Kingko KA-101 Integrated Tube Amplifier

I spoke with Tom at Big Ear last summer and what I had gathered was that there was some import fees that were driving up the price of this amp. 

Sounds like he still services the Kingko, which is good. 

Tom is responsive if you shoot him an email through Big Ear. Great guy to work with, too.

Big Ear Stereo no longer shows Kingko on its website. Ghasley or anyone have  anything to add about this amp, which is now in an improved version?

Thanks a lot OP for your answer on headphone.

Could you give me more details like treble, bass quality and headstage?

Thomas

It sounds very nice as a headphone amp with my Audeze LCD3f cans. Its auto mutes the speaker taps with the cans plugged in. I prefer a switch but hey, everyone is different.

Had anybody used this as headphone amp?

It seems to have been designed as headphone amp with three different impedance settings.

t_ramey, ditto. Big Ear is about 15 minutes away from me as well. I had some time off this week and was going to check them out but life and prepping for the holiday got in the way. Over the past week or so I’ve been speaking to Tom who seems pleasant, honest, and down to earth. It sounds like they’re still setting up the various rooms, but excited to have them in the valley. I’m sure we’ll cross paths. 

Bigearstereo is just down the road from me. One of these days I would love to hear this little guy.

Update people who are interested, this integrated tube now has a US dealer out of Arizona: bigearstereo.com

Sweet amp that should definitely receive more attention. 

So cool! Great feedback on this neat little amp! I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but have corresponded with King. He only had a couple of KA 101’s left and told me a KA101 Pro version is coming out with a little transformer magic to be even quieter with headphones. The price goes up to 7300 hkd with free shipping. I’m starting over with a budget system and haven’t figured out my speakers yet, so I plan on getting that part handled first. Leaning towards Heresy III’s. Ironically, just cane across a nice Scott 299a so I’m conflicted. Although, I might just be sentimental for that piece. Is the KingKo a big step ahead of the Scott in performance? You have some great gear!

Yes it does. As a matter of fact, it sounds terrific that way.

@ghasley   

Does the pre in input allow for a separate preamp volume control to be used without turning up the amps own volume knob to max? Looks like a fun amp!

Just an update. This amp is really coming into its own. I have no affiliation whatsoever and have been using the Kingko daily for over a month. I have several really nice tube integrateds: an Audio Research GSI75 (currently for sale), a Leben CS300xs, an Audio Note Soro, a Scott 222c for the occasional chuckle at how good a 50 plus year old amp can be and this Kingko Ka-101. Speakers on hand are/have been Wilson Audio Duette 2’s, Harbeth 30.2, Dali Rubicon 2, Red Rose R1, Viking Briton, Kef Ls50 and Buchardt s400. Just ordered a pair of Devore O/93.

The Kingko is presently tubed with a NOS Westinghouse 5u4gb, NOS Telefunken el84, NOS Cifte 12au7 and a NOS Telefunken blue tip 12ax7. The tubes are worth more than what the amp cost but I’m blown away at what this little amp is capable of. The headphone section is super quiet and sounds amazing. This amp is a terrific value and competes with like products new or used under $2,000. The fact that it costs less than $900 brand new is insane. Its a 6 ohm amp and matched amazingly well with the Harbeth. Its really cool that fun and affordable high quality products are coming on the market.