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Vocals had been intimate, splendid, smooth and embodied already. With his own preamplifier now all this improved like a further extraction of depth and shape. It wasn’t bad before but now it became the clear top priority and was accompanied by what might best be called presence. This was more pleasing than running the KAP-777 with another preamplifier. I deliberately didn’t call it ‘better’ as that will depend also on the loudspeaker but ‘more pleasing’. The presence region remained clear and resolved however. I reckon this pairing was tuned with the company’s own Bravo! Loudspeaker plus bass module which has a slightly warm timbre itself where such a clear and powerful upper midrange works out best.

The company’s own pairing thus brought a significant change to the amplifier’s character. The final result at the speaker became less resolved but completed certain aspects which had already been in evidence like the solidity of the first stage layer, the saturation and overall naturalness. Of course this isn’t a universal sound or even an entirely natural one. That doesn’t exist in hifi anywhere. We’re always held hostage by our recordings. Nonetheless this sound was very refined and imbued with a clear agenda of here and now.

Stage 3 - Reimyo KAP-777 vs Ancient Audio Silver Grand monos: This off-site part of my review took place during the 77th meeting of our Krakow Sonic Society which I described at greater length in its own article. To condense I will reiterate that this comparison elucidated certain aspects I didn’t catch earlier on to complete my previous observations. The KAP-777 really cannot replace a superior 300B tube amp altogether. A transistor amp—at least this one—simply cannot reproduce the same microdynamics and saturation. Even so the Reimyo confirmed its extended frequency response, smoothness and macrodynamics where it excelled over the Polish valve monos. It proved to be in the same class of sound, albeit with a different personality. In the below system we used, our assembled audience preferred the Reimyo amp for classical music which benefits from an unlimited transmission of energy where the 300Bs' low power fell short. With smaller ensembles opinion divided but in general the higher tacitness of the 300B amps and the more dimensional relief of individual constituents had most prefer the tubes as the more engaging. These differences were less qualitative and more systemic rather than better or worse. For a transistor amp this was a splendid outcome as we compared it to one of the best valve amps we know of.

Description: The KAP-777 is beautifully crafted and in size smaller than my Soulution 710 and closer to the M-800A Luxman I used for three years. It weighs 33kg. The front panel is 10mm brushed aluminum with a convex vertical center detail and two blue LEDs for power and mute. The latter changes to red to alert about short circuit, overheating or DC on the output. The power switch is hidden in the middle of the base plate. The amp sits on Harmonix TU-505EX-MKII isolation footers and arrives with the X-DC15SM-350 (or 390 Schuko) power cord. The entire casing and construction was designed to control, damp and attenuate resonances as something the Combak Corporation is very experienced with.

The back sports splendid RCA sockets as already seen on the CAT-777 MkII which are made from PCOCC copper to the company’s specification. There are also XLR sockets and single-wire speaker terminals similar to those used in Mark Levinson amplifiers. Here they are sourced from Mundorf as their model TPCU870C which was chosen after many listening tests. These terminals are pure copper and show off the natural color of the metal. The IEC power inlet integrates the mains fuse. The chassis sides house big custom-made 7mm heat sinks. The top cover shows the embossed company logo and model name.

The circuitry is dual mono and balanced. Each channel gets its own 400-watt power toroid with discrete windings for the output stage, buffer and voltage gain sections and control circuitry. Power supply ripple is suppressed by special 33.000uF Rifa capacitors. There are individual rectifiers for each channel and Harmonix hookup wiring. Combak describes the topology as a four-stage circuit of input buffer, voltage gain, driver stage and output stage. The inner real estate divides into two parts, with the Brando transformers and control logic up front, the remainder in the rear.

The four Rifa caps are very sizable and integrated with bolted connections paralleled by small polypropylene caps from the same catalogue. We see more of the latter to decouple the bridge rectifier diodes. The IEC power inlet sports a TDK filter and the cable leading away from it has an Enacom filter. The RCA inputs parallel the XLRs and the diverse grounds are clearly organized in a star configuration. The output stage PCBs bolt to the heat sinks behind a small metal shield. The 400-watt high-current output transistors are widely spaced, huge and use bolted connections. I’ve seen this type for the first time in my life in this amp.

Technical data according to the manufacturer:
Frequency response: 5Hz to 100kHz
SNR: >100dB
THD: < 0.05%
Input impedance: 40Ω balanced input
XLR polarity: Hot pin 2, cold pin 3, ground 1
Recommended loudspeaker impedance: >1.5Ω
Output power: 200W/8Ω | 400W/4Ω
Input sensitivity: 0.77V
Power consumption at idle: 95W
Dimensions: 200mm (H) x 430mm (W)ｘ460mm (D)
Dimensions including feet and terminals: 215mm (H) x 430mm (W) x 492mm (D)
Weight: 33kg
opinia @ highfidelity.pl
Reimyo website