I also own the same KingKo amp, like it a lot and fortunately I have not had any problems. That being said, I find your comment towards MC amazingly wrong...
I think any discussion on a product should address both the strengths and weaknesses of that product. Very important is product reliability and service support, in and out of warranty. It has been noted, that you somehow feel that you are in some kind of position to suggest what other SHF members do or do not comment on within the context of forum threads. Quite simply, it is not your position to even suggest what any forum may or may not post.
how many times does it need to be brought up it was my opinion sir.And more a suggestion.Sorry it came off that way.Sorry you dont see any truth to it but arent you being a little hypocritical here regarding freedom to post
I will be interested in learning your thoughts regarding going from a 12 wpc tube amp to a 215 watt per channel solid state amplifier... Perhaps you had solid state gear prior to the Kingko? Looks like the speakers you own are high quality and match well with increased wattage. I was unfamiliar with the Kinki brand, but a short amount of internet searches shows multiple positive reviews. Some people on Audiogon review it and rate it highly against amps they own costing 4-5 times the price.
I've never said any thing bad about the Kingko. Just stated the facts. King has made some suggestions as to what the issue is, which is helpful so I can pass these on to local tech. I'm sure if I was in Hong Kong King would have taken it back and fixed it, but being 8000 miles away it's probably cheaper for me to fix locally than the air freight cost. Seems I'm the only one who has had an issue, I've just been the unlucky 1% this time. Sh!t happens, I'm not stressing over it.
I had numerous technical issues with the Kinki Studio EX-M1, I would advise anyone considering this to check one in the flesh first (Do NOT buy unseen). If anyone wants details they can PM me.
Sorry to hear that you are having bad luck with new gear. Is it just these two pieces or are you running into problems with other pieces? If this is a wider issue - perhaps there is an actual electrical issue in your home? The thing with all lesser priced Chinese gear is they are all using lesser quality internal components. May be time to bite the bullet and get an Audio Note M1 preamp and P2SE power amps (18 watts per channel) - Costs more sounds better and has warranty where you can drive to the actual shop (UK) and is worth something when you go to sell it. The P1PP, P2PP, P1SE, and P2SE are probably the cheapest ways into Audio Note amplification that can also be upgraded with a preamp later, and also being non Chinese made with actual dealers nearby.
just a quick note to say I took a chance on the KA101 Pro based on the feedback gathered here in this thread. I've been curious about tube amplifiers for quite some time, but with a young one in the house, I thought it made more sense to scratch that itch in my small office, away from curious little hands. My use case calls for this amp to drive primarily headphones and sometimes speakers, fed by TIDAL via Schiit Bifrost MB and a Rega P1 with Nagoaka MP-110. Headphones are primarily Focal Clear and Senn HD6xx. Speakers are Chario Reflex Terzas, a stylish little bookshelf ( 86db, 80hms ). I don't need - or expect - the Charios to go particularly loud, and I will likely move them to a different system at some point, but King - who has been wonderful throughout the ordering process - suggested that I'd have no trouble at all driving them in this context. I could imagine a scenario where I replace the Charios with Omegas for Zu Omen Dirty Weekends. Maybe something even higher up the lines if the KA101 Pro lives up to its billing. For context, because of my curiosity about tubes, I'd had my eye on the Line Magnetic 211 and 216 for some time, but was frustrated by the lack of a headphone output, or a pre-amp out where I could send the signal to a dedicated headphone amplifier. I'd also been looking at the Bottlehead Crack for my new HD6xxs, but once I put together the cost of professional assembly ( I'm happy to assemble my own speaker cables, but didn't want to tackle the Crack project ), I wasn't psyched about the fact that I'd still need solutions to drive speakers, incorporate a 2nd source or optimize for other headphones. So, an integrated amplifier with a great, flexible headphone out made the most sense. Something like the Leben CS300x. That's when I found @Richard Austen's first mentions of the Kingko and it seemed to tick all of the boxes for just a little bit more than the Bottlehead Crack I was going to buy. Plenty of tubes to experiment with. Excellent, switchable headphone amplifier. Multiple inputs - including a pre-amp in should I decide to grab a top-shelf preamp down the line. Plus the fact that it was being compared not to the entry level Line Magnetics but to much heavier hitters in the lineup. I read everything I could find about the KA101 online, and even traded emails with one member of another forum who owned the Leben and KA101 simultaneously and preferred the HP out of the KA101 to the legendary Leben. That was enough to seal the deal for me. My KA101 Pro should be here in a few days. I've taken @Hattori's approach to tubes, and ordered a few excellent testing but used tubes from reputable sellers to experiment with. From there, I'll decide where to invest in NOS silliness as I try to find out exactly what this little amp is capable of. Thanks to everyone in this thread - especially Richard - for shining a light on King's amplifier.
