Yesterday I found the time to spend some hours with the
ROBERT KODA Takumi MC One Phonostage
The MC One is a pure MC Phonostage (so no! MM input) with a similar high max gain than the Monica (72 db and 73 db) ,
but the MC One realizes this high gain in just one amplification stage, using a high 160v technology.
The output stage as such is the same, than in the well known Takumi K15 EX Preamplifier.
The technical Specifications are :
MC-ONE Specification
| Inputs | One set on RCA and one set XLR, both single ended. |
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| Outputs | One set RCA plus one set XLR. Balanced or SE selectable. |
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| Output impedance | 60 ohms SE or 2X30 ohms balanced. |
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| Equalisation | RIAA by propriety techniques. |
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| Gain | Selectable with out opening the unit. 56, 64, 72dB. |
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| Maximum Output | 20V RMS any audio or ultrasonic frequency, any gain setting. |
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| Noise | -78dB (A) weight at 72dB gain. |
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| Loading | 20 ohm, 39ohm, 56ohm, 120ohm, 390ohm, 1kohm. Custom values possible with out modification. |
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| Other controls | Mute, Mono / Stereo, power. |
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| Dimensions | 389mm Wide, 385mm Deep, 158mm High excluding feet. |
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You will find a good description about the technology used here:
www.monoandstereo.com
The most of my carts do play well with the standard 100ohm Loading and around 70db gain,
I startet the listening with the 72db gain and the 120db Loading.
Input and output were the XLR sockets, balanced mode was chosen.
You can describe the first impression as : Energy and Resolution!
I never heard percussion or piano with such a speed and precision in my room.
It is like, that someone is kicking my Soulution Pre and the Acoustic Arts amps to a new level of power.
Listening to the Melanie de Biasio "no deal" record, you will find the song "with all my love".
The voice is very special, but the very deep baseline from the middle of the song is mostly just reproduced as a one note deep line.
The MC One makes a total new song out of this , so much more energy and information in this notes.
This is really impressive.
But the voice of Melanie lacks a little air around could be less compressed, more vibrant.
So I started to play around with the loading.
The Cartridges used were classic 4ohm coil resistance one from different manufacturers .
I ended up ( for all the 4ohm carts) with the 39ohm position of the loading switch, which is the typical coil resistance x10 ratio.
But I. never heard on any Phonostage the difference in loading so huge and critical.
Using to the correct load, the MC One plays much more "tube like" in regard of airy, open, emotional voices .
Now I can understand the hint in the manual better, that you should use parallel resistors (with 1kohm as the base) to find the best loading for the cartridge. As you can only use one pair of inputs with the MC One, the second pair (XLR or RCA) can be used for the parallel resistors, if needed.
The MC One has 2 Ground connectors. One for the Chassis as such, one for the circuit board.
According to the manual, you can use them isolated to each other or connected to each other.
This may influence the noise floor / darkness of the MC One.
In may case, I prefer having the 2 points connected.
On the Chassis ground I have a GutWire Grounding cable connected to the main wall ground.
As a cartridge collector I was listening to the Accuphase AC-1 (4ohm, 1,8mv output) for many records and was deeply impressed about the performance of this old cartridge. I never felt, that this is a " very special" cart, like for instance a Transfiguration Orpheus L, but the MC One gets the best out of this cart, so I stopped changing carts and just started to listen to more and more records. It is always the shaped 3dimensional staging, the pure lifelike energy and the resolution which is so unique to this phono stage. Specially in the deep bass regions it seems, that the head room has no limits, which transfers my complete set up to a new level.
The German Distributor is using / recommending Arya Audio Revopods under his Koda K15EX PreAmp,
so I will try them too in the next weeks.
(Currently Yamamoto Ebony and Cherry Wood products are used)
During the evening a friend of mine was visiting me. We are both into High End and share listening sessions since many years.
He was deeply impressed by the MC One Performance. He said, that you can compare the Monica phono with some other Phono Stages I had, same league, just a little different voicing, but the MC One is a class (or 2?) above all the other Phono stages he has heard in my set up so far..
I cannot agree more.
Listening to the Engström Monica is big fun and I heard many records with the Monica to understand the character better.
But still this is over all similar to tube stages like Phasemation EA-2000, Allnic 8000 or Air Tight 3011, Kondo M7, just a different flavor in the sound according to the preference of the Designer. Difficult to choose a general "winner", as personal tastes are different.
The Koda MC One is in all criteria just better. Full stop. This is the first solid state Phono Stage in my set up, which fully satisfy me.
The MC One is a different price point, in Germany more than twice of the retail than the other mentioned Phono stages.
If we see the market as divided by segments, the MC One is in a different Market segment.
May be the competitors in the MC One segment are even better,
I do not know, as it is difficult to get the potential competitors in one room for a comparison ( at least in Germany)
From there I will just enjoy MC One
My Monica Phonostage is now connected in a tube only set up, I like the Monica voicing together with 300b tube amps a lot,
a full tube set up is always something special, difficult to describe, but easy to fall in love with
rdacoustic.cz
