Review: Experience Music Kahn Phono Preamplifier and Line Stage

jazdoc

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Discovery & Decision

Pre-amplifiers are difficult. Unlike other components, they don't seem to do much. And yet, swapping pre-amplifiers produces profound changes in a system's sound. Two years ago, I reached the stage where I was ready to commit to an 'end of life' pre-amplification solution. Over a series of months, I auditioned a number of the usual contenders in my system and listened to many pre-amps at RMAF. Many products were very good, but none completely satisfying. At some point, Thom Mackris of Galibier Design suggested I contact Jeffrey Jackson at Experience Music. So I checked out the website, http://www.jeffreywjackson.com, which had pictures of exotic equipment using tubes I'd never heard of using strange circuits. Then I visited his audio blog www.hifiheroin.com. My interest was piqued.

So, I emailed Jeffrey. I told him that although I didn't think we'd be a good customer-vendor fit but given Thom's enthusiastic recommendation, I was interested in chatting. Funny thing, we'd always start discussing about my hi-fi questions, but inevitably the conversation turned to music and we discovered we shared similar musical interests. Then Jeffrey sent out his demo phono pre-amp and line stages. Within 15 seconds, I realized that my preamp search was over. Right out of the box from Memphis, the musical scale and dynamics were like nothing I'd ever heard. The density and complex texture of the music was intoxicating. There was simply a huge amount of musical data fleshing out the sonic canvas. When I called Jeffrey, he off-handily mentioned that what I was hearing wasn't as good as the completed product. He simply couldn't afford the higher quality parts in the demo gear. This really raised my expectations.

Purchasing

Jeffrey was very helpful working through the details of my order, I settled on mercury rectification but passed on costly Western Electric signal tubes. Since I'm a mono fan, the phono stage was customized with a separate mono input. A toggle switch on the back chooses between the stereo and mono inputs. The stereo phono input has variable loading. Jeffery's close collaborator, Dave Slagle (of Intact Audio) custom winds the transformers and step-ups to your specifications.

Then things got interesting. Jeffrey sent me line drawings of a new chassis he had developed with Jeff Kahn of Ferra Designs (http://www.ferradesigns.com/). This was the product he had been working toward.

Was I willing to be his beta for the new product? You betcha!

The Aesthetics

I love the retro look of the equipment!

View attachment 2616

Each box weighs between 80-100 pounds! The attention to detail is amazing. Ferra is the only shop that Jeffrey knows that had the interest and expertise to bring his vision to life.

A word about tubes. The preamp uses "10,000 hour" tubes in the circuit and comes with a spare set. Unless you want NOS Western Electric driver tubes, you won't be spending a fortune on tubes. Indeed, it's highly unlikely that you will need to purchase another set.

Listening to the Kahn

I could prattle on with the standard hi fi descriptors and hyperbole; but I won't. Simply the best preamplifier I've ever heard...and second place ain't that close. If you are looking for your final preamplifier, I wouldn't commit to purchase before auditioning the Experience Music equipment.

A couple of caveats: First, the best comes at a price; the gear is expensive. But compared to the ultimate cost of buying and then selling a series of less expensive boxes while searching for preamplifier nirvana it's a (relative) bargain. Buy the best you can afford and it only hurts once! Second, these are custom pieces of equipment requiring the input of multiple craftsmen. It's not like buying a piece of gear off the shelf from your local hi-fi shop; it will require a modicum of patience akin to ordering a Martin guitar.

However, if you have the patience you will be rewarded with glorious sound customized to your requirements and taste.
 

flez007

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Aug 31, 2010
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Just visited their website, looks like an interesting aproach to hi-end equipment design, passion is present for sure.

Did you consider their passive unit?
 
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jazdoc

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I did consider the passive unit. But after much back and forth, I came to the conclusion that an active preamp best suited my needs.
 

RogerD

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May 23, 2010
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I therefore design all of my preamps to have a very high input impedance and excessive drive capabilities.

Interesting as I use my Ampex preamps to pre drive my SS preamp and I find the added head room to be just what the doctor ordered,no pun intended.:)

Looks like wonderful equipment,congrats.
 

cjfrbw

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Apr 20, 2010
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Do you mean that the tubes are "100,000" hour tubes? The NOS WE telephony triode tubes operated conservatively run basically forever.

The Allnic L 5000 Directly Heated Triode preamp (of which I own a sample) is similar in philosophy. Indescribably fine sound.
 
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jazdoc

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The Amperex are very nice tubes. Have you tried others, i.e. NOS Telefunken or Seimens?
 

RogerD

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I looked on ebay and some WE 101 bubble tubes have sold recently. The pricing was in the mid 3 figures which isn't too bad. Were you able to audition both versions of the preamp? I would imagine that this preamp is point to point wired much like MikeL's 2A3 amplifiers. I wonder what kind of synergy would be created with both preamp and amp paired together.
 

mep

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Apr 20, 2010
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The Allnic L 5000 Directly Heated Triode preamp (of which I own a sample) is similar in philosophy. Indescribably fine sound.

Since when has there ever been an audiophile who was unable to describe how something sounds?
 

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