Roksan Kandy BT , Rotel RA 1570 or other?

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MaxD

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Vladimir said:
MaxD said:
Hehehe I know this is not exactly technical then Roksan Kandy BT look sooooo ugly. If I do have to spend something like € 1000 for an integrated amp it also need some eyes candy. :rockout:

Says the man with NAD D 3020. :rofl:

Hey, that D 3020 is a desktop amp and it is cute for it! It perfectly sit side by side with a desktop computer (like in my case) adding hi-fi to it. BTW, someone here in Italy offered me, for my future living room rack, a Roksan Kandy (not BT) in used state under € 400. Is it something I should considering?
 

MaxD

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Vladimir said:
For that price 300€-350€ I would definitely consider it. It has great synergy with MA speakers.

Thank you. Then I'm still not sure about which speaker choose. I'm wondering about getting some B&W 684. Do you think they could work ok together?
 

Vladimir

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Do you mean if I auditioned amps in the same shop one after the other?

I auditioned and owned amplifiers 19 years before the Kandy K2BT and 1 year since I bought it. In the time period when I was shopping for an amp I listened to new Marantz, Yamaha and CA amps. I bought the K2BT as preorder, a blind buy since I didn't think there would be a difference from the K2 version, plus the BT chip. If the Roksan wasn't an option, I was about to buy the Marantz PM-8005. My main target Harman/Kardon HK990 was out of stock and not available for order at the time. If I knew about the Abrahamsen amplifier clearance I would have ordered one.

I currently own 3 amps.
 

radiorog

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Cool,cheers. I'm thinking of possibly going for an upgrade in the future,and your talk of the roksan BT has got me interested. Especially as richer sounds are currently selling them for £695.

Do you think this would be a decent upgrade from my brio r? I love my brio r but I would possibly like something with more soundstage and a bit less bright maybe. And more power to show off bass and drums a bit more accurately. But I do not want to miss out on the clarity of the rega which has bucket loads. I will be posting a new thread on this soon.
 

BigH

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radiorog said:
Cool,cheers. I'm thinking of possibly going for an upgrade in the future,and your talk of the roksan BT has got me interested. Especially as richer sounds are currently selling them for £695.

Do you think this would be a decent upgrade from my brio r? I love my brio r but I would possibly like something with more soundstage and a bit less bright maybe. And more power to show off bass and drums a bit more accurately. But I do not want to miss out on the clarity of the rega which has bucket loads. I will be posting a new thread on this soon.

Well I think the Roksan will give you more power, less bright but Im not sure about clarity, I did fingd the K2 to be lacking in that department. Depends what speakers you are using as well.
 

radiorog

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I would def be keeping my dynaudios...can't afford to replace both. Unless swapping speakers on their own would be the best idea, but I only imagine !y best returns on an upgrade would be a more powerful amp. Alternatively I wait until I can afford the elex r.....but I definitely think I need to hear the BT...good reviews from hi fi choice. I wasn't impressed when I heard the Kandy 2 in richer....but maybe it was the middle of the range speakers it was playing on?
 

Vladimir

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For that price at least try it. I think your Dyns will really apreciate the extra juice. The same circuitry inside the BT is being sold now as K3 with a hefty price increase.
 

Vladimir

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BigH said:
Well I think the Roksan will give you more power, less bright but Im not sure about clarity, I did fingd the K2 to be lacking in that department. Depends what speakers you are using as well.

All more powerfull and good quality amplifiers I've auditioned/owned sounded a bit dark and bassy. I consider that a positive. Accuphase, Electrocompaniet, Pass, Harman, Marantz etc. To me it's an indication I'm enjoying fullrange sound without any heavy voicing tricks to the design. Closer to a wire with a volume knob in my book.

Clipping and distortion is the oposite of dark and bassy. I'm sure you've heard amps clipping.
 

Vladimir

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radiorog said:
I would def be keeping my dynaudios...can't afford to replace both. Unless swapping speakers on their own would be the best idea, but I only imagine !y best returns on an upgrade would be a more powerful amp. Alternatively I wait until I can afford the elex r.....but I definitely think I need to hear the BT...good reviews from hi fi choice. I wasn't impressed when I heard the Kandy 2 in richer....but maybe it was the middle of the range speakers it was playing on?

I doubt you would be impressed again with the K2BT. They just don't do bright and exciting. The Caspian is the one voiced for that market segment to compete with Naim.
 

radiorog

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Mm...I don't necessarily want bright, I just don't want much to be missing from the music.like the clarity, and the intricacies of each note,eg: the leading and ending edges of each note. I did like the tone of the Kandy in the shop, it really was to my liking. To me it sounded natural....but I wasn't blown away with the clarity, but maybe that was the £400 floorstandera?

....any ideas why I am having to use word verification all the time today?
 

Vladimir

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If you are concerned with clarity and harmonics in solid state amplifiers, I cannot really recommend any amplifier. I dislike clarity, transparency, resolution, 3D imaging, PRaT etc. My needs are simpler, I just like clean amplifier power and more of it. Speakers are where I look for those sonic qualities because they are electromechanical transducers.
 

