Price Paid:  $800.00 from ---------

Summary:
THE PRE AMP IS A TWEAKERS HEAVEN THERE ARE SIX OP,AMPS THEY ARE PHILLIPS, CHANGE FOR BURR BROWN OPA 132P FROM RS COMPONENTS. CHANGE THE INTERCONECT WIRE FROM THE VOLUME POT. THERE ARE 8 ORANGE PHILLIPS CAPS VERY POOR. PEPLACE WITH POLYPROPLENE FROM MAPLINS METALLISED TYPE £148 EACH GIVE TIME TO RUN IN THEN BE YOU WILL HAVE A PREA AMP THAT WILL BE AS GOOD AS HI END PREA AMPS COSTING £1000, TO £2000 IT IS A MASSIVE IMPROVMENT MIND. NOW THERES THE POWER AMP REPLACE THE SPEAKER WIRE ITS POOR MAINS WIRE THAT STRANGLES THE SOUND THEN CHANGE THE RESISTORS 4 ON EACH SIDE THEY ARE 3WATT 0R47 REPLACE WITH VISHAY NON IN.DUCTIVE RCH25 FROM RS WHEN FINISHED YOU WILL HAVE A PRE AND POWER YOU WONT GET RID OF EVER. HONESTLY YOU WILL LOVE THIS SOUND MORE OF WHAT YOUR ALL READY GETTING AND MUCH MORE ELSE WHERE

Strengths:
BIG OPEN SOUND STAGE GREAT VOCALS GOOD WITH ROCK POP GOOD ALL ROUNDER

Weaknesses:
UN MODIFIED ITS A WARM. NICE VOCALS.GOOD BASS CAN SOUND DULL

Similar Products Used:
QUAD 306 NAIM NAP 140

Price Paid:  $800.00 from lintone audio

Summary:
upgrade this beauty change the internal speaker cable with high quality speaker cable. the cable inside the anp is poor mains cable massive improvements if you own a kraken pre amp then change the op amps to burr brown opa132ap great sound when run in by the way there is six email for more help wwwcalclaire@aol there will be no charge for my help best of luck john

Strengths:
with upgrade warm sweet trebble open clean very good

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
naim nap140 nap 160 orelle p150

Price Paid:  $900.00

Summary:
Forgive my friend John, who is a little demanding in his tastes. He was talking about a particular piece of classical music and recording that is more demanding than a normal classical orchestral work. That particular recording of Beethoven's 9th will definately stress even the best of equipments.

Overall an excellent product. Detailed with a tube like smooth sound with no trace of grit! Delicious...

I only listened to it through my friend John's system. And he is pairing them with Klipsch speakers which is known for dynamics and as the icing on the cake he has a great soundroom. Imagine dynamics combined with smoothness & detail! I must say his setup sounds very good even comparing to gear costing ten times as much.

I shall give it four stars. Only perfect equipments should get 5. Like passing my friend's so called test. :-)

Price Paid:  $633.00

Summary:
I've bought the APD6A (NOT THE APD8A - THIS MODEL IS A POWER AMPLIFIER), as un ex-demo at a bargain price. My other components are:
Digital Souces: Marantz 53 (as a transport), Philips DCC-951.
DAC: Parasound 1100
Analog souce: Thorens 321/Rega RB300/Grado MF1+ (with Project MM/MC preamplifier)
Speakers: Chario Delphinus

I agree with most of reviewers about the warm, musical sound of the KRAKEN. On the contrary, I disagree with John about its performance in large scale classical music.

I'm a fun of classical music (orchestral, chamber and selected operas). Especially for large-scale orchestral works, I've tested the KRAKEN with high quality digital (Alexander Nevsky/TELARC, Verdi's Requiem/TELARC, Night on the bare mountain (Dutoit)/DECCA, Shostakovitch Symphony No. 10 (Jansons)/EMI) and analog recordings (Firebird/Shefield, Sound samples from the Ortofon's test record).

At all levels the sound remains warm, detailed and clear, with great dynamics and bass. Brasses and cymbals are bright with full body, but not hard or annoying. Vocals are impressive (of course). No sign of the distortion John reported.

I (probably) agree that this box might not being suitable for hard - rock jamming. But for acoustic organs and especially classical music I recommend it with no doubt.

Concerning its driving capabilities, the Kraken drove my 4 ohms speakers at high levels with no problem.

Strengths:
Warm and musical. Rich and full sound body with great bass, but with no compromise in detail. Very robust construction.

Weaknesses:
Unreliable phono module. Needs air - conditioning room in summer.

Price Paid:  $900.00

Summary:
Now with the correct kind of music, these may be the best deal available. I pretty much agree with the previous reviewers on the sound on other types of music.

However I am a classical music fan and unfortunately for the kraken I listen mostly to symphonies and sometimes a solo concerto. I almost do not listen to quartets or perhaps only once in a blue blue moon.

Although it is fine when playing pianissimo, everything becomes muddy when playing fortissimmo. The horns blur up the entire image and sometimes I cannot hear the strings at all. The cello and double bass is reduced to a noteless unmusical grumble.

Try finding a full version of Beethoven's symphony no.9(full version is 60 mins long, not the abridged one that is so common). There is a huge powerful part at the end of the last movement of the symphony where the entire choral will sing at the top of their lungs and all the strings(violin,viola,cello,double bass,etc ALL strings) will also play at their loudest possible, the entire horns section will blast away and the bass drum will pound like there is no tommorow.

At that point, it is so badly distorted the sopranos do not sound human anymore and i cannot AT ALL make out the words they ought to singing. However if you do not bother to listen out for the different instrument and just "gulp" the entire resultant sound, it is still somewhat musical and i still enjoyed the music very much, beethoven's intended feelings for the listener in that piece did shine through, but the fact remains it was heavily distorted.

3 stars- listenable, but could be better.

Strengths:
Very musical. Smooth. Warm sounding. Analogue like. Great with jazz.

Weaknesses:
Sound distorts easily on large scale orchestral classical works.