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View Full Version : A trip to KJM's



Steve Toy
21-04-2008, 13:38
The purpose of this visit to the Smoke was to sell Kevin my Densen B-330 power amp which of course happened as planned. Kevin was a great guy to deal with.

While I was there I heard his system ( Densen B-400XS CD player/B-250 pre/now complete with the addition of the B-330 on an Isoblue stand wired up with Music Works Block and leads, Mogami interconnects and cables into Shahinian Arc speakers. I'll have to say that in his system this power amp performs significantly better than it did in my own.

Clearly Densen electronics would seem to work very well together indeed. Having lived with a valve amp for a couple of weeks now I listened out for this "grain" you are supposed to hear and find intolerable on every solid state amp thereafter. It was there in my system the last time I had the B-330 but not in Kevin's, not even the slightest hint of it to my ears.

His system gets all the musical fundamentals of tune, timing, involvement absolutely spot on. The bass was not only in time with the music, it was driving it along with the Mary Gaulthier Filth and Fire CD in a propulsive and rhythmic fashion where appropriate. Textures were present in abundance enabling the listener to tell that it was definitely an electric bass guitar and not an acoustic double bass being plucked. The rest of the music just slotted in place naturally. Notes had all the body, pitch, tonal colour, harmonics and pitch differentiation between them you could wish for and decayed naturally into space. Female vocals with MG and Nathalie Marchant sounded very natural and beguiling. And this was with the B-330 still running stone-cold!

The presentation of the upward-firing Shahinian Arcs was not what I'm used to but it was very musical nevertheless. I could certainly live very happily with this system.

I did note that Kev is using the original Music Works block and leads and whilst this seems to do the job perfectly well, I know that upgrading to the Plus spec does bring quite a lift in performance for very little outlay (upgrading to Plus spec would cost him £50 for the block.) As nothing is actually broken, this would simply serve to enhance the pre-existing quaities of his system.

Putting a block shelf underneath the block, another worthwhile improvement, would cost nowt as I'll soon have one going spare once I get my new Reflex block.

Lefty
23-04-2008, 09:12
Densen + Shahinian = :rock:

One day, such a system will be mine.....

Lefty

KJM
25-04-2008, 20:37
Steve, Just back from my week at the office and just want to say was great to have met up with you too. Was very good of you to take the time out and come all the way down to N8. The 330 certainly lifts my system to new heights, exceeding all my expectations in spades. The 300XS was no slouch and I happily lived with it for a number of years but the 330 is just soooo much better. :)

Thanks also for the advice on the 'tweaks' and I'll definitely follow them through.

Lefty... you better believe it. Good luck.

All the very best from the 'smoke',

Kevin

Steve Toy
26-04-2008, 14:57
I'm glad you are enjoying your system with the addition of the B-330. It certainly belongs in your system.

If you want to upgrade to the Plus block, AW will hold my old one until today.