4 Lots of Kudos in One Night - Passive and Active

Kudos' Titan 808 has been around a few years now, and has given a great account of itsself at multiple shows 'musings has attended in the UK and Germany.
Most recently with the rather good Naim SNAXO active system at the Chester Hifi show earlier in the month.  I also chose a Linn Exakt driven pair when presenting a "MyTunes" playlist evening at Manchester dealer brianandtrevors, where they were augmented by a pair of REL No 25 subwoofers.

But there's more to Kudos than their well received top of the range T-808.  There are entry level "X" models, mid-range "Super" models and 4 different interpretations of the Titan formula.  So what's the rest of the range like?  To find out, 'musings returned to brianandtrevors for an evening of Kudos discovery.  The evening followed a fairly typical approach for a joint dealer / manufacturer evening - gradually stepping up the range, but perhaps with a little twist tonight.  To allow the comparison of the speakers, a pretty much "no compromise" system was put together from Scottish manufacturer Linn:

A largely Klimax level LP12 - Radikal PSU (in the Akurate casework), Ekos SE2, Kandid and a booplinth.  Onboard was a Urika 2 phono stage which fed an Exakt signal to a Linn Klimax DSM acting as pre-amp and streamer.
Initially the KDSM ran with its internal Katalyst equipped stereo DAC to a Linn Klimax Twin/D stereo power amp.
I/C cables were Linn silvers, with Chord Music making sure there were no compromises on the speaker cable side.

That's quite some front end to feed into the first speaker we heard tonight - the diminutive little Kudos X2 compact floorstander.  Bear in mind that, at £1600, it was being fed by a system that included speaker cables that come in at (assuming they were 3m in length) 4x the price of the speakers.
It has to be said that these little speakers probably weren't designed for use in a room the size of tonight's dem room.  Before they were played, Kudos' Dave White introduced himself and the company philosophy - keep things simple and use the best quality components and cabinets that can be achieved at a price point.  Drivers all come from SEAS, modified or created to Kudos's own requirements.  So until the top of the range, simplicity means 2-way designs, uncluttered crossovers and quality cabinet veneers.  So the little boxes played and did a pretty good job.  Yes, there was a looseness in the bass, which goes surprisingly low, there was some vagueness in the treble but the music was flowing, feet tapping, even the room joining in with some modes didn't detract from enjoying what was going on.  It would be great to listen to these in a smaller room, where I'm sure they'd work pretty well.  We listened to a few tracks from the streamer then moved on with a 3x price jump to the middle of the range Super 20 speakers.

This is another 2-way floorstander, but around 850mm high and sporting significantly higher quality components.  Again the finish is superb with matched veneers on the baffles. Well, this was a significant step-up in the musical presentation to match the price change.  The SEAS tweeter in the S20 is several steps up from the X2 in terms of detail, definition, believability and control. Similar improvements come from the mid-bass driver. Curiously the initial impression was of a speaker producing less bass output than the baby floorstanders, but in reality its just hugely better controlled and keyed into the hooks and rhythms of the tune.  The treble presentation, whilst far more refined, is just a little to forward in the mix for my personal taste, but there's no doubt the others in the group of 12 were enjoying what they were hearing.

The next step up was 2x on the price-o-meter and takes us into Titan territory.  We didn't hear the 505 standmount tonight, going straight to the first of the floorstanders, the 606.  This is similar in height to the Super 20, but the cabinent is very differently constructed.  Dave introduced the isobaric mid-bass driver and the thin-walled inner cabinet which is surrounded by heavy MDF side panels that are connected to the inner panels with damping material.  The tweeter too is from SEAS's upper end Krescendo family, amended to Kudos spec - the tweeter alone costs more to Kudos than all the drivers put together in a pair of X2s.  They're very substantially built speakers, needing a trolley to move them around, even though they're still under a metre high.  And how was this?  Well, it wasn't all a complete step up from the Super 20.  Bass a little deeper, treble that much more clear and definitive in the way it starts and stops, vocals carrying more emotion, along with tighter imaging, most if it was good.  But for me the Super 20 won out on the bass lines keeping pace with the rest of the music, and providing that foot-tapping drive.  So not a complete success for me.  After a short break to refresh glasses, along came the "twist" of the demo.  The Kudos Super and Titan ranges have a little trick up their sleeves - they have a clever but simple connection panel on the rear that means they can be converted to work in active mode - that is, effectively removing the internal passive crossovers to allow power amplifiers to be connected directly to each drive unit with the splitting of the frequencies delivered by an active crossover in front of the power amps.  This works with Naim analogue active crossovers and with Devialet and Linn digital crossovers.