Vladimir

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I'm currently runing a pair of 4 ohm floorstanders (closed box) with the Roksan. It is completely unphased by the load. They sound brighter and more transparent than my B&Ws. The amp simply has no influence on the sound which is being dominated by the speakers and the room.
 

Thompsonuxb

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Hmmmm.....

Not sure that is so. How an amp controls the transducers dictates the quality of the sound - harmonics, clarity etc. Knowing the various parts of the transducer is what delivers the frequency in a part of the music i.e the outter edge delivering the lowest frequency and the ability to stop/start the transducer - so to say only the speaker is relevant is incorrect.

Vladimir said:
I'm currently runing a pair of 4 ohm floorstanders (closed box) with the Roksan. It is completely unphased by the load. They sound brighter and more transparent than my B&Ws. The amp simply has no influence on the sound which is being dominated by the speakers and the room.
 

BigH

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Well I heard a load of amps in the £500-£1,000, the only one that I considered buying was the Creek 50A. Only problem with Creek hardly any dealers so demos with speakers you want to hear very difficult to find. You can call K2 dark, I thought it rather dull but maybe with the right speakers its OK. I don't think Dyns are the easiest speakers to drive so maybe the RK would work. Problem is Richers not the best store to hear it. But you can buy and try, if not work you can return it for a fee or exchange it.
 
BigH said:
Well I heard a load of amps in the £500-£1,000, the only one that I considered buying was the Creek 50A. Only problem with Creek hardly any dealers so demos with speakers you want to hear very difficult to find. You can call K2 dark, I thought it rather dull but maybe with the right speakers its OK. I don't think Dyns are the easiest speakers to drive so maybe the RK would work. Problem is Richers not the best store to hear it. But you can buy and try, if not work you can return it for a fee or exchange it.

When I compared the original K2 with Creek Evo2 the Creek edged it for me. By contrast, the Pulse brought all music to life. The K2 wasn't bad by any stretch, but it is a particular taste.
 

Vladimir

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I did blind tests with amps and realized I should relax and not bother with the poetry writen by hi-fi reviews. My focus is on the most important function of the amp, to drive a speaker load with ease.
 

Garethjones

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Hi guys, I posted this same message on a similar thread but here goes-
Hi guys. This is my first post and I would really like to thank everyone on here for the excellent comments and advice on what turned out to be my first 'proper' hi fi purchase. I am a novice in terms audio equipment but am a professional musician so I was looking to buy some descent equipment to play my music collection. I firstly bought my cm8 s1s recently for £900 and after much research and reading of forums went for the rotel rc1570 amp and rc1570 CD player. I have to say I'm totally impressed and addicted to playing music back at any given opportunity. I listen to a range of music, mainly classical through to dire straits to jazz and have found the system fantastic at performing all tracks. The clarity and timbre of sounds is very accurate to my ears I and it's especially noticeable in classical music where many different instruments are playing, and these can be identified in very thick musical textures. The guy in the hifi shop was especially impressed with the detail picked up by the CD player and the ability of the amp speakers to immerse and surround the listener (me and him) with the sound, as if being there at the live performance. For the thrill, I've had various James Bond Daniel Arnold scores on including casino royal with the volume up turned and performance for me is stunning- the sound is big yet very detailed and concise. Some posters have mentioned the lower/bass end and at first I found a slight lack in clarity. However, since placing pillows behind the speakers, duvet covers on the side walls and curtains at the back of the listening position with more pillows at the bass of the curtains, the sound has improved so much to the extent where I'm experiencing much more detailed tenor and bass range. I'm hearing timbre of the cellos and hearing the growl of the double basses in some track although playing right at the bottom end. I'm not a 'pounding' deep level bass fan so perhaps this system isn't for those but I'm so impressed with it. It's the best thing I've ever bought and including my instruments bar my clarinet which is probably level. All in all, from the point of view of a non-expert in audio, but from a dedicated and informed listener I would say that you can't go wrong with this system. For me it provides accuracy, clarity and a thrill on every track I've played from shostakovich to simply red. On a side note, if you want to give your system a true test for accuracy and power, try playing shostakovich symphony no7, (learnard berstein Chicago symphony orchestra recording) last movement 2 minutes from the end. It is the largest most fiery ending to any piece/song I've ever heard. I would also like to thank once again all you guys for the fantastic opinions and advice you've expressed on this and other forums and I hope this post may be of some help to someone in my position 1 month ago. All the best for 2015
 

Freddy58

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Hiya Gareth.

I also have the same Rotel pairing, very good too imo
thumbs_up.gif
 

SteveR750

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I loved my K2 easily better than the equivalent priced arcam of the day (it was 2009 when I auditioned it) and better than the nait 5i when paired with a Cyprus cd6se. Boring it certainly wasn't into a pair of spendor s5e
 

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