A quick update here. My amp arrived much sooner than I would have guessed. Less than 5 days from order to my office, including 2 days of what King warned me were a holiday in Hong Kong. A pleasant surprise. I'll hold off on sound impressions for the moment and to say that my amp was perfectly packed, and arrived in flawless condition. The really surprising thing to me is just how small the amp is in person. I knew it would be roughly comparable to my Bifrost in width, but with all those tubes packed in it's still something to behold. Perfect for a little office like mine.
Yes that is a fast delivery time. It was Easter long holiday here. I hope the am sounds good for you. I have mine serving as a power amp - and with my easy to drive speakers it takes quite a large expense to beat it to the degree that it would make me part with my money. King likes to use the word "acceptable" in that it is "good enough" and this is generally correct. When people make upgrades to any piece - I usually try to tell them not to make side ways middling improvements. You see people buy a $1500 speaker or amp and then 6 months later they sell it and buy another $1500 speaker or amp - and they're generally just making small improvements and usually stepping back in certain areas. Some audiophiles on forums I have seen seemingly go through 8 $1500ish 2 way 6 inch woofer loudspeakers over a 3 year span. I sort of think - with all the buying and selling and taking the financial losses it would have made more sense to just buy a really good $5000 speaker that would utterly trounce ALL of the $1500 speakers - so you spent about the same and you got 3 years of superior sound along the way as well. The KingKo is good enough to stand with any $1500 to $2500 amplifier sound wise. Yes there is better but it's going to cost. And even then - those amps probably won't have the feature set and serve a useful purpose down the road. It's not something that needs to be replaced 8 times over 3 years. It can serve a multitude of uses, it's small enough to be used as a desktop amp, headphone amp etc. If I ever retire and get a fifth wheel/motorhome to travel the country I can connect up the Kingko and a set of Audio Note K speakers to put against the walls and I'm good to go.
This would be interesting to hear a little bit about, I understand you may have had or have some problems with this new amp, but a short bit about the experience would liven it up here. Most of us who have read in this thread are dying to know what the actual damage to the Kingko was, please let us know when you get it looked at. FWIW I just stumbled onto this thread and although my main projects right now are: 1. building a shelf to isolate a turntable, 2. getting a streamer and new transport for a Border Patrol dac and 3. cleaning up the power supply to the stereo wherever possible and however I can afford. My backburner project has been to get a tube amp for a pair of Tekton DIs, they are very efficient yet, (maybe overly) neutral. I at least believe they are truly neutral because when the source has all the goods, so do these speakers, I like that when the bass is properly done in the mastering that the idea of using subs is just silly. The optional use is to power other speakers that point out to a whole other section of our space (the main stereo is centered on a deck facing in at the top for thee usual listening and an amp and speakers run from the pre out to feed over and into the rest of the space below -it's a loft setup. Anyway this Kingko amp sounds great, for the money a no brainer, I have a '66 Fischer 500c that is just taking up space and I suppose I could use it as a power amp or the second system, which I have considered, but I also have considered it's age and the things that can go wrong due to that... So this Kingko amp sounds like maybe just the ticket to use as an amp with the pre out from a ss Belles Aria that I have been using to power the DIs, some people use ss preamps for tube amps. I like the idea of maybe just going for it mainly because it sounds like the bang for the buck factor is high with this amp and who knows maybe some synergy could be there being fed by the Aria. By the way Richard the BP dac has a EZ80 tube power rectifier which I did swap for a NOS Brimar tube and yes it does sound different, I think in most cases it relates to current and how it is shaped or some such as it goes through the circuit. It seems to me that power rectification would also fall in line with how equipment can sound better or different given the quality of delivery via better power cords or conditioners. For now it would just be nice to hear MC Rag's current situation with the Kingko.
This aligns with my thinking, as well. I bought Focal Clear as a way to get off of the $300 headphone merry-go-round, and, for a different system, I bought the Dynaudio Focus 160s as a 10x jump from the speakers they were replacing. Both get used daily, and will continue to scale as I upgrade source and amplification. That said, I also believe the transducers make the most marked improvement, and so the lion's share of funds are best allocated there. That's one reason the Kingko is really compelling. You get all this tube-goodness at a price that means that I can put some serious speakers downstream. And, this little amp gives me reason to explore the world of high efficiency speakers ( Devore, Zu, Audio Note, Omega, etc ) without feeling like the amp is a bottleneck. So far, so good.
