Hi guys, I have been a bit silent since HK, mostly because I have simply been jet-lagged initially and then buried. I did a brief demonstration at the LA&OC Audio Society the week after returning from HK, thanks to the gracious invite of Mr. Bob Levi. Since then, my employees, contractors and friends have been very busy making our new production facility move-in ready. This has been a project that has taken longer than expected, but represents a SIGNIFICANT increase in overall space and the addition of a beautiful music room, a large enough office/workshop for me to work more efficiently and a greatly improved and more efficient factory space also.
The amplifier has taken longer than expected to complete, but WILL be used at RMAF. It has evolved in good and meaningful ways. I brought a static version of the very first prototype to HK with me and received input about aesthetic, specific operation requests, etc., that were all taken into consideration and many incorporated in the final design. The overall dim's of the unit are: 8"Hx18"Wx17"D. Packed weight ~ 75lb. It bears strong family resemblance to the LS 36.5 and PS 36.5 in terms of overall build quality, with some slight aesthetic differences that I believe will be welcome by all.
Inside, the unit is all dual-mono and fully differential, with RCA and XLR inputs. Both RCA and XLR inputs operate fully balanced within the unit. The design is transformer coupled at the input and fully differential and direct-coupled past that point. There are NO capacitors in the signal path. Of course MWI caps are used for PS decoupling however. Aside from a single power cord and power on/off button, the internal design is completely dual-mono. We utilize two power transformers, installed in a specific and unique noise-cancelling geometry, with discrete input and output circuits, discrete capacitor power reserve banks = 80,000uf per channel. Each channel features towering blue-anodized custom heat sinks, sized to handle the heavily Class A biased output of state of the art Thermal-Track output devices. The proprietary input stage uses all discrete devices and is dubbed the 'Solid State Music Stage' by designer Alan Kimmel.
The unit is bridgeable into mono, hence the third set of binding posts.
Tonally, the unit is voiced to give the beauty of tubes with the power, control and low maintenance of SS. The output devices feature a unique auto-thermal bias circuit and have incredible bandwidth. As MWI customers would expect, it uses top quality components throughout and is designed with 'Elegance.Simplicity.Truth' in mind.
Thanks to Alan Kimmel for his exceptional design brilliance with this product, without which the KWA 150 (Kimmel-Wright-Amp 150) would not have been a possibility.
Intro price for the KWA 150 = $5295 (MSRP = $5995).
Beyond travel, the new shop, amp design, continued production work on our 9.0SE, 36.5 series products and of course the Digital Star product of '08 - The Transporter - we are moving forward with yet more new ideas and innovations for both the immediate and not-so-distant future.
Thank you ALL again for your continued patronage and support.
Take care and be well!
Dan W.
