The only one I am aware of that has had both the Kinki and Denafrips pieces in house and for review is Srajen with 6 Moons. Reach out to him through the contact on his website and see what he says. He currently has the Kinki EX-M1 and the B7 monos in his personal systems. |
@regismc
Two my ears with multiple speakers the Kinki house sound is pretty much neutral and allows the character of the particular speaker in use to set the tone. Amps that I have owned that were similar were the Nuforce STA-200 and the Job 225, both based on the same circuit design owned by Goldmund. The BHK is just to the slightly warmer side of neutral and it can be tailored slightly by the choice of input tube. I have tried Gold Lion, Tungsram, Mullard and Matsushita in it and the sonic character only changed slightly and not by the great lengths i have seen described by others. Both are great amps but with the BHK you still need to drive it and using a DAC to do it was not for me as I tried it with the DS SR. |
Not really sure with the M1+ priced at $2895 with free shipping how you are getting anywhere near the price territory of either the Pass or BHK with both at $7250 plus without shipping included. I own a BHK 250 and even at the old heavily dealer discount prices it wasn't close price wise. Also as I own or have owned an original EX-M1 and the current M1+ and M7 I have a pretty good idea about the house sound after almost four years. Lean it is not and I have used them with over a half dozen different speakers from Spatial, Verity, Nola, Reynaud, Harbeth and Fritz. |
@regismc
The BHK amps will take any tube from the 6dj8 or 7dj8 family. The Matsushita's I ended up staying with are 7DJ8's. I have tried the BHK 250 with the Modwright LS-100, Sonic Frontier Line 2 SE+, the BHK preamp and the Supratek Chardonnay. In the end the Supratek won out. Not as many convenience features but much better sound and less noise. |
@regismc
For now the #1 speaker is the Verity Otello but I still have all of the others between two houses in two different states. The Verity's are driven by either the BHK 250 or the Kinki EX-M7 with the Supratek Chardonnay. The Nola KO's give the Otello's a good run for the money. |
@jwlaudio
Just a bit of info that may or may not be important to you from an owner of the BHK preamplifier for over three years. As the F8 is a single ended amp and the BHK is fully balanced you are likely to run into two small issues. One is you are likely going to half to lift the ground on either the amp or the preamp and secondly the BHK preamps in general are not fond of SE amp connections as it tends to cause an increased level of clicking with their unusual volume control. I tried mine with well over a half dozen SE amps and the increased clicking occurred with each one. A friend tried two different samples of the BHK and ran into the same issues and this includes SE amps with convenience XLR connectors. Another issue that may limit your tube choices is that the BHK needs input tube with matched triodes to keep the volume control noise in check which is much harder and more expensive to find in NOS variants than in new production tubes. But in the end if you have an amp that the BHK "likes" then it is a very solid choice. |
It's for if you have a ground loop which with that combo is likely. Like I said if you are plugging the components into a conditioner that itself is grounded then that will be fine. If the problem does occur try the cheater on the preamp first. Not the end of the world if you like the sound from the combo. The BHK only has about 4db gain from the SE outputs so you still may borderline on gain. |
@jwlaudio
By lifting the ground I mean using a cheater plug preferably on the preamp and if you are plugging into a grounded conditioner it won’t make a difference anyway.
In the 3+ years I owned the BHK I tried it with the following amps all from memory. Mystere PA-11, Music Reference RM-10, Granite Audio 861 mono’s, Nuforce STA-200, Nord One, Nuprime ST-10, Mivera Purepower, Odyssey Kismet, Kinki EX-M7 and the BHK 250. The best match was obviously the BHK which I still have and swap in and out with the EX-M7.
Sticking with the stock tubes or the Gold Lions is a good place to stay as finding NOS as quiet will be hard and expensive in most cases. When you get the preamp I would suggest you take the tubes out and re-seat them after their ride with FedEx.
As to the cables for a start use what you have especially if you don't have a long distance to run or noise issues. |
@jwlaudio
If all of those new amps in your stable are all single ended you may be disappointed with the BHK preamp. Both myself and several friends found that when run single ended the volume control makes a great deal of noise when used in either direction. The only way to mitigate it at all is to have fully gain and triode matched 12AU7 tubes which pretty much limits you to new production. I had no luck at all with 6 or 7 volt tubes over the four years I owned mine and found it's best mate to be the BHK amp and I tried many. |
@jwlaudio
Not sure but something in the way Bascom designed the volume control circuit. Just know that between a friend and I we tried three different units and almost a dozen SE amps. If it causes a problem at least you have the 30 day return. |
@jwlaudio
One way around it once you figure out the "sweet spot" volume for each source is to mute before changing the volume level then un-mute. Anyway even though it doesn't have all the remote conveniences and input options of the BHK I much prefer the sound and lack of quirks with the Supratek Chardonnay at a far lower price. Same is true of the Don Sachs preamp. |
@dkerr
I have both the original M1 and the current M1+ with the new volume control that rectifies the high gain issue completely and appears from memory to be a slight bit warmer than the original but that could just be a perception from having more flexibility with the volume control.
As to the issue of the M7 and tube preamps. I didn't really think the match with the BHK was bad just didn't have the warmth and magic that the pairing with the two 6SN7 preamps have. Though the BHK has some degree of the tube feel and more so with the 12 volt tubes it's not at all like what you get from a 6SN7 preamp. I do think the M7 is a great amp on it's own but it will not and does not sound like a tube amp. It is neutral and honest. The closest thing to it that I have owned was the JOB 225. What you put in was what you got out. My BHK 250 and AVA SET 400 are far "warmer". So how the pairing of your preamp and the M7 would go would depend mostly on where on the warmth scale your preamp is. |
@dkerr
I've used the EX-M7 with both the Supratek Chardonnay via XLR and the Don Sachs Model 2 via RCA and had no problems with either. The problems that Srajen had when he tried both his Nagra and later his Vinnie Rossi preamps had to due with the type of tube regulated power supply they use. You should have no issues with your preamp. The EX-M7 is a single ended amp and the XLR inputs are strictly convenience. I use them so I don't have to swap cables out if I substitute in the BHK 250 which is fully balanced. |
@dkerr
No I haven’t had any excess gain issue with the Supratek/Kinki combo. The Supratek has adjustable gain from 0-26db and I have it set at the halfway mark or about 13db.
If you're willing to look at an SS alternative I would recommend the W4S STP-SE Stage 2. |