Now why'd you have to go and do that - putting idea$ into my head that I just don't need in my head :/
OK, after about a week of living with this little amp, I can safely say it's a keeper. I've tried the KA101 Pro in two different systems ( powering the aforementioned Charios and also my Dynaudio 160s ) as well as with three different headphones; Focal Clear, HD6XX and Grado PS500. In short, this thing is pretty magical with everything I throw at it, even the Dynaudios which, at 84db / 4ohm, would not seem to be a good match at all. I went into that pairing expecting to be let down due to the Dyn's sensitivity and the size of their room, but instead I was left wondering whether or not I should bring them to my office to pair with the Kingko permanently. That would be an incredibly engaging small room system. Ultimately, I don't think I'll do that because, as @Richard Austen likes to say, that's a bit of square peg, round hole pairing, and I think the better route would be to find some high-efficiency speakers that these 12 watts could make sing. This feels like the perfect gateway into the world of high-efficiency. A few additional points. The amp is essentially silent both through speakers and, happily, through headphones. I wasn't convinced that was the case at first because I seem to have a ground loop issue in one system that I mistakenly attributed to the KA101. In its usual setting, with no music playing, I have to turn the volume far, far past where I would ever listen to introduce even a hint of noise, at which point, of course, any noise would be drowned out entirely by the music. That's great for someone who uses headphones often. The headphone out easily outpaces my Lyr 2, a $450 dedicated headphone amplifier with Amperex Bugle Boy 6922 tubes. The biggest change is an increased sense of space and air around the music, perhaps because of the all-tube design? Whatever the cause, it's really addictive. And the KA101 is equally comfortable driving low and high impedance headphones. It's also every bit as powerful as my Yamaha CR2020 vintage integrated, but cleaner and more versatile. In short, I'm really pleased with the headphone output and the speaker output, as it has my little Charios sounding better than they ever have. They even received the unsolicited, first-ever "oh, wow your speakers sound great..." from my SO. I find that I'm listening to them far more than I did with previous amps, and I can only imagine how good this thing will be when I hook it up to appropriate speakers. In the meantime, I've decided to start rolling in some nicer tubes and cabling, if only because I think this amp is worth a little hot-rodding. Finally, I'm using the optional silver-faceplate, but I wanted to thank King who made a one-off standard black faceplate for me at no charge. I'd mentioned that I'd prefer my amp without the gold lettering for the "pro" designation and he was as happy to oblige there as he was to answer all of my novice questions.
I am happy you like it - it's pretty tough to go wrong especially for the money - And I am using the pro version myself now and noted that it is quieter in the headphone stage. I actually think the price will have a lot of people dismiss it as not being expensive enough to be taken seriously. But it's a really good amp and offers a lot of flexibility. My Sennheiser HD 600s have died - 19 years old. SO pretty good. My AKG's also died - well the padding all fell apart. Note to self never buy headphones with the fake rubbish leather. Senn foam pads hold up in humidy - the pleather or whatever the AKGs and their ilk use are complete rubbish.
I recently noticed on the Kingko Audio website, beginning 7-1-2019 they will be represented in the U.S. by Vinyl Valet. They appear to be located in Phoenix AZ. May mean increased service and support for any owner of their amplifiers.
I was not aware of what price they were currently selling for, I think they sold new for about $825 including shipping when I got mine. I bought secondhand from a person who decided he wanted an amplifier that had a remote... I do not know what the options from other manufacturers are for a tube amp of comparable quality at the current price.
This is a great development. With stateside distribution, the Kingko should be more accessible to more buyers, but is still significantly cheaper than the entry level Line Magnetic amplifiers. It's a heck of an amp and I hope this encourages more people to take a good look at it.
Joined just to say that Tom of Big Ear Stereo (aka The Vinyl Valet) is a great guy. I contacted him when I found out that he was now representing KingKo, and since he was local, I asked if a demo was possible. Not only was it possible, he let me bring my own speakers! I loaded up my Tekton Lore Impulses, and headed over to his home/showroom. I got to hear the KA-101 on my own speakers before I purchased, which was awesome. In addition to sales and service for KingKo, Tom does a bunch of other stuff- other brands, customization, he'll even build your Elekit for you if you're not up to it. Super guy. AAAND the KA-101 is excellent. My living room has never sounded better.
Thought some people in this thread might get a kick out of this clip. I don't know that YouTube videos tell you much about sound, but I like that it shows the Kingko hooked up to a $10,000 Chord Dave + MScaler and massive Tekton speakers because why not? And, as a bonus, the little Kingko is perched on top of a hulking Line Magnetic integrated that clearly shows why @Richard Austen felt he'd have trouble moving from his 219 from place to place.
It is a very good little amp... I own three amps in addition to the KingKo and I recently placed it for sale along with a few pairs of speakers just to downsize. I received an offer and I mentioned to my wife I was going to sell it; her response "you are not going to sell the little black amp are you?" That was the first and only time I have heard her concerned about selling audio gear I own... I declined the offer and removed the for sale ad.
Thanks for that - that was great - I had both amps for a time. This guy is smart - put the 219IA on a trolley with wheels.
I think there is a lot you can do with the KingKo if you want to get a little more out of it - tube rolling that Rectifier being a big one. It won't be leaving my system - it has a lot of versatility - back up amp headphone amp - power amp - small. If I ever buy a fifth wheel or motorhome this thing would be great. I can see sticking my AN K speakers on the KingKo and traveling around the country one day.
