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| Model: | Kairos |
| Category: | Tone Arms |
| Suggested Retail Price: | $8700 |
| Description: | Unipivot tonearm |
| Manufacturer URL: | Durand |
| Review by FolkFreak on November 23, 2015 at 16:56:11 IP Address: 71.237.161.135 | Add Your Review for the Kairos |
I've had the great pleasure of using the Durand Kairos on my EAR Discmaster for over a month now and feel comfortable describing its performance and strengths.My trip to owning this arm began at the 2012 Newport THE show where I first had the chance to experience the Durand Talea. From first sight I was enhanced by this intricate and beautiful arm. Roll forward several years and I felt I was getting a bit tired of my Tri-Planar VII. While a good arm I was increasingly disattisfied with shortcomings in the systems performance with vinyl -- most specifically congestion on heavily modulated passages and a certain pluminess in the mid bass. Maybe it's the tonearm I thought so how about trying something different?
With less than a few weeks lead time Jonathan Tinn at Chambers Audio hear in Portland was able to supply me with a brand new Kairos and dedicated tonearm cable. Then began a wait of several months while we went back and forth on designing a mounting board for my turntable. The Kairos is a 10.35" arm so needs a little bit of an outrigger board to mount on the EAR -- and Joel the designer didn't want to send me anything until he was sure he had all of the dimensions absolutely set. So after a long wait I finally got my sub-board, and after a little bit more drilling out to clear up some space on the turntable I was able to get the arm mounted.
The Kairos is a classic stainless steel spike on sapphire cup unipivot with an innovative sliding bar to control roll. It takes a little getting used to to set it up but the instruction manual is quite comprehensive and Jonathan and Joel provided very valuable telephone support. My one learning, not covered in the instructions, is that it is essential to have SRA approximately right (i.e. level cartridge or so) before proceeding any further. Because of the sub-board the arm was elevated relative to the platter at first and as a result there was no way of my getting it to float without rolling off to one side -- once I had lowered the arm I was able to get the float and roll easily set up. The roll is controlled by using a weight on the outrigger seen in the photo below, setting it so the outrigger just touches along the bar that is parallel to the arm. That bar can then be raised and lowered to control azimuth, one of the easiest and most precise azimuth mechanisms I have experienced. The arm lift is also one of the best engineered and most easily adjustable I've ever seen as well which makes using the arm a pleasure. One downside of the unipivot however is that it's impossible to use the PC-1 stylus guard which pushed up onto the cartridge (and hence lifting on the unipivot potentially dislodging it) -- so be careful!
Once set up then begins the process of really getting to know what the arm can do. Straight out of the gate and with my existing low 1.85g VTF on my AirTight PC-1 I found a great sense of openness and space and better bass control than with the Tri-Planar. My experience with the latter arm/cartridge combination had been that a low VTF brought a good sense of energy and openness. At the manufacturer recommended 2-2.2g the PC-1 had always seemed dull and closed in. Not so with the Kairos however, I upped the VTF to 2.05g (all with 92degree SRA) and everything finally clicked into place. The amazing thing now is how the scale of every instrument all of the sudden matched. Previously I'd enjoyed and been excited by "big" guitars and cascading drums on tracks such as Dire Straits Private Investigations, but always everything finally overloaded as the complexity of the piece increased. Now with the Kairos while many individual elements seemed smaller they were much more finely focused, and even when things get loud you can hear through the ensemble into all of the micro details. Human voice is one of the best tests, and especially voice in a natural acoustic setting. Using a dry and not at all audiophile recording like Nancy Griffith "One Fair Summer Evening" you can hear the full dimensions of Anderson Fair, can pick out each hand clap in the audience and hear all the breath and nuance in her singing.
On recording after recording the Kairos/Air Tight combination gives you what is on the record. It never gets stressed or confused even on the most complex and dynamic material. A great strength is the ease with which you can listen in to teh recording a hear subtle elements that on my prior setup had been masked. The bass work on "Fotheringay" from "What we did on our Holidays" by Fairport Convention for example. The combination also treats damaged or poorly recorded material sympathetically so you can hear through the issues with the disc. One of my favorite records is Mary Chapin Carpenter "Come On Come On" and in particular the last track on side 2, the title track. Unfortunately at some stage I guess I've mis-tracked this one too many times and there's a buzz on the modulated vocal. On my older arm this buzz was often edgy and objectionable but with the Kairos the cartridge sails though, almost separating the noise from the underlying music.
So now consider me a convert to uni-pivots and I'm searching around for a more cost competitive option for my number two arm and Miyajima Zero (currently on an SME-IV) so watch this space for where we come out on that
| Product Weakness: | Tricky to get initial setup dialed in |
| Product Strengths: | Natural, open, unflappable. Very easy to fine tune VTF, SRA and azimuth |
| Amplifier: | VTL MB450-III |
| Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): | Audio Research 40th Anniversary, Ref 2SE phono |
| Sources (CDP/Turntable): | EAR Discmaster |
| Speakers: | Magico Q3 |
| Cables/Interconnects: | AudioQuest WEL Signature |
| Music Used (Genre/Selections): | Folk, Rock, Classical |
| Room Size (LxWxH): | 10 x 18 x 9 |
| Room Comments/Treatments: | Acoustic Sciences designed room, plus SR ART, HFT |
| Time Period/Length of Audition: | 1.5 months |
| Other (Power Conditioner etc.): | Synergistic |
| Type of Audition/Review: | Product Owner |
Folkfreak,
thanks for the nice review. I've listened to the Kairos at shows, and had it in my room one time a year ago, and I agree with the points of your review. it does dig very deep and separate musical threads to uncover nuances and musical meanings. it's also very dynamic and alive sounding. it's a very precise instrument. I also owned a Triplaner VII a few years back and the original Durand Talea was a replacement. so I get that comparison and agree on the step up.
nice room and pictures btw.
enjoy!
mikel
A "more cost effective competitive option"? That pretty much describes the Analog Instruments Siggwan---a 12" unipivot made from a single length of cocobolo. For the past year since I bought a Siggwan, my Triplanar VII has been sitting on the sidelines.
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