Kora TB140 gra w pewnym sensie bezbłędnie; tak jakby miał napisany program, który wykonuje w stu procentach.

Kiedy się już zaprzyjaźnimy z tym wzmacniaczem, niczym nas nie zaskoczy, będzie raczej utrwalał reputację urządzenia, które ma swój charakter, swoje priorytety, swoją logikę i zachowuje się absolutnie konsekwentnie.

To dźwięk ostatecznie spójny, zaaranżowany, dopieszczony. Jego wewnętrzne ciepło jest niezwykłe, znaczące i szlachetne. W pierwszym wrażeniu wcale nie jawi się jako dominanta.

Kora TB140 to nie tylko wzmacniacz, to "realizator" nagrań, jakby dostarczony do niego materiał był tylko surowcem, biegnącym w studio od muzyków do konsoli, ale o ostatecznym kształcie decyduje TB140, mając własny styl i upodobania.

Bas jest obszerny, rozciągnięty, zaokrąglony. Wysokie tony dyskretne, a mimo to zróżnicowane, koronkowe. Na pewno trudno określić ten dźwięk jako analityczny, bez względu na to, czy miałaby to być pochwała, czy przygana. Jest jednak nasycony, esencjonalny, bogaty, tak że po krótkiej akomodacji nie odczuwamy ograniczeń, lecz z nagrania na nagranie coraz bardziej zanurzamy się w tej "opowieści".

Oczywiście nie wszyscy muszą mieć wrażliwość skalibrowaną w taki sposób, a ci, którzy nie mają… nie powinni czuć się gorsi. Jednak dla wielu, którzy szukają właśnie takich nastrojów, TB140 może być wzmacniaczem wzorcowym.

Link do recenzji: Kora TB140 – Audio

Jeżeli szukacie mocnego tranzystora, zdolnego wywołać lokalne trzęsienie ziemi, to nie ten adres. Za to wyrafinowanie, kultura i muzykalność TB140 są poruszające.

Konkluzja na początek? Nie, to zmyłka, bo powyższe stwierdzenie nie oddaje wartości tego wyjątkowego wzmacniacza. Szczegółowość i przejrzystość w niezbyt rozbudowanych fakturach to jakiś kosmos. Czy to zasługa „liniowego elementu” w postaci podwójnych triod, nie wiem, ale czystość dźwięku przywodzi na myśl lampowe przedwzmacniacze Audio Researcha. Trzeba jednak chwili, aby wejść w akcję i zanurzyć się w muzyce, ponieważ najpierw odczuwamy dystans i spokój. Zero agresji, wysiłku czy nawet napięcia. Ot, swobodne, niezobowiązujące granie. Zaraz potem pojawia się zdziwienie: skąd to wszystko się bierze? Ani góra, ani średnica nie atakują, a mimo to w tle zaczyna być słychać niezauważane dotąd drobiazgi. I znowu nie na tym polega cały cymes, bo bardziej do serca przemawia staranne wykończenie pojedynczych dźwięków, uderzeń w talerze czy szarpnięć strun.

Lampę jednak wytropiłem, choć nie na podstawie jej cech charakterystycznych, a wspomnianej na początku liniowości – pasmo jest równe jak stół. Ekspozycje, podkreślenia? Gdzie tam. W ogóle mówienie o zakresach to trochę nieporozumienie. Spójność i niepodzielność znów przywodzą na myśl elektrostat. Za nimi podąża płynność, dzięki której muzyka staje się procesem, nie obrazem. Odczuwamy nawet rozleniwienie, choć nie łączy się z nudą. To raczej relaks, coś w rodzaju transu, w który wpadamy mimowolnie, nie wiedzieć kiedy zahipnotyzowani przez wzmacniacz.

Kora najpierw przyciąga pięknem i wielobarwnością, a później robi z nami, co chce. Jeżeli któryś z zakresów ujawnia własny charakter, to bas. Idealnie pasuje do romantycznej reszty. Lubi zaskoczyć potężnym mruknięciem i głębią, pozostając przy tym przyjemnie sprężystym.

