Mood Indigo

K&K Audio / Lundahl Transformers

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I am trying to finish a full review on this but since it seems like I will never finish, I just wanted to quickly relay my impressions... I bought this unit fully assembled and have been using it for about 2 months now. I have to say that break-in was an issue in the beginning but now that I am beyond that and through some compatibility issues (some weird cable length/capacitance mismatches), this preamp has changed the way that I think about audio and about listening to music in general. I have tried many of the big guns in tube preamps but have never had the full spectrum of dynamics, tonality, and general naturalness to the music than with the mood. It is not a colored preamp--the name "mood indigo," at least to me, implied that a certain "mood" or color would be associated with the sonic, probably romantic or blue or just like being relaxed in a dark room with your favorite scotch. But if you are listening to metallica, you shouldn't feel that way unless the sound is colored in that direction. But I didn't, and it's not. The sound is natural and without a kind of sonic character that permeates everything that you listen to (which I've heard in plenty of other preamps). Strings maintain their raspiness (when present), double bass plucks are felt and heard, and voices are simply amazing, like Greg Brown or Joni or others. Starker's solos are breathtaking and deserve a preamp like this... Amused to death sounds less like a gimick (but still rocks with incredible dynamics coming from all directions), and of course you are put right in the jazz club when you hear small groups like Art Pepper Intensity, the new Monk 45s, etc... Hearing the new Monk's Music with the mood indigo was the penultimate sonic experience. It has been a while since audio gave me chills, but this did to great effect... Crappy pressings sound like crappy pressings, but good recordings are taken to a level that I have yet to experience. The imaging is excellent as well, but you don't really get caught up so much in that aspect, as well as other typical audiophilia because you tend to forget that you are listening through a system and focus more on the music.
I apologize for this stream of conciousness writing and will try to nail down more of the specifics in a full review. But I felt obligated to report back to this forum ASAP about the impact that the mood indigo had on my system and that my wife and many friends have noticed a MAJOR change toward a live reproduction.

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Kimber Kable

Topic - Mood Indigo - cgthanos 14:38:02 07/29/04 (5)

Re: Mood Indigo - divo 07:03:17 07/30/04 (4)

Re: Mood Indigo - JimU 10:18:22 08/02/04 (3)

Break in will cause it to - Bas Horneman 01:22:09 08/12/04 (2)

Re: Break in will cause it to - Dave Davenport 10:34:52 08/12/04 (1)

Breakin is proceeding well - JimU 13:37:23 08/18/04 (0)

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