Hi guys, big news in the Thundersnow house of hi-fi. After hearing these amplifiers at a friend’s house, I made it my mission to make them a part of my hifi setup. And I did. These are the Karan Master Collection PowerA monoblocks. Roughly 2,000w into 8ohms and the power/current only increases as the speakers go down in ohms. With that said, I have been playing these amps for a couple of days now. I wanted to hold off on my initial impressions until I’ve had a chance to fine tune the current setup, as well as test the amps on a wider range of music.
Here are some initial thoughts:
1.) These amps are match made in heaven in terms of pairing with the Clarisys Studio Plus. The tone is absolutely magnificent. It’s not “thin” like solid state and it’s not full tube, but it’s definitely more on the fuller/more physical side of things than anything else. Tone-wise this amp holds its own against the NAT Symbiosis New (and its gorgeous tonality), but at the same time, the level of control, the precise and expansive imaging as well as the incredible bass, takes these speakers to the next level.
2.) With that said, whoever tells you Clarisys Studio Plus can be driven to its FULL POTENTIAL (key words here) with any tube amps — giant NATs, or otherwise, clearly hasn’t heard these speakers sing with the Karan PowerA monos. This is a whole different ballgame. Think NBA dunks vs. WNBA dunks.
3.) In comparison to the Soulution 710 (for instance as my previous solid state reference), that one had about 50% of the control that Karan’s do, but when it comes to the tone, Karans just blow it out of the water. No contest. The tone is not “dark” or “bright” or “on the warm side.” It’s just physical and just right. I played a song by Marten (their Marten recordings — Supreme Sessions 2) “Dance Drums, Dance” by the Rhythm Art Duo and the physical nature of the sound on the Karans, it literally gives you the sound pressure of large percussion instruments being hit with different degrees of intensity. So physical, it’s like a dynamic speaker but faster. I honestly couldn’t believe a planar speaker could produce this sound. It just goes to show you what the formula for success is here.
4.) The speakers now play with ease and no matter what passage you throw at them the nature of the tone remains the same. The dynamics remain unrestricted and you hear literally NO dynamic compression in the recordings. It’s especially fun to listen to live recordings. It’s like gigs at your own pad. Amazing.
5.) The ONLY compromise so far that I’ve seen is the high gain of the amps (36db), meaning you’d be better off with a low gain preamp (6-10db). I’ve resolved this one successfully by setting my Weiss Helios’ XLR output voltage to 2,6v, thus creating the best possible signal to noise ratio of the system. Besides that, you have to use 4 power cables (2 per mono block) for these beasts, and you can only switch them on by flicking the four switches in the back. A little less ergonomic than I’d like it to be. But these complaints are totally minor compared to the immense benefits.
6.) Finally, another amazing win (though I can’t explain this one fully), I had just a tad bit issues with the Clarisys Studio Plus’ off axis response/sound. The problem seems to have been drastically lessened with the introduction of the Karans. The speakers simply play better off axis?! I guess I expect this is because the Karans have so much control over the speakers.
Finally, (and I say this with not a sip of whiskey to my name) this is the best sound I’ve ever achieved with hi fi in my home setup. I’ve never heard anything sound better — and I’ve heard quite, quite, quite, quite a bit.
Here are some initial thoughts:
1.) These amps are match made in heaven in terms of pairing with the Clarisys Studio Plus. The tone is absolutely magnificent. It’s not “thin” like solid state and it’s not full tube, but it’s definitely more on the fuller/more physical side of things than anything else. Tone-wise this amp holds its own against the NAT Symbiosis New (and its gorgeous tonality), but at the same time, the level of control, the precise and expansive imaging as well as the incredible bass, takes these speakers to the next level.
2.) With that said, whoever tells you Clarisys Studio Plus can be driven to its FULL POTENTIAL (key words here) with any tube amps — giant NATs, or otherwise, clearly hasn’t heard these speakers sing with the Karan PowerA monos. This is a whole different ballgame. Think NBA dunks vs. WNBA dunks.
3.) In comparison to the Soulution 710 (for instance as my previous solid state reference), that one had about 50% of the control that Karan’s do, but when it comes to the tone, Karans just blow it out of the water. No contest. The tone is not “dark” or “bright” or “on the warm side.” It’s just physical and just right. I played a song by Marten (their Marten recordings — Supreme Sessions 2) “Dance Drums, Dance” by the Rhythm Art Duo and the physical nature of the sound on the Karans, it literally gives you the sound pressure of large percussion instruments being hit with different degrees of intensity. So physical, it’s like a dynamic speaker but faster. I honestly couldn’t believe a planar speaker could produce this sound. It just goes to show you what the formula for success is here.
4.) The speakers now play with ease and no matter what passage you throw at them the nature of the tone remains the same. The dynamics remain unrestricted and you hear literally NO dynamic compression in the recordings. It’s especially fun to listen to live recordings. It’s like gigs at your own pad. Amazing.
5.) The ONLY compromise so far that I’ve seen is the high gain of the amps (36db), meaning you’d be better off with a low gain preamp (6-10db). I’ve resolved this one successfully by setting my Weiss Helios’ XLR output voltage to 2,6v, thus creating the best possible signal to noise ratio of the system. Besides that, you have to use 4 power cables (2 per mono block) for these beasts, and you can only switch them on by flicking the four switches in the back. A little less ergonomic than I’d like it to be. But these complaints are totally minor compared to the immense benefits.
6.) Finally, another amazing win (though I can’t explain this one fully), I had just a tad bit issues with the Clarisys Studio Plus’ off axis response/sound. The problem seems to have been drastically lessened with the introduction of the Karans. The speakers simply play better off axis?! I guess I expect this is because the Karans have so much control over the speakers.
Finally, (and I say this with not a sip of whiskey to my name) this is the best sound I’ve ever achieved with hi fi in my home setup. I’ve never heard anything sound better — and I’ve heard quite, quite, quite, quite a bit.
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