I bought a blue K.I.C.A.S. regular during this winter's "Beat the Blues" sale. I'm using it with my new V-DAC (mostly sourced from a DVD player) and vintage Sennheiser HD 560 headphones, the old flagship when they optimized their headphones for classical music (much prized on Germany Ebay; I got mine on American Ebay).
My ears are recovering from a diet of sweetened bass-boosted consumer audio. For the first time, I have wild fresh berries. Some are riper than others. A very few recordings I used to enjoy are actually unpleasant (where the treble was simply too bright). Nathan Milstein's performance of Bach's Violin Partitas, as recorded by DG twenty-five years ago, sounds a bit thin and sharp; Isabelle Faust's performance of the same works, recorded recently, sounds lovely. Fischer-Dieskau and Moore's Schubert Lieder and Maria Pires's Chopin, for example, are warm and beautiful. Since I do not have a wide range of headphones with which to test it, it is hard to say how it would perform beyond the HD 560. But I am listening to the pair right now with a Beethoven cello sonata, and there is plently of bass here. Other recordings are a complete revelation. I hear for the first time the humor in abrupt passages. The detail and dynamics are astonishing. So is the soundstage, certainly compared with the consumer Onkyo amp I have in the other room. In complex passages, I marvel at the texture of music.
Based on the reviews and descriptions, I thought the K.I.C.A.S. would be even better than the Caliente for classical music, at least with my headphones, and Oriel seconded that view. Though I haven't heard the Caliente and am sure it's a great amp too, I think the bet is proving to be correct. The level of detail is exhilarating to me. The K.I.C.A.S. is remarkable, the more so at its price level. I hope that Purity Audio will keep it in production for a long time to come. I I I
My ears are recovering from a diet of sweetened bass-boosted consumer audio. For the first time, I have wild fresh berries. Some are riper than others. A very few recordings I used to enjoy are actually unpleasant (where the treble was simply too bright). Nathan Milstein's performance of Bach's Violin Partitas, as recorded by DG twenty-five years ago, sounds a bit thin and sharp; Isabelle Faust's performance of the same works, recorded recently, sounds lovely. Fischer-Dieskau and Moore's Schubert Lieder and Maria Pires's Chopin, for example, are warm and beautiful. Since I do not have a wide range of headphones with which to test it, it is hard to say how it would perform beyond the HD 560. But I am listening to the pair right now with a Beethoven cello sonata, and there is plently of bass here. Other recordings are a complete revelation. I hear for the first time the humor in abrupt passages. The detail and dynamics are astonishing. So is the soundstage, certainly compared with the consumer Onkyo amp I have in the other room. In complex passages, I marvel at the texture of music.
Based on the reviews and descriptions, I thought the K.I.C.A.S. would be even better than the Caliente for classical music, at least with my headphones, and Oriel seconded that view. Though I haven't heard the Caliente and am sure it's a great amp too, I think the bet is proving to be correct. The level of detail is exhilarating to me. The K.I.C.A.S. is remarkable, the more so at its price level. I hope that Purity Audio will keep it in production for a long time to come. I I I
