Alright. Where do I start on my thoughts for the Kinki Studios EX-M1?
Last night my wife and I spent a couple hours throwing on record after record. We started with Getz/Gilberto, went onto Bill Evans Sunday At The Village Vanguard, and ended our night peacefully dozing off to Miles’ In A Silent Way.
My impressions are: I’m very very pleased hahah. I feel like the NAD was acting as a bit of a dam on the other components, I could tell that the UD, Hana, Sutherland and Lintons had so much more to give but were being restrained by the weakest link in the system. Last night was an experience of what felt like sonic equilibrium. The Kinki is so good it made me fall more deeply in love with my Lintons, my Hana, my Insight and MoFi. Feels like I finally got to see what this little family of components was capable of.
We were just giddy and having so much fun hearing so many things that we didn’t before. I could actually hear persistent background conversations in Sunday At The Village Vanguard, before I had only noticed the clinking of the glasses and silverware which I already thought was impressive. In A Silent Way on my last system felt very crowded and presented like a wall. Last night it had incredible depth and width, I could enjoy the music and its layers, they stretched out over a vast plane, which helped me analyze it and piece it all together conceptually in a way I never understood it before. Stan Getz on Getz/Gilberto felt 10 feet tall, like he was wailing on his saxophone above our heads. I felt like I could actually hear the drummer trying to keep time as opposed to registering it before as surgically robotic drum noises? The cymbal decay was a thing to behold man, so beautiful, it would just cascade down over you like fairy dust
Everything sounds gorgeous.
I sound crazy but I’m so stoked. I finally feel like I reproduced that show room quality sound but in my awkwardly shaped living room. Anyways, starting the morning with:
• Sonny Rollins on Impulse
Then continuing my A-Z collection walkthrough with
• Stan Getz - Jazz Samba
• Stan Getz - Jazz Samba Encore!
And then on to a handful of Stanley Turrentine records.
Thank you to
@mindhead1 for putting me down the Kinki Studios rabbit hole.
