You should get your facts first here is response from
your J2 buyer
Decisions have finally been made, and eight amps for the system in my lounge is just too many.
One of the very best was this Bakoon Satri. A mere 15W a channel according to the almost unintelligible english of the manual.
This amp is best suited to speakers with sensitivities above 93dB, but I was very happy with it on Reference 3A Veenas 89dB 8 Ohm, JBL 1000 Arrays (same sensitivity as the Veenas) and even Proac 2.5 86dB 8 Ohm.
For lower sensitivity speakers there may be a lack of grip in the bass, and that is really the only weakness this amp has. Even then the bass will with most music be fast tuneful and articulate with good slam. It will just be the odd time that you will notice the lack of grip.
With higher sensitivity speakers and easy loads the bass is excellent.
Where the Bakoon excels is from the mids on up. There is an unusual combination of liquidity and detail, and very unlike solid state in that the sound remains very smooth and very resolving in the highest frequencies. The treble is probably the most accurate I have heard.
And very very musical. If you are used to solid state, then you would call this amp very sweet with organically solid images, without any of the fuzziness, softness or weakness at the extremes one might associate with valves. If you are used to tubes you would call this amp a tube amp with extension, speed and precision.
If it has a discernable character beyond this, it is a slightly brightly lit mid-range that adds a little excitement/presence and a little forwardness while remaining warm and smooth. This isn't what you would call brightness, but what some reviewers call a 'lit from within' quality. I don't really notice it except if I have been listening to the amp for several hours a day I become aware of it. This slight character will suit some speakers/rooms/tastes and not others.
I got myself down to 3 amps that were quite exceptional and that were clearly better than a number of tube and solid state amps in my system. In trying to decide how to reduce below 3 amps I have spent weeks listening to each, and if anything my main conclusion was that I could live forever with either of them.
In the end I decided to keep one valve amp and one solid state. Of the solid state amps, I decided to keep the one that had a both single-ended and balanced input as I need to be able to test balanced cables in my system.
So the Bakoon is only going for that reason. For what it is worth, the solid state amp I am keeping is a Nelson Pass First Watt J2 (USD4k). It is a little more powerful which is beneficial with my 89dB speakers, it has slightly better bass grip, but has a trace of solid state hardness that the Bakoon doesn't have - but then it provides a better foil to the valve amp I am keeping which is very slightly soft.
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www.antipodesaudio.com - Cable Manufacturer
Beside the amp pops11 heard is the Version MK3 with
new generation circuit with much more control in Bass
and even more transparency with musicality
PJO
