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Reviewer: Marja & Henk
Financial Interests: click here
Sources: PS Audio PWT; Dr. Feickert Blackbird MKII/DFA 1o5/Zu DL-103; Phasure XX-PC
DAC: Phasure NOS1 DAC; PS Audio Direct Stream DAC [loaner]
Streaming sources: XXHighEnd; iTunes; Qobuz Desktop, Tidal Desktop; Devialet AIR; La Rosita Beta
Preamp/integrated/power: Audio Note Meishu with WE 300B (or AVVT, JJ, KR Audio 300B output tubes); dual Devialet D-Premier; Hypex Ncore 1200 based monoblocks; Trafomatic Kaivalya monoblocks; Trafomatic Reference One; Trafomatic Reference Phono One; Music First Passive Magnetic; PTP Audio Blok20; Mola Mola Makua [came with Kaluga review samples]
Speakers: Avantgarde Acoustic Duo Omega; Arcadian Audio Pnoe; Podium Sound One; WLM Sub 12; Sounddeco Alpha F3; dual Zu Submission MKI; Soltanus Virtuoso ESL (downstairs)
Cables: complete loom of ASI LiveLine cables; full loom of Crystal Cable cables; full loom of Nanotec Golden Strada; Audiomica Pearl Consequence interconnect; Audiomica Pebble Consequence
Power line conditioning: PS Audio Powerplant Premier; PS Audio Humbuster III; IsoTek Evo 3 Syncro; AudioMica Allbit Consequence
Equipment racks: Solid Tech and ASI amplifier and TT shelf
Indispensable accessories: Furutech DeMag; ClearAudio Double Matrix; Franc Audio Ceramic Disc Classic; Shakti Stones; Akiko Audio sticks; Kemp polarity checker; diyparadise Schumann ELF generator
Online Music purveyors: Qobuz.com, Bandcamp.com, amazon.co.uk
Room treatment: Acoustic System International resonators, sugar cubes, diffusers
Room size: ca. 14.50 x 7.50m with a ceiling height of 3.50m, brick walls, wooden flooring upstairs, ca 7 x 5m with a ceiling height of 3.50m, brick walls and concrete floor downstairs.
Price of review items: €12’000/pr
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March 7, 2014. The e-mail was from Mola Mola’s Bruno Putzeys. "Hello Marja and Henk. It’s been a while since we started half a review. The long silence is due to me deciding that it would be quite sloppy on my part to get reviews done based on non-production samples. I only wanted to finalize your review the moment production was up and running so that the samples you’d get would match the ones your readers might buy. Long story short, production is running which means I can drop off or send you a complete set any time." – Bruno
The next email arrived April 14, 2014. "Hi, things are running at a moving finish. At this moment in time the case builder (Fischer Elektronik who also supply Burmester) promised enclosure proofs for this week. From then on things should run smoothly. I think I can bring you a set after the Munich High End show. Is that okay for you?" – Bruno
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In the meantime, interest in the Kaluga monos was rising, perhaps even boosted by the fact that they were so hard to get – if at all. See just one reader letter including Srajan’s response to it: "Henk & Marja's 2012 introduction to the Mola Mola line of products was about as exciting as it can get for audio hardware reviewing. On the strength of that article, I traveled to a hifi show where the Mola Mola amplifiers and preamp were being demonstrated; and I sat for too long in the local distributor's room. I heard enough to place them on a very short list of future auditions. I also visited other dealers and listened to class D amplifiers that were priced between $3'500 and $12'000 Australian. On some occasions, I could listen to these amplifiers at home. In each case my interest and the possibility of purchase were genuine. After all, this mode of amplification had gone through a breakthrough where new levels of performance had supposedly been obtained. When the dynamics of a musical passage were low, listening to some of these amplifiers was acceptable. However, when the dynamic demands increased, I found dynamic range to be so distorted as to be unlistenable. This loss of basic quality (listenability) did not occur with the Mola Mola demonstration." - Ian Lobb
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"I know M&H are as keen on the performance promise of the Kaluga monos as they were then; particularly since production is said to have made further progress over the demonstrator prototypes they described. We'll need to see though whether they'll finally manage to get their hands on a final production pair to, as you say, finish the story properly." – Srajan
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By July 2014, the Mola Mola website sported a blog entry announcing that Fischer were about to deliver the first production run of casings in September 2014. This meant that the products on display at the Munich High End 2014 still had not been the final deal. With respect to Bruno’s March email from that year, he mentioned that it would not be fair for us to review a product that was not identical to the intended final production version. In September 2013 we’d enjoyed a brief period in which we started what we then thought would be our formal Mola Mola Kaluga review. These samples however used casings Bruno wasn’t happy with but which had electronic guts almost on par with later production samples. Almost. Unfortunately for us, Bruno needed that pair of Kaluga back for demos with potential distributors. Unbeknownst to us all, it would then take another two years before we could finally revisit the subject.
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