Gramophone Dreams #82: IKIGAI Kangai-level cables, dCS Lina headphone amplifier

Decades in the past, once I was peddling million-dollar sound techniques, an astute potential buyer requested me: "If I purchase your very costly system, what is going to I get that I’m not getting with my much less costly system?" Smiling my finest fatherly smile, I whispered to his ear, "Goosebumps, tears, and laughter."

With a barely anxious look, he requested, "How a lot did you say these silver cables value?"

Thirty years later
Changing audio cables at all times modifications the sound of my system, typically lots however normally just a bit. Typically, the sonic results of cable modifications are modest shifts in focus, tone, or transparency. But typically throughout blue moons I’ve seen a brand new set of cables flip a blah, boring, fuzzy system right into a macrodynamic, microdetailed one. Or flip a cool, mechanical-sounding system into one thing fierce and mammalian.

I might by no means blame an audiophile for pondering that specialty audio cables sound principally the identical and that purchasing costly wires could be silly. That view is justifiable as a result of it displays most audiophiles’ expertise. I felt that approach myself till in the future within the Eighties I went off-piste and skilled my first silver-wire cables from Kimber Kable.

Ray Kimber, who I met someway by means of the Audio Amateur journal crowd, known as to recommend I attempt a loom of his new braided silver wire. His cables turned my well-behaved, even-keeled system right into a macrodynamic, microdetailed fantasia. No wolves or mammoths appeared, however the clouds vanished, and the solar got here out.

Before that silver solar got here out, my system was wired with numerous gauges of generic Mouser "hookup wire," which I had found by utilizing it for point-to-point wiring within the amplifiers I used to be constructing. Mouser’s stranded polyvinyl-coated copper didn’t seem to stifle or grossly pollute sign currents, so I started fashioning all my interconnects and speaker cables from it, in my most popular colours, with Switchcraft connectors.

Changing from Mouser copper to Kimber silver interconnects and speaker cables threw a brighter, purer gentle on each recording. Atmospherics and the specters of performers turned a extra outstanding a part of the listening expertise. Equally noticeable was how silver added one thing akin to a shimmering halo across the stereo apparition. I discovered these enhancements interesting and price the additional value.

A couple of years later, I switched to hair-thin, hand-drawn Italian silver wire from Audio Note Japan (now Kondo). Those wires, which had been made totally in-house, took knowledge retrieval to an excessive degree that compelled me to coin a brand new descriptor"LSD-spiderweb"which referred to the surfeit of element I skilled. Changing from almost-free copper to Kimber and Kondo silver was like switching from aspirin to windowpane acid offered by Owsley Stanley III. I attempted these top-shelf silver cables with middle- and bottom-shelf elements and found that their impact was fairly negligible with the bottom-row stuff however typically dramatically efficient at upping the thrill issue of midlevel elements. As a consequence, I’ve no qualms about utilizing $4000 interconnects with a $2000 built-in amplifier.

I’ve been experimenting with wires because the Seventies, but I’ve by no means skilled a compelling, frisson-inducing system at any value degree that had not been rigorously cable-curated.

IKIGAI Audio Kangai-level cables
Forty years later, throughout the summer time of ’23, a musician/audio supplier good friend named Steve Davis (at present of Analog Matters, an importation and distribution agency positioned in Ormond Beach, Florida) despatched me a loom of Kangai-level wires from Dutch producer IKIGAI and urged me to attempt them "fast, only for enjoyable" earlier than he took them to an audio present. The final time Steve requested me to attempt a product, it was the Falcon LS3/5a, which I reviewed in 2015 and purchased instantly. Because Steve has famously good style and waited eight years to ship me one other product, I made a decision to provide his IKIGAI wires a attempt (footnote 1).

A pair of 0.75m Kangai-level interconnects prices $3610, and a 2m speaker cable pair is $9400. Which implies that "only for enjoyable," I wired my flooring system with roughly $20,000 price of 5N silver/24kt gold conductors. I used to be desirous to see what these skinny, versatile, well-constructed cables would do to the sound of my system, which had been rigorously curated with Cardas and AudioQuest wire.

The Japanese phrase "IKIGAI" interprets loosely to "purpose for being," which means that their designer-manufacturerJeffrey Dam, within the Netherlandsis both exploiting Japanese philosophy and aesthetics for advertising functions (presumably a good suggestion) or abusing hyperbole (as all producers have a proper to do). Either approach, it is apparent that Jeffrey Dam feels assured in what he has created and builds along with his personal arms.

IKIGAI cables are supplied at three ranges. The entry degree is known as Sugure (Japanese for "glorious"), which is all stranded 5N silver fitted with ETI Research connectors. (IKIGAI’s DIN Phono and BNC connectors are made by Furutech.) The midlevel IKIGAI, which I attempted, is known as Kangai, which suggests "emotion." Kangai provides extra strands, some in pure gold, and a extra advanced strand-weave armature. IKIGAI’s highest-level cable is called Kinzan (gold); it provides extra strands, extra kinds of stranding, and TIG-welded connections.

Before I severely interact with any cable product, I have to know that it’s skinny, compliant, and mild on my elements’ rear panels. If it lays neatly and doesn’t appeal to mud bunnies, I fall in love. If it recovers above-average quantities of uncooked vitality from a file or disc, I ponder a long-term relationship.

IKIGAI’s Kangai-level wires handed all these exams, however most notably and uniquely, they put a enjoyable, frolicking dynamic cost on each sound coming from my audio system. They made lesser cables appear drowsy and constrained. The Kangai-level IKIGAIs delivered to my system a fresh-air readability and a "Lights, digicam, motion!" vibe that equaled or exceeded AudioQuest’s Thunderbird, which makes a speciality of these issues.

