I don't know about you. Whenever someone prefaces a sentence with these three words, I automatically wonder. Was everything they said until then untrue? It reminds me of a wealthy man who is fond of saying that he cares nothing about money. If that were so, he'd not keep talking about it. It wouldn't be on his mind, period. He also wouldn't worry what anyone else thought about it. It's the same with Mahatma Gandhi. In his golden years he apparently had nude teenage women in his bed just to prove to himself that he was beyond sexual desires. He could sleep peacefully without being aroused or ever touching them. Great. But if the whole subject had really fallen away, why the need to still prove it? Clearly the root of it hadn't been erased. Of course when The Audiophiliac asks his signature "so Steve, what did you really think" at the end of his YouTube reviews, I take it tongue in cheek. After all, if everything he said until that point was drivel, why bother with any of it? He's obviously having fun with the whole setup of people assuming reviewers don't come right out and call a shovel a spade or a snake a serpent.
Tai Hang for my four monos beneath the left Kinki amp.
I thought about my own setup; how I really feel about it. That is, I asked myself what brand in my hardware collection is most important to me. To be honest—ha!—that answer was immediate. Kinki Studio. My downstairs monos are by them. So is the upstairs stereo. Their headphone amp, for pennies on the pound, is second only to my Enleum AMP-23R. Their Flame and Earth cable looms are the signal arteries for both systems. To push said brand presence over the top, since my review of it I added their Tai Hang DC blocker to the main system. A second one for its front end is inbound already. That's how significant I found its benefits. Unlike a rich friend, I admit to caring about money. Mine is far more limited. It's why Kinki's value proposition so appeals. A few times I've heard things I thought better. Their ask was simply so ludicrously disproportionate that I didn't need to sleep with beautiful naked ladies under the same sheets to know I wasn't tempted.
The second Tai Hang will replace the Furutech power bar on the lower left.
Yeah but—I hear Steve's disciples wondering whether the above is what I really think—aren't speakers even bigger sonic determinants and gestalt makers than amplifiers, cables and DC blockers? On a 1-to-1 basis that's usually true though I could make very similar 2.1 sound with ModalAkustik's MusikBoxx or Raidho's X2.6. What could I do in lieu of Kinki Studio? Goldmund amps? Can't afford 'em. As for cables and power, I wouldn't even know where to begin. Once I add up the total Kinki impakt, I already said what I really think. For a single brand, the influence my Kinki kit has on the sound tops the lot. That, to be honest, is all I've got on that subject for today. About tomorrow I haven't a clue; except that on the temptation of hifi, I remain an easy target; perhaps not as easy as in the beginning—experience grows a certain skin—but the fascination with it is far from uprooted yet. I guess I still have a job then…
Kinki Studio's website