Barwa? Przepiękna, z oddaniem subtelności. I ciekawostka – bas. Na pewno nie brzmi tak na żywo, bo nie ma aż tak wielkich instrumentów, ale ja go kupuję. Oddanie akustyki i szczegółowość, dopieszczenie dźwięków – to już magia. A jednak wzmacniacz nie ściąga na siebie uwagi, pozostając dyskretnym pośrednikiem. W symfonice również pojawił się dopalacz, który dodał kontrabasom mięsistości i to chyba jedyne odstępstwo od prawdy. O całej reszcie można napisać, że znów jesteśmy na koncercie, choć w tutti należy się liczyć z pewnym ograniczeniem skali kontrastów – dynamika lekko się uśrednia.

Ten wzmacniacz mnie oczarował, choć nie jest uniwersalny i zapewne nie każdemu przypadnie do gustu. Jest jednak na tyle wyjątkowy, że nie musi. Jeżeli ktoś jest wrażliwy na tego rodzaju przekaz, to mając do dyspozycji 24000 zł chyba nie znajdzie podobnego czarodzieja. We mnie TB140 wzbudził niepokój, bo teraz już wiem, że muszę posłuchać droższych modeli. Przyznam, że trochę się tego obawiam. 

Link do recenzji: Kora TB140 – Hi-Fi i Muzyka

How to describe what is indescribable? This is indeed the difficulty that we faced when listening to the music reproduced by this integrated amplifier Kora TB 140. Quite often, electronic devices dedicated to sound reproduction have a paw, a personality, a kind of identity with which we recognizes them, and who characterizes them. Of course, the eclectic music lover with intensive consumption will rather seek a product which banishes colorings and which tends towards neutrality. Fortunately, there are neutral products.  A priori therefore, this Kora is to be classified in this last category. To tell you the truth, we spent a lot of time listening to it, before trying to analyze its performance. Because performance is a question here. Indeed, the TB 140 gave us a very nice demonstration of musicality. We have tried many different messages and styles with him. From symphonic to rap, from techno to new wave, everything goes admirably, provided of course that the disc has been produced correctly. 

What can we say about its intrinsic performance? The bandwidth is wide, but not the widest we have heard. On the other hand, what characterizes the spectrum reproduced by the Kora is an absolutely remarkable consistency for the price. From the deepest bass to the widest treble, there is no break in the timing. We find this wideband type signature that characterizes the most musical products. This device knows how to demonstrate homogeneity. During listening, we therefore have the sensation of tasting an incredibly coherent message. A bit like a concert. As a second point, we will emphasize the lack of grain that this amplifier demonstrates. Whether on a large symphonic band, or on a small jazz trio, only the substantial sonic essence is transmitted to us, and none of the slag that could pollute it. This feeling, that of purity, is just as exhilarating as the first. The two combined allow us to access the musical message more directly. With the Kora TB140 we are undeniably closer to recorded music. Finally, we had an immense pleasure in feeling the way in which this amplifier is capable of reproducing the sound stage. With him, sound never lives in the listening room in the same way. Each disc has its panorama, its structure, and its space. Your living room thus takes on different proportions depending on what you are listening to. From minimalist it becomes majestic, from intimate it becomes spectacular. The Kora TB140 is thus able to fade completely before the intention of the sound engineer to recreate exactly what the musicians wanted to transmit to us. 

Link do recenzji: Kora TB140 – VUmetre

So, how does the Kora amplifier sound? Rather fantastic! Truly, I was not ready to hear this level of performance from a 5000-euro amplifier. I tried the Kora in both of my systems and with a wide range of cables and no matter the pairing, the Kora is consistently impressive.

Contrary to what one might expect from a hybrid tube amplifier, the TB140 does not sound creamy, fat, overly smooth, or rose-tinted, but rather extremely quick and articulate, super-expressive, and ultra-linear and transparent. Surely the amp’s unique SquareTube concept is debit to this, but its pure and direct sound is no doubt in part also a consequence of the absence of output transformers which in most cases where they are used are responsible for that typically “phat” tube sound.

Indeed, the Kora does not sound like a stereotypical tube amplifier. Nevertheless, it is audible that amplification is done with tubes, not because it has the expected coloration or rounding but because it does not sound like a stereotypical transistor amplifier. The Kora is remarkably pure, direct, and expressive, but it absolutely does not have the mechanical quality, harshness, or metallic edge that plague many transistor designs.

