kora provided it revealed more detail than the 995, had better almost magical imaging and a soundstage that enveloped me. Last night I sat in the sweetest part of the sweet spot and listened to some Pink Floyd CD's with the lights out. These are recordings that (for me) have been in heavy rotation for 20+ years. I was hearing/feeling subtle details that I'd truly never heard before whcih includes countless hours of headphone listening in various altered states. It was actually more intoxicating than when I used to listen to them while intoxictaed. It was magical. There is no music that I am more familiar with and the Kora drew me more deeply into it than I can ever remember.

Finally, I put the 995 back into my system today and it's been playing for the last 6 hours. I don't mean to speak badly of it because I believe that it's a high value product but the magic just isn't there. It is not an encompassing experience. It reveals a lot of musical nuance but it doesn't have the texture, depth or 3 dimensionality of the Kora. A better way to say it is that it doesn't have the presence of the Kora.

There is no doubt that one of these baby's (the Triode or the replacement Equinoxe) will be in my sytem shortly. I'm not even sure that I need to replace my speakers (although I would like to move to soft domes) because the Kora Triode revealed how truly wonderful they are....they have amazing bass extension and impact for their size. If you're in the market for a preamp I highly recommend that you give Kora a serious listen (the Triode is discontinued but the Equinoxe is supposed to be the same thing with slight upgrades in parts and major upgrades in looks). With the Kora dealer/ditributor shakeup the Triode/Equinoxe have to be among the greatest bargains in audio.

REVIEW: Kora Triode Preamplifier (Tube) Review by sjb at Audio Asylum