REVIEW: Purity Audio K.I.C.A.S. Caliente home headphone amp - updated with comments on regular KICAS - Page 24

I remember Oriel addressing this during last year's run of Calientes and I'm paraphrasing here of course, but he concluded that it was indeed overkill. There's little to no advantage in that pairing.

Welcome jja,

In reference to Grados and the KICAS (non-caliente), I have to say that my SR225s sound very good with the KICAS. I originally purchased the amp for the Denon AH-D5000 and was really surprised that the SR225s sounded so good. I also use it with Ultrasones which also sound great. Oriel is great responding to emails and very helpful.

In reference to your last paragraph, well this is Head-Fi. I too sometimes browse the FS forum and notice this with a lot of gear. I read a very good impression thread on a piece of gear by someone that was thrilled with the results of said gear, then I see the gear on the FS forum to fund another purchase in about a month. My take on this- IMO, there is so much more gear available now than when I joined over three years ago, that I'm guessing we all want to get a little piece of it...

Thank you Heatfan12. I'm a member of a camera forum, and there's a lot of gear being traded there too, for similar reasons.

I'm going to look around a bit more and settle on one amp--let's see for how long!

Skylab ... Reading this entire thread leads one to believe this amp performs above it's price point. Is it fair to say this amp can compete favorably with $1000 SS amps, or is that going a bit far ? Thanks

I just bought a Caliente--my first headphone amp--and I'll soon know how it performs on my modest headphones. I have found this thread v. informative, thanks in particular to those of you who responded to my queries.

I'll report back in a few weeks when I've had a chance to give this amp a good listen.

I just got my Caliente this morning. Initial impressions are, as seems to be the norm, rather positive. Coming from a Little Dot MKII this is quite a revelation. Immediately I noticed much better instrument separation and clearer, more defined bass. Listening to Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, I was able to clearly follow the doubles basses without losing them in muddy frequencies. Overall I'm very, very pleased!

Another very happy KICAS owner. Now I need to get a few more headphones to play around with.

Have been listening to my new Caliente for a few hours now. Right out of the box it produces a smooth and captivating sound with impressive bass drive and mid-low frequency definition. Gave some much needed weight to my k702. The sound is fairly unfatiguing too.

 

Also when my unit arrived it came with a North America wallwart,  I wrote to Oriel and he promptly sent me a 240v replacement via international express post, so thumbs up for the customer service.

I purchased a Purity Audio KICAS Caliente in July 2008, and have posted before how amazed I have been with this amp, especially driving my HD650 phones.  Well, here it is approaching the Summer of 2010 (during which season I listen almost exclusively with a pair of ALO-modded SR225 (hardwood cups and recabled with 18AWG Jena cryo wire) - and, in my main rig, paired with the KICAS Caliente.

 

I've been listening for awhile now using mainly a HiSoundAudio AMP3 (Pro.1 and Pro.2) and a HiSoundAudio Studio - paired with Sennheiser Mx990 earbuds.  And, I've been enthralled with the sound (as well as the convenient portability of this rig).

 

Over this last week, I've found myself gravitating back to my main rig (Headroom Ultra Micro DAC, KICAS Caliente) paired with my ALO-modded SR225 phones.  And, I'm posting again about just how amazed I often am with the sound I'm getting while going through my Summer seasonal favorites listening rotation (mostly Goth, Shoegaze, Darkwave, Ambient, Trip-hop, Nouvelle Vague (so far, mainly Asylum Party) and some really Classic and Progressive Rock - plus some vastly expansive (on a celestial scale) Psychedelic Rock (The Verve's "A Storm in Heaven"), with some occasional acoustic folk (I've discovered Vashti Bunyan this Summer) and classical thrown in for good measure.  What amazes me is that this rig provides a sound with is both micro-detailed AND lush (the lushness does not make anything sound fuzzy or foggy), the expansiveness of the sound-space (not the distance between musical voices, but the almost wall-less vastness of the venue in which all of the voices are located.  The sound is also tonally/timbrally/texturally gorgeous and accurate, with a transparency and ease that sometimes just stands my ear/brain on end, as I hear myself audibly say, "Whoaaaaaaa!!!!!" or "Yesssssssss!!!!!" in response to the sound of a musical passage to which I'm listening.  I can't keep any of my feet, legs, hips, torso, neck, head, arms or hands still as I listen using this rig.  I'm developing "Seated Full-Body Dance" as an art form to express what I experience as I listen to my music using this rig while seated at my desk.

 

Nothing really new here (I've posted this before in more sonically-descriptive detail), but, every now and then, I like to (unsolicitedly) chime in to say that I'm still as amazed, enthralled and totally drawn-in-and-involved (with only minimal opportunities afforded to come up for a gulp of air) with the sound of my rig which includes the KICAS Caliente as I ever was.  In the colder/cooler months of the year, paired with HD650 and in the hotter/warmer months paired with ALO-modded SR225.  I think that the seasonal phone preference has to do with the state of the wax in my ears, and how that affects the overall effective sound my ears hear - being softer/harder in the warmer/cooler months, respectively.

 

Anyway, I still count the KICAS Caliente to possess a worthy place in my selective collection of fine listening instruments, and to offer one of the highest values in my entire collection.

Edited by sbulack - 6/11/10 at 11:42am

hmm interesting bump, and good review,  where would concerto fall in here?   or ehha, v200, m^3, gs1,gx, liguid gold/fire, dynas also. what competes and or is =>?

what else should be on my radar

?

Edited by RockinCannoisseur - 9/22/10 at 1:13pm

 

~Edit Error~

Edited by AlexRoma - 10/9/10 at 3:56pm

Skylab, Thanks for a nice review. At the moment I am an owner of a BeyerDynamic DT 990 Edition 250ohm connected to an Audinst HUD MX-1 budget Dac/Amp (200$). I think this combo does not reveal the potential of this headphones, even If I had'nt listen them from another source, I find the sound mudy, non-transparent, unbalanced, too bright .. Now I am looking for a good amp (budget 400~500$ no more)  supposed to cure most of that problems. I also save money for a future headphone ultra-upgrade, Beyer T1 Tesla, and I am not gona buy another amp for them (i'm not that rich). I like equally electronic, metal & classical music. 

 

 

Help me please with the question : Is K.I.C.A.S. Amp the best option for me or is it not ? If not, would you mind helping me with the better choice ? I long for a good desktop amp, but not very expensive, no further tweaking or upgrades, worm trebles, deep bas, not too analytical, better musical... I live in Moldova (eastern Europe ), so I do not have the possibility to pre-listen this stuff or sell it and buy something else. In Moldova there are not many audiophiles

Edited by AlexRoma - 10/9/10 at 1:05pm

alex - i own the caliente version of the K.I.C.A.S.

and own / have owned the dt880/600, dt990/600, and Tesla T1.

 

i personally would recommend you check out tube amps.  particularly a class A single-ended OTL.  like the Little Dot MKIII.  Or the Woo Audio WA3.

those will provide more power for the high impedance headphones you posess and are looking to buy in the future...

 

the caliente is okay with the beyers.  but, not as good as it could be...