That’s right Morgan has both. Any early impressions you’d like to share Ben? This is in the same spot the Kismet was in use?
Same components as the Kismet, but I’ve actually been using a Folsom amp I DIY’d last year. So it’s been a while since the Kismet was in the system. I also moved to DC this summer and live in a row house, so a VERY different listening room than what you’re familiar with from my Tucson place.
I got the amp about ten days ago and the family was gone all last week, so I got about 20 hours on it then. Tom also kindly put about 100 hours on it in their shop before sending to me to give me a head start on break in. But it will only get maybe 2-4 hours a week of use moving forward due to lifestyle changes and shared space now. So it’s gonna be a while before I can say it’s reliably finished settling.
I can say that it was initially very impressive, then started to have some doubts over the next couple days, but was really growing on me more and more toward the latter part of the week. But final conclusions will await comparisons with the Folsom and Kismet - if I ever get there.
One great thing about it is it's completely silent - which is an accomplishment with the high sensitivity Zu ODW's I use. I've always had some hum or noise between my Don Sachs pre and either the Kismet or Folsom amp. Folsom has less for sure, but still there (I still need to keep tweaking the grounding scheme I think, because it's also showing more noise than it should in the TV system right now too). But for the first time in years, I finally don't hear anything at all when the system is on and idling. That reason alone might be enough for me to want to keep it.
Of course, I'm also very curious what the hyper power supply upgrade would do to the Kismet. My amp was manufactured in 2014 or 2015, I think, so the caps are now starting to move beyond top performance (Klaus recommends replacing them after 7 years if you're after top performance). I asked Klaus about the upgrade at CAF this weekend, and he said he'd be waiting on parts until April at this point if I put in the order now. But he cited a more than reasonable dollar amount, so maybe I should put down the deposit and get that process started.