So the Klimax DSM changed its role from digital to analogue converter, to one feeding a still digital Exakt feed to a Linn Klimax Exaktbox/1.  The Exaktbox does the digital to analogue conversion, along with some clever stuff such as phase correction of the drive units (and no crossover phase distortion), time aligning the drive units and adjusting the speakers' output to counteract room modes that normally causes "boominess".  Because each drive unit now needs its own power amplifier channel, an additional Klimax Twin was pressed into action, along with more Chord Music speaker cables.  Now the Titans are singing. This is a massive step up in performance for these speakers, much as we've experienced before when hooking the Super 20s up to an Exakt system back at 'musings base.  The reservations with the 606 in passive mode are almost gone - there's still a little reticence in the bass lines, but its very minor now and allows the other elements to shine through.  The live Eva Cassidy track we started with on the X2s is now in a huge venue, the soundstage goes back a long way beyond the speakers, Eva's voice is full of emotion, inflections and phrasing details. Nice.  We listen to a good few tracks from the streamer. Interesting set of feet on the 606s tonight, seem to tackle some of the shrillness I've heard from these speakers when sitting on standard spikes. Other than understanding they have some Sorbothane de-coupling, there wasn't time to discuss further tonight.

Another break follows, and the final set up of the evening is rolled into the room whilst more wine, coffee and juice is sorted out for the audience of a dozen or so listeners.  In the break we swap system information, who's interested in what and why Kudos is of interest.  Most have Linn front ends of some sort - vinyl and streaming, there's a few Naim front ends (streaming and CD) mostly Linn amplification but also Naim and a few others.  From a speaker comparison perspective, Linn, PMC, Kudos and others are in use.

Back to listening and we're now at the top of the Kudos range with the Titan 808.  Unlike last time in this room, the 808 was not supported by the big REL subs.  They had to fend for themselves.  It turns out that they're quite capable of looking after themselves thanks very much, and I ended up enjoying them more on their own.  The sense of scale of the Eva Cassidy venue is stunning on the 808 and they punch hard and fast.  Unlike the 505, 606 and 707 which have slightly (intentionally) leaky isobaric chambers, the lowest bass driver, in its separate box, is a more conventional sealed isobaric.  The 808 is a 3 way design but described as 2.5 way by Kudos by which I think they mean the lowest bass driver augments the lower end of the mid-bass rather than delivering a completely separate set of frequencies.  So this top-end speaker needs 6x power amp channels and as such another Klimax Twin and pair of Chord Music cables were helping out in this final system configuration.  The same tweeter is featured across the Titan range yet it somehow seems clearer and smoother in this configuration, but its the clarity, transparency and realism of the mid-bass combined with the sheer kick and tightness of the lower bass that stand out here.  We listen to lots of tracks and the LP12 is pressed into action for a few songs, including an album by one of my current favourites, Bob Moses from Canada.  There was some boominess with this system, Linn's SPACE optimisation wasn't in use until later in the evening, after the formal presentation has been completed.

What did we learn?  Well, in passive form, mostly spending more gets a better result, but not always in all areas.  But once Exakt was deployed, the whole experience was a huge improvement in performance and consistency. And, yet again, the 808 produced a great result - personally I think they performed better than with the REL subs in this room - not quite so jaw-dropping in terms of sheer power and impact, but more musically satisfying.  The X2's are good for their price and did a reasonable job of filling the big room.  But then again there's no real substitute for box volume, driver quality, cabinet construction and, most importantly, a high quality front-end active system. It would've been nice to hear the Super 20 moving from passive to active, but you can't fit everything into one evening.  I do wonder about those in the audience who might've been contemplating the 606 - were they satisfied, or do they now spend a longer time saving for the 808?  But then again, there's the 707 in between, and that's definitely worth a listen. I won't be changing my Twenty.26s for the 606s as they didn't do absolutely everything comprehensively better.  Perhaps the 707s?  Will have to leave it until another time to find out.

Thanks once again to Brian, Trevor, Dave and the other attendees for another enjoyable and instructive evening.

My Tunes at brianandtrevors 14 March 2019

The House of Linn, aka brianandtrevors, is a hifi dealer in Manchester.  The ex-Linn team started out as House of Linn then expanded into a parallel business that stocks non-Linn gear.  I've spent a few evenings there for demos and we've done some business together, on the Linn side of the house.  Its a fine old high ceiling end terrace with 3 dem rooms, a workshop and, perhaps most importantly, a kitchen for brewing tea and dispensing wine.

Most of the evening events have focussed on a product launch, or a manufacturer visit. Quite a few times B&T have mentioned having relaxed music only evenings and finally, they've kicked off a new series dubbed "My Tunes".  The idea is for a customer or other visitor to play some tunes, chat a little about them whilst enjoying the afforementioned tea or wine.  And that was the brief I was given when invited to be the "selector" for the first of these evenings.  Play a few tunes and tell the group a bit about why they were chosen.

I only had one request, that I could choose the system we'd use, and fortunately B&T are now Kudos dealers so it was straightforward to ask for something interesting, but more of that later, there was some planning to do.  What to play?  I do have a collated album of around 450 "favourite" tracks saved on the Melco NAS so I headed there and started to think about what to play and what to say.  It takes a bit of time to whittle it down, try and think of a good variety and then think back to why the track was in the main list, how it came into my life, and how to frame the story.

