Birth of a GK-1R

fred · « **on:** 8 Feb 2004, 04:14 am »

My GK-1R was born in early January. I mentioned this elsewhere, but I felt the event was deserving of a post of its own!

I am so extremely delighted with the quality of this gem. I have been listening to music through it for several weeks now, with complete rapture. The most noticeable attributes to my ears are 1) vocals - which sound so natural, it's scary; 2) imaging - the musicians have moved from being bunched up, shoulder to shoulder to wide spacing between them. This seems like magic, pure and simple. 3) dynamics - it's as if a governor has been removed, allowing the full dynamics, from softest notes to loudest, to be properly reproduced. 4) clarity - plucks of the guitar, keys on the piano, pulls of the violin bow... all are defined.

Oh yes, the remote control features work extremely well. In fact, I have utilized this to allow extensive A/B testing, so that I can be confident that my opinions are not based on placebo effect.

Having been one of the lucky participants of the prototype GK-1 road trip, long before the kit was available, I had an idea what to expect. However, the production model proved to be even more. Although I can't pretend to remember every nuance of the prototype's presentation, I clearly recall one slight deficiency of the prototype: bass response was somewhat lacking. This was unquestionably corrected in the production version: bass is extremely strong - in a very natural way. My GK-1 seems as near perfect as a preamp can be.

Congratulations to Hugh on a magnificent product! I sincerely hope you get the robust sales that you deserve!

Cylon · « **Reply #1 on:** 8 Feb 2004, 12:33 pm »

Having participated at the AKSAfest in Sydney last year I can't wait untill I get my grubby hands on one for myself... of course a bit of over-indulgence at xmas (built speakers for presents for some friends) has meant I've had to put the big buy off a little. But once I got my beasties into a listening room other than the echo chamber the GK1 really did add to the sound stage as you said, in fact in a prior demo at Mal's I found I could almost imagine the vocalists HEAD being in front of me rather than just the sound. Weird. Impressive. Of course after getting the GK1 there's the other 5 channels of amplification for the surround sound to cater for... 5 more channels of Nirvana 100 and TLP's maybe

resign my NAD receiver to just surround sound decoding duties.

dayneger · « **Reply #2 on:** 8 Feb 2004, 04:53 pm »

Congrats on getting your GK-1R together, Fred! Have you thought of posting some pictures?

Mine is moving along slowly due to a heavy workload

. I should be releasing the major sheet metal parts in the next couple of days, though, and the main preamp board is already together. . .

Cheers,

Dayne

Brad · « **Reply #3 on:** 9 Feb 2004, 12:43 am »

Way to go Fred!

Sounds like we need to have a Houston Audio Fest

AKSA · « **Reply #4 on:** 9 Feb 2004, 10:37 am »

Hi Fred,

Thanks for the kind words on the GK1 - in turn my thanks go out to Darl Singh who did all the building and critical listening. I only muttered the spells!

I must admit that the soundstage took the most time. Being able to achieve such a radical expansion of the existing sound stage was, frankly, a huge surprise to Darl and me; we suspected we could tease out more definition of the acoustic space, but never realized we could extract so much more dimension, including incredible depth, and amazingly, height. We even identified components which were responsible for these attributes, and manipulated them very carefully to get the most fulsome image.

For those zealously putting in Rikens in their GK1s, don't overdo it. They will cost definition/detail.

Brad, you need to boogie down to Fred's at Medicine Bow..... Y'all talk, OK?

Thanks for your comments, Shayne (Cylon). You picked it in one...

Today signed off on the front panel for the GK-150/160. First one getting very close now......

Cheers,

Hugh

fred · « **Reply #5 on:** 11 Feb 2004, 02:01 am »

Indeed, Brad - you're welcome to visit. Email me fredonly@earthlink.net

Regarding the Riken's - Hugh likely raises this issue because I had initially gone overboard with them. Consequently the high frequencies were sliced off. I restored back to all stock resistors, and it began singing right. I will experiment more cautiously with these in the future.

Brad · « **Reply #6 on:** 11 Feb 2004, 02:44 am »

Hey Fred,

YGM.
Can't wait to hear the AKSA gear.
I can bring a good digital camera if you want to post some pics.

fred · « **Reply #7 on:** 12 Feb 2004, 06:07 pm »

Leave your camera at home! My AKSA was not built for looks. It would be hideous were it exposed to public view; it's actually hidden behind my center channel speaker, so looks are irrelevant. My GK-1R is marginally more attractive - from a distance of 100 meters, it looks OK, but nothing to brag about.

My strategy is to mislead thieves who might break in. They'll steal the cheap-sounding flashy-looking gear, and leave the tacky looking, quality components behind.