Karan Acoustics
Dynaudio
Hi-Fi Package (HF79)

Overview 

Karan Acoustics KA-180i MK2 Integrated Amplifier (Made In Europe)

The Karan integrated amp has a cult following. Milan Karan doesn’t change his products on a regular basis, so Karan doesn’t get the brand coverage a more profligate revamper might and the company is up against some of the bigger names in the industry with marketing powers to match. And yet, the Karan integrated has become the doyen of those ‘in the know’, any mention of the product on even the most vituperative forum is met with praise instead of hostility. There are many folk who traded in well-respected Big Brand amps for the Karan… and never looked back. Only Lavardin receives similarly universal reverence and owning one (a Karan or a Lavardin) bestows upon the listener a kind of classy anti-hero chic, akin to ordering an Armagnac when it’s brandy time. So a new version of the 180W Karan integrated amp is a must-hear if only to stay one of hi-fi’s underground fashionistas.

Karan has adopted an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach to the KA I-180, and much of what was good about the original amp is retained. The amplifier is built along differential lines, but drops comfortably down to single-ended operation. It delivers 180watts into eight ohms and 300watts into four, and has a frequency response from DC to light (well, from DC to 300kHz). The rest of the specs are identical, as is much of the amplifier board layout and even the internal geography of the amp. It also has that unique – as in ‘how does he do it?’ – Class A sound without Class A inefficiency. The secret, apparently, is sliding bias, low current and treating the whole voltage rail like the base of a transistor.

Dynaudio Confidence 20 Bookshelf Speaker (Made In Denmark)

The compact Confidence 20 takes the performance, the passion, and the power of the range’s larger speakers, and puts it on a stand.

We’ve spent years looking at how we could improve on the previous range of Confidence speakers. And, after almost countless hours in design labs, our state-of-the-art Jupiter measuring facility, modeling and simulation suites – and, of course, listening rooms – we’ve done it.

Like the rest of the range, the Confidence 20 features the all-new 28mm Esotar3 soft-dome tweeter, plus a new 18cm NeoTec MSP woofer and an innovative down-firing bass port. Its drivers feature cutting-edge developments in airflow technology (including a much larger rear chamber and optimized venting in the tweeter, plus the new resonance-stabilizing Hexis inner dome); simulation-derived diaphragm thickness; super-powerful neodymium magnets; and the new Compex front baffle.

The new 28mm Esotar3 soft-dome tweeter takes over 40 years of Dynaudio expertise, plus plenty of new learnings from the award-winning Esotar Forty unit – and rolls it all into the finest tweeter we’ve ever created. A powerful neodymium magnet system, innovations in airflow routing, the new resonance-busting Hexis inner dome… it all combines to increase detail, clarity, and sensitivity.

The new 18cm NeoTec MSP woofer also has neodymium under the hood and uses glass fibre in its voice-coil former for optimum stiffness. The voice-coil itself is aluminum (which provides the right combination of lightness, stiffness, and damping for tighter, more powerful, and more controlled bass). And the entire woofer motor has been designed to harness airflow using an innovative new venting system that’s been machined directly into the magnet. (Something you can learn more about in our six-part podcast series on the new Confidence).

FREE GIFT :

• MS HD Power S20 V3 6 Way Filtered UK Mains Block (worth RM990)
• QED Reference Qonduit Power Cord 2m (worth RM995)
• QED Genesis Silver Spiral 3m pair (worth RM1,980)

• Contact : Dicky Ng 012-3308893
• Contact : John Yew 016-2861000
• Email    : [email protected]