What started life as the Emitter integrated amplifier has involved into the Emitter II Exclusive HV, a distinctly (dis)integrated, four box amplifier: four big boxes at that! This is an integrated amp, in the sense that the entire audio circuit is contained in a single (albeit very large) chassis, but it is accompanied by no fewer than three external power supplies, each in its own, substantial, full-width chassis. That means that in terms of real-estate, this equates to a two-box line-stage and a pair of mono-blocs! Given its pedigree, I think we can take quality performance as a given. Nor is it any sort of shrinking violet, delivering 450Watts into an 8Ω load, 800Watts into 4Ω and 1,500 into 2Ω!
All of which makes its €35,000 asking price all the more remarkable, coming in as it does, well-below the price of most integrated amps from the high-end competition, let alone their separates. Once a ‘reference’ component in the most exalted of company, with over four-decades of steady evolution, just how high a high-end product is the Emitter these days? Has its performance been overtaken as comprehensively as its asking price?
The Kora CSA 1200 mono-blocs
Although Kora the company has existed for several decades, it was acquired and duly transformed in 2017, by Bruno Vander Elst, something of a French electronics gun-for-hire who has worked as a consultant for many of the most respected French audio manufacturers. The current Kora products bear no relation to those earlier designs. Instead, they are hybrid designs, based around the unique, Square Tube driver stage, a novel configuration that employs four twin-triodes in a symmetrical topology to create an inherently stable and balanced voltage amplifier. That is then paired with a heavily filtered power supply and solid-state output stage that delivers the necessary current for the amplifier’s rated Class A output.
Class A, or at least, claiming Class A output has always been a contentious issue. Amplifiers like the Mark Levinson ML-2 and Classé Audio DR3-HC adopted an almost brutal approach to full current delivery, all of the time, but not without associated challenges: the ML-2s ran so hot that after a couple of years, their black anodised chassis turned brown! Since then, we’ve seen plenty of different pseudo or ‘clever’ designs that claim Class A benefits without the downsides. Kora is the latest in that long line, although their approach is both simpler and closer to Pure Class A operation: the amplifier monitors the incoming signal, switching to a higher current delivery as required, keeping the output devices running in Class A. Typically realistic, that claim only relates to operation with 8Ω loads. Lower impedance speakers will drive the output stage into Class AB at times – although the amplifier will still remain predominantly Class A.
Kora produces two chassis sizes in its Class A range, each available in stereo or mono form and delivering 2x 70W/Ch, 1x 150W/Ch, 2x 120W/Ch or in the case of these, the largest mono-blocs, 2x 200W/Ch. The smallest stereo chassis starts at €19,800, while the CSA-1200s weigh in at 45kg and a price of €30,000 each. On paper or in person, backed up by a stellar reputation, anyway you look at these Koras, you are getting an awful lot of amp(s) – in every sense – for your money. Maybe, just maybe, Kora is the company to finally deliver on the clever Class A promise.
The Diptyque Reference 2 loudspeaker
Planar magnetic (or isodynamic) drivers and loudspeakers have been around, if not from the year dot, then certainly from the dawn of the high-end, most visibly in the distinctive shape of the Magneplanar loudspeaker line. Inherently robust and relatively low-tech in terms of construction (and thus relatively affordable too), the Maggies have been one of the most popular and enduring high-end loudspeaker designs – albeit one with distinct sonic compromises, mainly in terms of dynamic range and sensitivity.
