Vinyl Asylum: REVIEW: K&K Audio Maxxed Out complete Phono Preamp by dth31 Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

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Model:	Maxxed Out complete
Category:	Phono Preamp
Suggested Retail Price:	$1899
Description:	Kit
Manufacturer URL:	K&K Audio
Model Picture:	View

Review by dth31 on July 07, 2008 at 11:43:02 IP Address: 70.181.188.36

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I’ve been a long-term vinyl enthusiast and listened almost exclusively to vinyl until I purchased a new CDP about a year ago. “New digital” doesn’t really sound analog, but it doesn’t sound hard, cold and sterile like “old” digital either. The new CDP allowed me to listen to music for many hours with absolutely no listening fatigue and I came to prefer digital over vinyl.

I never, ever, thought I would feel that way about digital (and I admit I was wrong) so I decided that I needed to upgrade my analog system, and the obvious choice was the phonostage. After a lot of research on the web, I purchased the K&K Audio complete Maxxed Out kit about 6 months ago.
With the K&K phonostage in my system, vinyl once again trumps digital (for me). And I want to be clear: I am not simply repeating the tired, old argument that digital is bad. To the contrary, at least to my ears, new digital is really, really outstanding. It’s just that vinyl thru the K&K phonostage is even better.

My new CDP has a relatively wide and pretty deep soundstage. The K&K is far wider and deeper. The CDP portrays nicely 3-dimensional images with just a bit of an “airy” presentation. The K&K yields much more solid, 3-dimensional images yet still manages to portray a greater sense of the recording acoustic space and “air”. Both the CDP and the K&K allow the listener to follow the lines individual instruments better than anything else I have previously experienced, but the K&K is even better than the Saturn. Individual instruments are even better separated with the K&K. Individual guitar strings are even more detailed with more realistic tone and timbre. Note attacks and decays on both are very good, but the K&K is better. Dynamics are outstanding—kick drums never sounded so real. It is now easy to distinguish between different types of guitars and cymbals. Both the CDP and the K&K are neutral, although there is slightly—and I mean only VERY slightly—greater warmth with the K&K.

The thing I find most striking about the K&K, however, is its tremendous transparency and clarity. I first realized this shortly after putting the K&K into the new system. In a word, music sounded pretty bad. Albums that I knew sounded really fantastic in the right system (e.g. the Classic Records reissue of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 performed by Stokowski, originally LSC-2471) didn’t sound good at all. At first, I thought it might be me, so I asked my wife to listen. She agreed with me: kind of harsh, trebly without enough bass. Now I’ve been able to hear differences in sound with VTA being dialed in correctly, but I can’t say that I perceived the differences to be HUGE. Nevertheless, I decided I should go thru set-up of my turntable again, because the description of the sound was consistent with VTA being out of adjustment. Sure enough, the VTA was off, so I reset VTA. MAJOR improvement in sound. The K&K was able to clearly tell me VTA was off, and that was a first for me in my systems. Subsequent listening confirmed that opinion. Some components tend to homogenize the sound—that is, there are certain colorations that all recordings played thru the system will tend to share. I don’t hear that with the K&K. You hear, faithfully, what is on the record. It just doesn’t seem to add much in the way of consistent colorations to the sound.

In a quantitative sense, any of the individual differences may admittedly be small between the K&K and the CDP. However, it’s hard to name an area in which the K&K doesn’t seem to have at least a small advantage over the CDP and the individual differences add up to a very meaningful musical difference for me. Believe me, I don’t say that lightly, and I didn’t approach this comparison believing that my listening would confirm the inherent superiority of vinyl to digital (although I used to believe that). I went into this comparison merely hoping that music thru the K&K would be almost as good as the new CDP, because I had come to believe that new digital was now better (and I have way more music on LP than CD). All I can say is that, for me, I definitely prefer listening to music thru the K&K phonostage. I have never come so close to believing that individual musicians were in the room performing for me. It’s very hard to be at home now, and not be listening to music thru the K&K!

So if you’re handy with a soldering iron, can follow simple directions, are looking for a truthful phonostage that you may never want to upgrade, and that brings real music and musicians into your listening room like no other component I have ever experienced, consider the K&K Audio Maxxed Out phonostage. It really is amazing, and not just for the $$$. I simply cannot recommend it highly enough.

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Product Weakness:	I don't think this is a weakness, but if you are looking for a component that adds excessive warmth to make up for other components, this isn't the phonostage for you. It is VERY neutral with just perhaps a tad of added warmth.
Product Strengths:	Quiet. Transparent. Truthful to the recording. Amazing 3-D imaging. Beautiful tone, timbre. Dynamic. Music has never sounded so real in my system.

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Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier:	Heavily modified DIYHiFiSupply Lady Day 300B monoblocks
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	Audio Note Kits M3 Signature
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	VPI Super Scoutmaster, JMW9, vdH Frog
Speakers:	Bastanis Prometheus II OBs with Gemini tweeter and powered subs
Cables/Interconnects:	Variety
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Rock, classical
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Monster
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

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