"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.
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."
*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."
"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."
"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
"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?"
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.
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."
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.
"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 !"
"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."
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."
"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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