Denafrips Amps

What other equipment would you be integrating the Denafrips amps into?  I’ve Hyperion, Hestia, and Athena and am very satisfied with both the performance and the build quality.  Playing some old jazz albums over the weekend really ‘sealed it’ for me.  Basie, Jay McShann, Webster, Zawinul, Burrell, some Mavericks, Greta Van Fleet, William Shatner, Margo Price, Sarah Jarosz, Fantastic Negrito, and a few of the Tone Poet lp’s was really a splendid event, good listening.  Never heard the Kinki stuff but my understanding is similar to Jackd.  Denafrips has a natural warmth that may turn some people off.  It’s taken about 4 months and the addition of my first subwoofer but I couldn’t be more pleased.  The system is really versatile.  Great production like Michael Franks w/Chuck Loeb ‘Time Together’ is just candy.  The range of an artist like Brandi Carlile is revealed as simply astonishing, There’s nowhere to hide
such talent as it becomes viscerally displayed, the Denafrips products, yes like tubes/valves clothe the performance in genuine bodies, the musicians have a soul in a way that seems rather convincing, pleasurable.  It’s played great with the Zu DW’s, an affordable entry into point source signs and sounds damn fine with a more revealing ProAc 1sc such that Athena, pushing a quad of WE6CA7Plus pentodes in my Mystere PA11 with a vinyl source is some of the best sound I’ve gotten in my room over several decades.  Evan a blind mouse finds a piece of cheese now and then, so don’t tell me to drop my ‘Frips and get Kinki.  I just need to figure out where to jump into their dac lineup…

So well said jackd.  Kinda like walking a tight rope in that so many ways to go wrong, it’s about balance.  That’s cool u own a PA11 also, 1st I’ve ever met.  Been thru EL34’s, 6L6GC, but really like the Shuguang WE replicas, they r remarkable bottles.  Clarity and high end extension, they go remarkably deep also. Very different than an EL34.  They don’t have the 6SN7’s though so I’m running some Sylvanias.  U may want to try the 6CA7’s while you can still get them, they are so good.  I’ll probably try the Linlai E-6SN7’s going forward.  Very neutral from what I can dig up.  Athena in front of the Mystere is an easy recommendation.  Vinyl is killer.  Athena can feed two additional balanced outs, in addition to the rca, so it’s a very good hub.  The single rca in and out sound very, very good.  It’s got 4 sets of balanced ins that just cry for dac comparisons.  I get a slight buzz with the Mystere thru the high efficiency Zu’s, nothing thru the 1SC’s. Of course thru Hyperion everything is dead quiet.  I would love to hear the Kinki gear sometime but perhaps only Alvin knows anything about mixing and matching the two.  Apples and oranges?  Throw in the Musician line and we can talk ‘bananas’ too… (-;