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Considering what $3.295 buys you elsewhere—to get personal, my FirstWatt F5 and J2 come to mind—the KWA-100's dress code is really quite extravagant, particularly for being wholly tailored in the US.


The thick bent top cover nicely avoids lateral seams. And it's not merely bolted to the front and rear panels. Eight long bolts also clamp it directly to the internal heat sinks whose spines run front to back beneath the cover's solid ribs. This rigidifies the overall metal structure and turns all of it into a heat sink.


If your amp acts DOA because no blue lights flash when you trip the power electric, remember that concealed standby button. It hides right next to the left front footer. That's what'll get your show on the road.


The multi-tapped transformer mounts vertically to a stout blue L-bracket behind the back-lit logo.


In the next photo you can see the twisted flying lead from the standby switch to the motherboard.



Two Lundahl transformers in silver casings against the back panel convert the single-ended inputs for dual-differential signal processing. The twin coil Tamura transformer below is for power control purposes.


Here's half of one channel's Mosfet row...


... and here's the other half from the same channel. The three additional devices on top "make up a thermal feedback circuit to keep the bias in line as the amp warms up. This maintains bias and prevents thermal runaway. It is completely outside the signal path and not to be confused with global feedback. It's purely a thermal feedback loop."


Here is a section of the board facing the right-channel inputs, ground-lift switch and power IEC.


The amp is electrically and mechanically quiet to perfection to make no excuses. Did I mention that it's very attractive?

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