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Kondo Product Reviews / Features

Positive Feedback

by Steve Rochlin

Ongaku Integrated Amplifier

My Torrid Love Affair With The Ongaku !

"So what more can i say? With the Ongaku you get a preamplifier with one direct input, three standard inputs, and a tape loop as well. No XLR balanced inputs, no fancy lights (other then the tubes themselves). You get pounds and pounds of silver and one heck of a workout when you move it. Though when you play music through it in the right system, your rewards are many.

Give me Ongaku or give me death!"

Read the full review at Positive Feedback ...

by Bill Gaw

Kondo IO-j MC Phono Cartridge and Kondo KSL-AN Tonearm Wire

Audiolics Anonymous Chapter 20 : Maybe Its Not Only The System?

Kondo Tonearm Wire :

"This consists of two 1 meter lengths of Kondo KSL Silver interconnect which ends as a 1 foot length of fine silver Litz wire which can be run through or around your tonearm, replacing the built in wire. The cartridge end has standard pins, with RCA outputs."

"Difference in price- $300 for the Van den Hul vs. the $3000 for the Audio-Note. Improvement in sound? Immeasurable."

Kondo IO-j Cartridge :

"Which cartridge came closest to the live sound? I'd have to say the Audionote. Why do I have to say? Because I've decided to purchase it. At almost 300 times the price of a ticket to the BSO, (that's five years worth of concerts) is it worth it? Well, if the Boston traffic were not so bad, and I lived in town, maybe not. But living out in the boonies, with the many great recordings I have on hand, it is to me."

Read the full review at Enjoy the Music.com ...

*Alert: The words Audio Note in the review refers to Kondo Audio Note Japan, NOT Audio Note UK

Home Page for the World's Business Leaders

Feature : Kondo Ongaku Amplifier

World's Most Expensive Stereo Components

"This legendary 27-watt power amplifier uses a single-ended triode circuit and is hand crafted in a Tokyo workshop by Hiroyasu Kondo, a world-renowned engineer who uses 20 pounds of silver throughout the amp, including silver wire in the windings of the hand-made transformers. The Ongaku has been in production since the 1980s and produces a pure, transparent sound that no other amplifier can match. "You are buying a work of art," says Steven Klein, whose Nashua, N.H.-based company, Sounds of Silence, is the sole U.S. distributor for Audio Note Japan. For the ultimate sound, Klein recommends customers add Kondo-san's handmade M-1000 preamplifier, which costs $85,000 and includes a phono stage. Also, because Audio Note Japan amplifiers put out relatively few watts of power, they require high-efficiency speakers."

by Jason Kennedy

Kondo KSL-M77 Preamplifier and Kondo KSL-Kegon Amplifier

Buyer's Guide To Valve Amplifiers : 07-Oct-2004

"Dream on...
Kondo KSL-M77 / KSL-Kegon
�60,000
Kondo or Audio Note Japan makes what many consider the world's finest valve amplifiers, using hand-wound silver output transformers and a lifetime of experience. The KSL-M77 preamp is available with a phono stage and offers three line inputs, while the KSL-Kegon is a parallel SE power amp using 300B output tubes. As a combination they transcend normal hi-fi description and take you to a place where music is paramount. It's quite simply the best there is."

Read the full article about other valve amps at AV Review UK ...

Kondo KSL-Kegon Amplifier

"Fi magazine had this to say about the older KEGON (stereo-amplifier) :

"Against a backdrop of deeper quiet and more fully articulated pianissimos, musical lines and instrumental contributions stand forth with exceptional clarity. The players in large string choirs are reproduced with a wealth of inner detail. With the KEGON, you simply hear more strings in each choir - more of the transient bowing sounds and small variations in intonation that are cues to the numbers of players at play.

On large-scale orchestral recordings, where numbers count, the KEGON's abundance of detail adds to the colour and excitement of these colourful and exciting pieces.

I got a glimpse of heaven. A product that breaks through to a new level of playback realism".

by Dick Olsher

Kondo AN-SPx Cables

January 1996

"Sonically, the AN-SPx sets new standards Its voicing is utterly natural. Harmonic textures ebb and flow with lyrical majesty, as if fashioned by Mother Nature herself. AN-SPx conjures mental images of pure silk and velvet ...image outlines are portrayed incisively with exceptional focus and plenty of reach-out-and-touch palpability."

Various Magazines

Kondo Ongaku Integrated Amplifier

This ONGAKU has been reviewed by Dick Olsher, Alvin Gold, Jonathan Kettle, Mike Kuller, Lynn Olsen and many others - the only non-perfect aspect of the ONGAKU that any of them could find was that they couldn't afford it ! Listen...