But the IKIGAI’s approach was gentler. Its mood was extra relaxed than that of the AudioQuest and extra ethereal than a full loom of Cardas Clear Beyond, which, in hanging distinction, retains its naked ft planted in black soil below a yellow solar. In my system, Cardas Clear Beyond makes its finest magic within the mid- and decrease frequencies. IKIGAI’s Kangai-level cables made their finest magic within the mid- and excessive frequencies, the place their distinctive delicacy made opera, choral, and orchestral recordings additional pleasurable.

The most important factor that separated the Kangai-level IKIGAI cables from others I do know, nonetheless, was how a lot charged, scintillating vitality they wrung out of recordings. If your system leans towards cloudy or drowsy (which my techniques hardly ever do), IKIGAI wires would possibly elevate vivo and transparency.

The dCS Lina headphone amplifier
Established in 1987, dCS is a British firm (footnote 2) that at this time tasks a products-for-the-educated-class aura much like those Linn and Naim have projected because the Seventies. Linn and Naim turned well-known for making analog merchandise then later mastered digital. For nigh on 36 years, dCS has been extensively revered for the sonics and engineering high quality of its digital merchandise. While it is a part of a set of merchandise that features digital elementsa DAC and a clockthis dCS Lina headphone amplifier is dCS’s first all-analog amplification product.

The luxuriously matte-black Lina retails for $9750 and is designed to be a part of a trio of matching elements. The others are the Lina 2.0 Network DAC ($13,650) and its related Master Clock ($7750). When used collectively, these elements make up a three-tier, monolithic stack of serious-looking black containers that weigh nearly 50lb and that, bought collectively, value $31,150. dCS appears to have created this iconic-looking black monolith to additional set up their model within the world neighborhood of headphone aficionados. Walking round CanJam NYC 2023, it was simple to identify these distinctive, triple-decker monoliths from throughout the room. In use, it felt like an end-game headphone system. For this column, I listened solely to the headphone amp and to not the DAC/Master Clock mixture.

According to the revealed specs (footnote 3), the Lina amplifier is a stable state, class-AB design able to delivering 2W into 30 ohms or 0.48W into 300 ohms with balanced ‘telephones, or 1.6W into 30 ohms and 0.2W into 300 ohms with unbalanced. dCS does not specify the Lina’s acquire, which could be switched between Low and High from the entrance panel. Low is for delicate, easy-to-drive headphones and IEMs.

High, however, is for difficult-to-drive headphones, together with such planar magnetics because the 47 ohm, 89dB-sensitive Abyss or HiFiMan’s 80 ohm, 83dB-sensitive Susvara. According to the part labeled "Drive" on the dCS web site (footnote 4), "The Lina amplifier’s design is optimized for 60 ohms, as that’s the place the headphones on the tough to drive finish of the spectrum sit."

dCS says that the Lina amplifier will drive "the complete 14VRMS"RMS is for root-mean-square, which you’ll be able to consider as the common voltage output; the height output voltage will likely be increased than this by an element of about 1.4into impedances as little as 45 ohms, to make sure that headphones that require voltage are adequately pushed. "The Lina Headphone Amplifier employs a topology that’s typically known as Super Class A or Class AA. This permits the amplifier to drive a formidable most of 4.5W per channel steady into 45 ohms, whereas sustaining the wonderful linearity sometimes related to a Class A amplifier," John Giolas, VP gross sales and advertising at dCS, instructed me in an e mail.

"Like the remainder of the dCS vary, the Lina Headphone Amplifier makes use of a hybrid energy provide. It encompasses a toroidal mains transformer. This is then adopted by switch-mode energy provide components, which work effectively at supplying the constant DC voltage the circuitry contained in the amplifier requires. The solely flying lead connection contained in the unit is from the transformer to the facility provide circuitryall the things else is contained on the one flex inflexible circuit board."

The Lina headphone amp consists of three analog inputs: one stereo pair of unbalanced RCA, with an enter impedance of 48k ohms; one stereo pair of buffered (high-impedance) balanced XLR; and one stereo pair of "unbuffered" balanced XLR to be used with low-impedance supply elements together with the Lina DAC. The unbuffered enter makes use of shunt suggestions to cut back common-mode distortion.

On the entrance panel are three headphone outputs: two 3-pin XLRone every for proper and left channels, plus one 4-pin XLRand one 0.25" (6.35mm) headphone jack.

Tools for enjoyable: My plan for this Lina report was to maintain my listening system steady and reproducible by others. That meant utilizing Denafrips’s Terminator Plus DAC feeding AudioQuest’s Thunderbird interconnects, alternating with the HoloAudio’s Spring 3 DAC related with Cardas’s Clear Beyonds.

Footnote 1: JD Ikigai, Lorentzstraat 75, Roosendaal, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 (0) 620626025. Email: [email protected]. Web: ikigai-audio.com. US distributor: Analog Matters/Big Ear Consulting LLC, 1453 Rt US 1 North, Unit 32, Ormond Beach, Florida. Tel: (800) 752-4018. Email: [email protected]. Web: analogmatters.com.

Footnote 2: Data Conversion Systems, Ltd., Unit 1, Buckingway Business Park, Anderson Rd., Swavesey, Cambridge CB24 4AE, England, UK. US distributor: Data Conversion Systems Americas, LLC, PNC Bank Bldg., 300 Delaware Ave., Suite 210, Wilmington, DE 19801. Tel: (302) 473-9050. Web: dcsaudio.com

Footnote 3: See lina.dcsaudio.com/merchandise/lina-amplifier and moon-audio.com/dcs-lina-headphone-amplifier.html.

Footnote 4: See dcsaudio.com/edit/lina_amp_drive.

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February 29, 2024 at 04:02PM