Which preamp for Symphonic Line Kraft amps?

Dev,

There is a guy from Philly that has auditioned a Karan amp
(and preamp I think) in his system. He uses Ascendo speakers (M?) and a CAT JL2. He was very unimpressed with the Karan gear. His agon moniker is ubbyglubby (Bob). Let us know what you think of the Karan gear when you hear it.

Bart

Dev,

My system is for CD playback only. I use a Marantz SA-11S2 player. Although the Kraft has a balanced input it is just connected single-ended inside. Hope that makes sense? So, when using the ARC Ref 3, you don't get the benefit of the 12 db of gain in balanced mode. Instead, you get 6db of gain, along with an output impedance that is too high to drive the Kraft amp.

The net of this is the sound lacks weight and hiss was intrusive at low level listening. At least that was my experience.

The ARC Ref 3 is a phenomenal product, but was not a optimal match with the Kraft amp for my ears. I reluctantly sold it.

I have no experience with Karan and cannot comment.

Good luck,

Jay

Dev,

The black finish is call "Aranya", which could be best described as a black chrome finish. The last I heard, SL does not offer this anymore for the Kraft amps due to the cost and difficulty in getting a consistent finish.

The amps are class "A", but probably a sliding bias system.

Driving my B&W 802D it never gets hot, just warm no matter how loud I play it. But, the temperature of the heatsinks would rise considerably if you were driving a tough load like a Apogee.

Jay

Hi Jonathan,
How's it going?
I just wanted to find out if you had received your Symphonic Line Kraft 300 amps? I believe that you intended to buy 2 so that you could biamp your Megalines.
Please let us know if you received your amps & what you think of them sonically vs. the previous amps (you never mentioned which amps you were switching from)? Thanks/