The Kondo may lean towards traditionalist ‘valve sound’ but it doesn’t venture so far as to morph into some sugar coated euphonious hifi treatment – in the vain of some all valve softies. To my ears the Kondo represents a balance of virtues – not so warm as to sound woolly and not so transparent as to sound stark or clinical. ABC’s Look of love demonstrated that the Kondo does not wall paper cracks the same way some valve amplifiers seem to and the Kondo lacked nothing in its reproduction of the demanding Scheherazade – which came across as life like in terms of snap, aliveness and room filling scale. Whilst still pleasingly musical the Kondo’s low bass lacked heft and concussive force – possibly indicating a less than optimal pairing with the Raidho speakers, but what the Kondo gives up in an ultimate sense of grip and control it arguably gains in a sense of harmonic freedom and flow leading, I feel, to a high level of listener involvement and emotional engagement.įinally, the other tracks used for evaluation were also revealing. Less impressive was the Kondo’s reproduction of low bass which lacked the immediacy and impact of the Gryphon. Madonna’s voice floated effortlessly above the complex cacophony of electronica to impart deep and poetic lyrics of separation pain. The Kondo’s discrimination, that is, its ability to cleanly separate instruments was outstanding. Spectral analysis shows enormous energy in the sub 32Hz and the 63-160Hz parts of the audio spectrum requiring amplifiers to make heavy continuous demands on the output stage and the power supply in order for the speaker woofers to draw sufficient current to cleanly reproduce the music. The Orbit inspired masterpiece invokes a massive layered soundscape with complex texture and minutiae detail even whilst the underlying beat propels the tracks momentum with solid energy. Turning now to dynamics, Madonna’s The Power of Goodbye is a challenge for any audio system to reproduce. Photo 4: The Kondo presents a pleasingly simple user interface
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Moreover, the Kondo’s resolution continued to impress with the definition of the percussion – a shivering tambourine – being particularly impressive, floating free from the kick drum with change noticeable in each shake. While the Kondo did not paint the blackest of backgrounds in which to appreciate this track, it did invite me as the listener deep into the music and held me there enthralled. The long rests between piano strikes create tension, intensity and a feeling of sparseness – precisely the backdrop the composer intended in order to build and sustain an atmosphere complimentary to the lyrics. My senses – my litmus test of quality reproduction – immediately respond to the mournfulness of the cello and the seeming desolation and silent pain of the piano. The opening piano key strokes come across wonderfully weighted, harmonic and airy as does the delicate metallic shimmer of the percussion. The Kondo’s sense of musical flow continued in the emotionally charged and almost somniferous groove of Morning Bird by Sade. Furthermore, the vocal specificity, that is the shape, density, definition and lateral positioning of the vocal image was outstanding, considerably better than my reference integrated amplifier, the Gryphon Diablo. The music is gloriously fluid, melodic and ethereal and yet does not sacrifice resolution with spatial cues, ambient and low level detail, ( in particular final tail reverberation) all present and accounted for and on par with the best I’ve heard. Unflustered and unhurried the reproduction takes the listener on a journey that metaphorically starts with a deep breath and continues in a natural and uncontrived fashion from start to finish of the track. Latest version can be identified by the push button startįirst impressions so often set the table for the entire meal and loading Edward Val’s take of Springsteen’s I’m on Fire, the first thing to strike you about the Kondo’s sound’ is its composed, relaxed quality, reminiscent of utterly unforced delivery.
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