Apart from producing absolutely fantastically precise bass, an arguably more important upside of the Kora’s clean and astute delivery is that it also has a fabulously pure midrange with no added bloom, which strongly reminds me of the best Single Ended Tube amplifiers that I have reviewed in the past, such as those made by Ayon, Line Magnetic, and Melody. Like with these SET amps, the Kora has this amazing ability to portray vocals so crisp and direct, and with such low coloration and artifice, while imbuing them with a quality that I can only describe as human, that it culminates into a highly realistic performance. The big difference, of course, is that the SET amps struggle to produce decent bass even with efficient speakers while the Kora will happily drive any speaker out there.

To truly test the Kora’s power capacity, I brought the amplifier with me to my friend Niels who uses Magico Q5 speakers with a Soulution 711. The Q5s are absolutely notorious for being hard to drive, almost to the level of the Apogee Scintilla. Most tube amplifiers do not apply, not even the Zanden 6000, but lo and behold: the Kora TB140 not only extracts ridiculous amounts of detail with lightning-fast transients and superb bass performance from the Q5s, but it also controls them as if they were mini-monitors. Sure, the Kora does not sound as authoritative and beefy as the 55K Soulution 711 or the leaner 31K CH Precision A1.5 for that matter, but it sounds solid and always in control, even when you crank the volume to levels that I personally find uncomfortably loud. Interestingly, the Kora’s precision worked very nicely with the Q5’s inherent precision to achieve a sound that certainly verged to the analytical side but at the same was not devoid in terms of warmth and provided a fascinating level of insight as well as emotional involvement.

Link do recenzji: Kora TB140 – Hifi-Advice

From minute 1 we forget all about the technology and are drawn into the music. This particular amplifier produces a sound we haven’t heard before. Therefore, we had to search for appropriate vocabulary and finally came up with clean. We have used the terms pure, open, fast before, but clean is something else. Music truly shines through the Beryllium tweeters of our Revels without any edge or glare and everything is produced extremely holographic. A revelation.

We try to describe the sound a little better through some music and start with a bit of jazz. Nica Carrington sings jazz classics on her debut album “Times like these” and does so with panache. This album is ideal not only to test the timbre of instruments but also to check the “justesse” of the female voice. What we hear is close to perfection. The breathing, the accents, the sighs…. Everything is easily perceptible. The Kora TB140 not only lifts our Revels to a higher level, it makes our Sonnet Morpheus come into its own. We are completely immersed in the music and can listen for hours without any stress.

Next album is the new Meskerem Mees. “Ceasar” is full of gems and with this album Mees even surpasses her acclaimed debut. Her typical voice may not be for everyone but at least through this system she sounds crystal clear. There are a lot of quiet songs on this album but a few more complex as well. Although her voice gets most of the attention, the silence between notes is striking. Her guitar playing is intimate and repetitive and when things quiet down like on “Away the sparrow flies,” you can hear all sorts of things happening. The strokes on the strings also come through wonderfully. Every detail is effortlessly audible without distracting from the core of the music. There is no warmth as you might expect with tubes. Rather, it’s the opposite. The reproduction is fresh, fast and transparent.

This amplifier is for the seasoned audiophile who has seen and heard it all. Someone who is ready to drive his favorite speakers with a simple amplifier without the fuss. Just press play and enjoy the music. It can be that simple but rarely is. This amplifier doesn’t hold back and tells you everything that’s on a record, compact disc or stream and it does so in a beautiful way.

Link do recenzji: Kora TB140 – Alpha Audio

Let’s forget all about Square Tube circuits, transformerless tube amps, and tubes in general because none of these things will tell you how the Kora TB140 sounds. In a word, it sounds crystal clear. It sounds pure.

If you’re thinking these descriptors carry negative connotations, clear your mind of those preconceptions because the Kora TB140 also sounds rich and harmonically right, with nary a hint of leanness. I would say one of the aspects of the TB140’s performance that elevates it to — damn this sounds great — levels is this marriage of crystal clear clarity and timbral richness. Add to that an iron-fisted control of the speakers regardless of the music being pumped through it, and we have all the makings of a musically great time.