"Vocal definition was frighteningly realistic. It had me spellbound in disbelief being confronted with the master tape. Everything in the performance was exposed" - Jonathan Kettle

Kondo at HiFi Shows / Sightings

by Linnman	Kondo System and Living Voice Loudspeakers
	The Hongkong Hi End Audio Visual Show 2006 "Despite the small physical size of the speakers, the sound here was full-bodied and endowed with real energy ... In fact, this was the only room I visited twice. Need I say more?" Read all about the writer's impressions

Edward Barker

Kondo System and Living Voice Loudspeakers

Factory Tour : Living Voice and Definitive Audio : April 2006

Living Voice loudspeaker owners and others interested, check out the Living Voice factory tour by sixmoons.com reviewer Edward Barker. Several insights, and check out their massive collection of vinyl :) SME V owners can read the sidebar on how to improve their tonearms.

Start the factory tour of Living Voice and Definitive Audio

Edward Barker

Kondo System and Living Voice Loudspeakers

UK Bristol Hifi Show : 2006

In last year's UK Bristol 2005 hifi show, the Living Voice room was a favorite of TNT-Audio UK's reviewer Maarten van Casteren. In this year's UK Bristol 2006 hifi show, he found that the Living Voice with Kondo room was once again exceptional, as always.

"Vinyl replay on this system was absolutely breathtaking and left digital far behind ... In the end it's just so involving and musical that you forget about the system and are just swept away by the music."

Hongkong Tube Audio Show 2005

Kondo System, dps turntable, and Wilson Audio Watt Puppy 7 ! : 2005

Kondo and dps Turntable, Schroder Tonearm at Hotel Opening

Jia Boutique Hotel Opening, Hongkong : 6-Mar-2004

Superbrands Kondo Audio Note Japan, DPS and Schroeder tonearms with Wilson Sophia speakers were the source of Jazz and Classical music provided at the opening party at Jia Boutique Hotel.

Read more ...

Hongkong HiFi Show 2002

Hongkong HiFi Show 2002

Full Kondo System : 2002

"The show was a great success! We had a huge number of people listened to the music, and we played everything from classical to rock n' roll, particularly popular was Joe Cocker Sheffield Steel !"

TNT-Audio

Hiroshi Iwata

Kondo System

Factory Tour : Kondo Audio Note Japan : 2001

"How did it sound, actually? Simply amazing. The first analog disc Kondo-San played was his reference: Toscanini/NBC SO playing Tchaikovsky's symphony number six. It's a transcription of an old shellac recording which usually sounds very poor: very narrow frequency range as bad as AM radio broadcasting. Contrary to my expectations, I could hear the reverberations of Carnegie hall, the realistic surge of the horn section's tutti, and even the contrabasses were palpable. For your information, here's the Kondo system lineup: moving coil cartridge/IO-J; step-up transformer/SFZ; turntable/Thorens TD320-3; tonearm/SME3012; power amplifier/X-60 (300B parallel push-pull); speakers/Rughy 4; speaker cable/KSL-SPZ."

Start the factory tour of Kondo Audio Note Japan

TNT-Audio

Hiroshi Iwata

Interview

An Interview With Kondo San, founder of Audio Note Japan : 2001

TNT-Audio >
"There is one other major question in audio reproduction: is it more important to achieve the absolute fidelity to the recorded sound or to obtain the emotional involvement of the listener?"

Kondo San >
"To me, both are equally important. Sometimes man's hearing senses and sensitivities can grow when properly stimulated. The manufacturers of hi-fi equipment are supposed to offer such stimulation to the customers."

TNT-Audio

Thorsten Loesch

The London Hi-Fi Show 1999

Part 1 : Valves, Vinyl 'n Oddities

"Right here at the beginning I must mention the single room in which I spend the most time of any single one, just listening to music and enjoying it. It also gets my solemn award for best sound of the show. This room immediately caught my attention from the outside by the music spilling through the open door. It was the room in which Hiroyasu Kondo (a.k.a. Audio Note Japan) was exhibiting his latest creations."

"The Music from the analogue system kept me riveted to a chair for hours, while the digital front-end almost succeeded in convincing me that there is some merit to the CD Digital Audio format after all. Definitely "Best Sound of the Show" if there ever was any !"

"So here we are. Best sound of the show awarded, the report over?"

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Living Voice

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Jan Allaerts

Isenberg Audio

Da Vinci Audio Labs

Kondo Audio Note Japan

Horning Hybrid

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Kondo Product Line

Kondo KSL-M7	Kondo KSL-M77	Kondo M-1000 MKII	Kondo KSL-Neiro
Kondo KSL-Neiro-L	Kondo KSL-Kegon	Kondo Gakuoh	Kondo IO-M MC Cartridge
Kondo KSL-SFz	Kondo KSL Cables	Kondo KSL-DAC	Kondo Reviews

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