Eventually there were few enough tracks to put into 2 slots of about 50 minutes each, to allow for a break part way through (to recharge glasses of course!).  The first track was easy - play the first record I bought for myself - and then I remembered that there is a little box of singles in the house, so a quick check and there it was - the original copy of Solid Gold, Easy Action by T-Rex.  Glam rock!  I think it cost me about 35 pence, probably quite a few weeks of pocket money back in 1972.  It then occured to me that it might be worth not only talking about the music, but my hifi journey too, given the location.  So I tried to mix the two things along the way - a bit about the music, a bit about the hifi.

A good size audience of 15 joined the evening.  B&T introduced the idea and myself and that was it, get on with it!  Something I really appreciated, and hoped the audience did too, there was no mention at all of the kit in use, except to answer questions during the break. So no selling as such, a nice relaxed approach.  But we'll cover the system now, because it was something that I'd wanted to hear for a while and something I hoped would work really well.

We started the evening with that very old and pretty well worn T-Rex single, running on an almost full Klimax Linn LP12.  So a Radikal motor and PSU, Ekos SE, Keel, Urika II phono stage, Kandid cartridge and the one deviation from Klimax - B&T's own bamboo based booplinth plinth.  Brave of them to let the Kandid track this old single.  It sounded a bit thin, but remarkably free of pops and crackles, but clearly showing signs of stylus damage.  For the rest of the evening we played the tracks from the Innuos Zenith through a Chord Music ethernet cable into a Linn Klimax DSM - but using the Exakt outputs tonight.  The Exakt signal travelled down a Cat 7 ethernet cable to a Klimax Exaktbox/1 (that's the Katalyst version).  This was on a small rack near the speakers which also accommodated three Linn Klimax Twin power amps, each driving one of the 3 drivers in each Kudos Titan T-808 speaker, via Chord Music speaker cables.  So that was the system I'd asked for, but B&T threw in a couple of Exakbox sub boxes and a pair of REL No 25 subs at the back of the room.  All the electronics were supported by Quadraspire racks.

Click on the images for larger versions:

Kudo Titan 808 speaker along with a stack of Linn Klimax ingots - one Exaktbox, 3 Twin power amps, and a couple of boxes not in use tonight

From the top: Linn LP12 turntable in a booplinth, Linn Klimax DSM streamer / pre-amp, Innuos Zenith NAS, Linn Radikal power supply for the LP12 all on a Quadraspire X-Ref rack

Chord Music Cables

View across the largest of the dem rooms

Before the guests arrive we chewed the fat on the latest in hifi stuff and more, then had a listen to the system - just spending a little time tweaking the volume of the subs down a little to get the best balance.  SPACE is in play on the system and, as is often the case now, with the latest software versions, the default setting in a Exakt system is pretty much spot on.  And the system was sounding fantastic, pleased to say that its probably the best system I've heard in the house.  Full of detail, speed, tuneful bass lines, crisp, clear, beautifully resolved and emotional vocals and slam like I've never heard in the house before.  Fantastic.  I also spent a bit of time listening to a pair of Titan 505s in the smaller upstairs dem room, being driven by Linn Akurate Exakt electronics.  That was a good listen too - the Titan range seems to be a good design.

Below is the list of tracks I went with.  I have to say, I'm not sure its the right list, or the best list, or whatever, but its the one I came up with for the evening.  I did put some time into it but I didn't over think it or spend time putting tracks in and out of the list. Maybe I'll get invited back in a few years time and I can go with a completely different list.  So in there there are some older tracks, some new stuff, electronic music, jazz, americana, folk, covers, punk and rock/pop.

You can click on the image for a larger version:

I was hoping to put together something that some people would know (Teenage Kicks, of course), some tracks known but in new versions (Ever Fallen In Love, Don't Go Breaking My Heart) and something that would be new to most if not all (Pitch Black, perhaps Fink).  During the break it would seem that the balance was OK for most, but I've no doubt there were some genres missing or perhaps too much of one genre for others.

The audience were very attentive, there was some banter during the introductions, hopefully the little stories were interesting, but mainly, I hope that the music was of interest and enjoyable.  Certainly that system did it all justice.  If nothing else, I enjoyed the evening!

I'm looking forward to the next time B&T organise a session - it'll be interesting to be in the audience and hear someone else's selections and stories.

Thanks to B&T for the invitation to "select".

B&T have made the most of this post for their newsletter  :)

14th March 2019 - Manchester Dealer Launches "My Tunes" Musical Evenings

Manchester dealer brianandtrevors (aka House of Linn) are launching a new series of occasional musical evenings.

The idea is pretty simple - a guest selects a bunch of tunes they enjoy and plays them to other guests / customers.  We get the chance to hear a good system and hopefully some good music with the possibility of being introduced to new material and artists.

'musings has been invited to present the first of these evenings on 14 March 2019.  Should be fun.

You can reserve a seat by calling or emailing brian and trevor.  More details in the latest newsletter:

https://www.brianandtrevors.com/almost-spring-2019-newsletter/