Another aspect of the Kora’s presentation that came to light when I was spinning some LPs was its ability to pull out every detail in a recording as if it was somehow illuminated from within. I’m not talking about that infamous ‘tube glow’ of warmth like a blanket over everything, rather the opposite effect of revealing what’s on and in a record with a very natural sounding light. “Red Bird Morning” from S.G. Goodman’s Old Time Feeling, I bought the signed copy, shines with Goodman’s radiant powerful voice and every subtle shift and inflection is brought to light by the Kora. I can’t imagine anyone but the most persnickety would find fault with the Kora’s phono stage.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any speakers on hand that are ridiculously difficult to drive and the DeVore O/93s are a real pushover when it comes to amplifier pairing with their 93 dB/W/M sensitivity / 10 ohm load. So the only thing close to a torture test was provided by the Golden Ear BRX standmount speakers whose 90dB sensitivity and nominal impedance stated as being “Compatible with 8 ohms.” The Golden Ear / Kora TB140 pairing produced some very sweet sound, at once delicate and detailed while conveying plenty of body and drive. I have to say I am continually delighted with the Golden Ear BRX and the Kora pulled the same illumination trick with the BRX as it did with the DeVore O/93s, making each recording sound revealed through light. Nick Cave’s emotive quivering cover of T. Rex’s “Cosmic Dancer” was presented with incredible clarity where every nuance in Cave’s voice was there for the taking.

Link do recenzji: Kora TB140 – Twittering Machines

As palavras que a Kora utiliza no seu site descrevem de maneira quase completa as sensações que tive quando das primeiras audições: “A neutralidade do circuito faz com que as micro distorções sejam evitadas quase por completo, proporcionando uma experiência auditiva muito mais natural. Por vezes, uma voz «a capella» parece emergir do nada. A ausência de brilho artificial revela muitos detalhes, transmitindo a sensação de precisão na mensagem. O grande respeito pelo desfasamento nulo dá origem a uma grande precisão espacial de localização de cada instrumento.” Eu não diria melhor.

Num outro tom, ouvir John Coltrane e John Hartman em You Are Too Beautiful foi uma verdadeira delícia em face do calor e presença na sala da voz de Hartman, sem quaisquer sibilâncias nos sons mais agudos, e verdadeiramente maravilhosa separação entre os sons vocais e os dos instrumentos, o que proporcionava uma claríssima distinção dos mais pequenos detalhes e me fazia sentir quase como se estivesse num pequeno clube de jazz em frente ao piano de McCoy Tyner e do baixo de Jimmy Garrisson, ambos com uma presença quase física mas nunca colidindo no espaço. Uma beleza de ouvir.

O TB140 fez uma parelha de primeira água com as ESL 63, fazendo-as cantar na gama média, emitindo sons de sopro e madeiras de um modo suave e ao mesmo tempo lúcido, sem qualquer lampejo de coloração, ao nível dos grandes sons que dela tenho ouvido. E foi isso que me fez revisitar Johnny Cash cantado In Your Mind, uma canção que começa, como muitas deste cantor, com Cash como elemento principal, cantando e tocando guitarra, e a banda em ano de fundo, assim como que um nadinha dispersa. À media que a canção avança, todos os músicos, muitos deles grande nomes, assumem maior relevância, com especial destaque para Ry Cooder e seu electric slide, e os limites do palco sonoro alargam-se, ficando este mais «povoado». O certo ponto, a voz quase sepulcral de Cash é secundada por um coro de seis harmónicas vocais e é mesmo impressionante perceber, fundamentalmente em função da verosimilhança com que a voz de Cash é reproduzida e pelas capacidades espaciais do TB140, que os intérpretes da harmónica rodeiam quase totalmente Johnny, formando um conjunto altamente coeso, embora sempre com perfeita definição do posicionamento de todo e cada um, quase como que ficando sob a luz de um holofote de cada vez que intervém com mais vigor.

Link do recenzji: Kora TB140 – Audio & Cinema em Casa

Link: Kora TB140 – Hifi-Advice – Highly Recommended Award

Link: Kora TB140 – Twittering Machines – Favorite Amplifiers