Big Karan amps

Having said the above, a friend has actually done his round earlier this year with a number of highly touted best of the best ultra hi-end amps most retailing north of 50k.

< Oops..I meant early last year--2008! Sure doesn't feel we've passed it..

Karan's amps have the bottom end control of solid state, along with a sweet mid-range. They would probably keep the same company as Lamm, Dartzeel, Pass XA series. However, their power is in a league of their own. They may not have the speed and slam in the lower end as Krell or Boulder, but that is OK.

I have spoken to quite a few people recently about solid state amplifiers, and many people find the typical contendors to be too analytical. I never heard anyone speak of Karan as overly analytical.

In addition to the unlimited power and a midrange that is musical and dynamic, I like the added bonus that they do not run hot. That way, they stay on all the time, and always sound their best. My experience with Pass is that it took quite a few hours of being on to sweeten, preferrably more than 24 hours. Very difficult during the summer.

I have never heard a big Karan amp, but have owned a Karan KA-i180 integrated amp. It is rated at 180wpc into 8 ohms. I used it with Merlin VSM-M speakers and hated it. I think it was more the speakers then the amp. It played loud effortlessly, but so do allot of other solid state amps. I have moved onto class D amps and tube preamps and found the sound much more to what I like. The Karan was fast with great bassand smooth highs, but so are my Hypex class D amps. You should demo the Kharma MP 350 class D mono amps.

I will start off saying I am completely biased as we are the North American distributor for Karan Acoustics but I have been a audiophile for over 30 years, long before this ever became a business. I was looking for a new line of solid state amps to audition and the Karan intrigued me as they had outstanding reviews.

I have had most of them in my system (not the KA M 1200s) and am currently breaking in a set of KA M 650s on a pair of ribbon speakers as well (Piega). I have compared them to a number of other amps and thought very highly of them (no big surprise I liked them enough to want to carry them). They sound much different than class D and that would be a matter of personal preference. They are very musical and not overly analytical, useful when powering ribbons in my opinion. They have huge amounts of power, which translates into great bass control. The other amplifiers you suggest are wonderful, and I have heard some in comparison but certainly not all (and you should be cautious about anything I have to say). The build quality and fit and finish is superb, as long as you are ok with black. As Rtn1 notes they run very cool, I can't really get them to run even warm to touch.

I would add at this level I would never buy an amp of this cost without auditioning it my system.

One final note is that unfortunately, depending on the model, the age of the amp may be older than you think and thus you may not be hearing the most up to date sound Karan Acoustics has to offer.

If anyone has any questions drop me a note or I will try to respond on the post.

All the best

Gary

While I agree with Rtn1 about the midrange and their power I disagree somewhat on what he says about their bass, speed, and slam. I think they are incredibly fast but more liquid in their presense. I think their sound is more accurate or real where krell is in your face and colored. I have owned krell solid state on and off for over 15 years and it has been love at first site and than I lose interest after a month or so. The Karans truely do something magical and correct. IF you want musical nirvana, hook the karan 1200 monoblocks up to a pair of Avalon ISIS and you will never have to buy anything again. Another great match is with the coincident pure reference speakers. I know it's over kill but man was that setup magical.