Stereophile
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- Apr 19, 2013
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- #1
<p><img class="story_image" src="http://www.stereophile.com/images/888nazmp_0.jpg" /></p> Things didn't start off auspiciously. I'd been after Symphonic Line's Klaus Bunge for more than a year to send me the Kraft 400 Reference monoblocks. Finally he called. He said he was going to be in town for a few days, and he had with him a pair of what he described as his "traveling" Kraft 400s, which he proposed to leave with me (footnote 1).
<p>
Klaus showed up with the enormous amps encased in high-mileage cardboard domestic travel boxes so crisscrossed with packing tape they looked mummified. I eagerly poked around Klaus's Trooper for the cart I just <i>knew</i> he had to have with him. He didn't. When I queried the large, broad-shouldered one regarding this oversight, he admitted he hadn't brought one.
</p><p>
Two hunnerd'n'sixty pounds <i>each</i>! We managed to hump the amps into the elevator and up to our loft, but only just. It took me three days to straighten up fully again (please walk this way), and my arms seem to be a few inches longer. I'm positively simian now.
</p><p>
<b>Death & the maiden</b><br />My advice to visiting manufacturers bearing heavy audio objects: <i>bring a cart</i>, or next time <i>I keel!</i> Kathleen and I listened to the German Giants for a few days, switched amps for a bit, then returned to the enormous, bad-Euroboy, sexy, cobalt-blue 400s. One channel was silent. I called Klaus, probed some under the hood with a voltmeter, and together we confirmed one of the amps was down for the count. Supine on the mat, so to speak. Kaput!
</p><p>
Of course. Give a reviewer your best piece, and it'll be sure to colorfully self-immolate. But "best piece"? I'm not so sure. This pair was a little scruffy and also sported what Klaus described as his "traveling top covers." The plates didn't fit very well and were a chore to screw down. In fact, a few of the retaining screws wouldn't seat at all, so the top plate resonated when thwapped. Not good.
</p><p>
I can appreciate that, at this price level, an importer can't spray amps around reviewers willy-nilly; but I knew I'd have to find some solution, which presented itself in the form of two Bright Star Little Rock 2s (in dark granite). Their hefty weight neatly damped and welded the top plates to the chassis, and their inherent EMF-rejecting capabilities may have sweetened the amps' overall presentation a touch. (They were placed a little forward on the top plates so as to rest over the transformer.) They definitely helped the sound.
</p><p>
I was also slightly Wienerschnitzled to learn I'd have to wait two weeks for a Symphonic Line
[Source: http://www.stereophile.com/content/symphonic-line-kraft-400-monoblock-power-amplifier]
<p>
Klaus showed up with the enormous amps encased in high-mileage cardboard domestic travel boxes so crisscrossed with packing tape they looked mummified. I eagerly poked around Klaus's Trooper for the cart I just <i>knew</i> he had to have with him. He didn't. When I queried the large, broad-shouldered one regarding this oversight, he admitted he hadn't brought one.
</p><p>
Two hunnerd'n'sixty pounds <i>each</i>! We managed to hump the amps into the elevator and up to our loft, but only just. It took me three days to straighten up fully again (please walk this way), and my arms seem to be a few inches longer. I'm positively simian now.
</p><p>
<b>Death & the maiden</b><br />My advice to visiting manufacturers bearing heavy audio objects: <i>bring a cart</i>, or next time <i>I keel!</i> Kathleen and I listened to the German Giants for a few days, switched amps for a bit, then returned to the enormous, bad-Euroboy, sexy, cobalt-blue 400s. One channel was silent. I called Klaus, probed some under the hood with a voltmeter, and together we confirmed one of the amps was down for the count. Supine on the mat, so to speak. Kaput!
</p><p>
Of course. Give a reviewer your best piece, and it'll be sure to colorfully self-immolate. But "best piece"? I'm not so sure. This pair was a little scruffy and also sported what Klaus described as his "traveling top covers." The plates didn't fit very well and were a chore to screw down. In fact, a few of the retaining screws wouldn't seat at all, so the top plate resonated when thwapped. Not good.
</p><p>
I can appreciate that, at this price level, an importer can't spray amps around reviewers willy-nilly; but I knew I'd have to find some solution, which presented itself in the form of two Bright Star Little Rock 2s (in dark granite). Their hefty weight neatly damped and welded the top plates to the chassis, and their inherent EMF-rejecting capabilities may have sweetened the amps' overall presentation a touch. (They were placed a little forward on the top plates so as to rest over the transformer.) They definitely helped the sound.
</p><p>
I was also slightly Wienerschnitzled to learn I'd have to wait two weeks for a Symphonic Line
[Source: http://www.stereophile.com/content/symphonic-line-kraft-400-monoblock-power-amplifier]