Klark Teknik KT-2A

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Here some pictures of my changes !!!

 

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I would like to know if i Can swapp the 3 caps C28, C 35 et C37 by caps WIMA ?? 

 

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Here is the picture with caps !!

 

[FarisElek]

Of course you can, you can swap anything you want if you want. It may not make much of a difference though.

 

[Whoops]

Now I can fully compress the sound without saturation !!!

I love saturation

 

[FarisElek]

I love saturation

Same.
But I think in this case it might be more that the compression is less obvious than the saturation of the tubes and transformer, which regrettably, isn’t much in this unit, it’s very clean sounding. Which some people are into.

Ryan

 

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Exactly !!!
I record acoustic music and i was looking for a clean opto comp !!
Now, i have one !
I've made more pictures of the pcbs.
I can post them if that Can help !
Tell me.

 

[vintagelove]

Just got a pair, WOW. Here’s a copy of a review I made.

TL;DR Buy It


.......


I just plugged in the pair, and I am blown away. I currently have among others an atomic squeezebox, a 6386 Manley Vari Mu. I have had DBX, Federal, RCA, GE, MaxxBCL, Focusrite, etc. New.... old.... Used a bunch more.


I don’t even know what to say. These are every bit as useful as anything I’ve had. Quieter, and with a more extended frequency response than many.

Worth 3x the price? I don’t know, you could argue they sound it. Though to be completely fair at that price I would expect all through hole components.

These should be practically a mandatory buy for those who are just starting out. Especially for folks who aren’t comfortable with lots of knobs on a compressor. It’s so quiet you would really have to work to screw up the noise floor, and it’s action and recovery are very smooth. Pretty hard to screw up. Even if you’re far from a beginner, this is one of those boxes that the price gets forgotten about 5 minutes after plugging it in, and it becomes another tool in your arsenal. And a quite capable tool at that.


One last thing. If the first thing that you think of when you hear about these KT products, is changing the Midas transformers, you’ve been hanging out on GS too long. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve all hung out here too much. However there really is nothing to worry about with these. I just happen to have recently shot out several high-end transformers (like old utc LS etc), and these sound good. The only fair comparison I can think of right now is this. I certainly prefer the sonics of this KT, to a UA LA610. Do people think about swapping UA transformers immediately?

Yeah, I know.... I do too...


Anyway the point is, these are great, if you’ve been thinking about buying one, do it. I have had historically bad luck with shipping, and I had a fairly pleasant experience with ordering from musicstore. I’ll likely be doing it again.

Stay safe folks, have a great day.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Quieter, and with a more extended frequency response than many.

Can you substantiate that with some measurements, or audio files comparing before/after?

Though to be completely fair at that price I would expect all through hole components.

What do you mean? TH vs. SMD? SMT is not an inferior technology. Just a PITN to rework.

. I certainly prefer the sonics of this KT, to a UA LA610.

Apples and oranges...

 

[vintagelove]

Can you substantiate that with some measurements, or audio files comparing before/after?
What do you mean? TH vs. SMD? SMT is not an inferior technology. Just a PITN to rework.
Apples and oranges...

Sure, look at the specs for many vintage compressors/limiters, then compare them to the KT. For instance, there was a piece that I had a long while back I was considering picking up when I saw it again, an old
RCA limiter.  Cool piece, cool sound, but a not so cool noise floor and comparatively limited frequency response. It’s kind of hard to look at an old crusty box that I know I’m going to have to put a bunch of work into, when these guys (I’ve seen some other really affordable, really nice  clones as well) are available.

I don’t know what you mean by before and after clips, are you confusing my posts for someone else?


Yes, that was my point with the smt comment. It doesn’t bother me that much, but if they were $1000, I would expect through hole construction, because there are other offerings using it at that price point. Also, my review was overly positive, so there had to be something critical in it. Performance wise, I just didn’t find much to criticize.


Overpriced low headroom apples vs mind boggling’ ly cheap oranges that do the apples job arguably better, I’d say.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Overpriced low headroom apples vs mind boggling’ ly cheap oranges that do the apples job arguably better, I’d say.

You can't really compare the sound of a preamp+EQ+comp combo with a simple compressor.

 

[vintagelove]

You can't really compare the sound of a preamp+EQ+comp combo with a simple compressor.

You can certainly compare their value.


You can certainly compare the performance of their compressors.



It’s certainly fair game to point out the 610 had some glaring faults at 5x the price.  I don’t want to rag on it any more as not to offend anyone who owns one.  Suffice to say, if I had a dynamic performer in front of the mic, and it was a CRITICAL take, I would plug into the KT  Over the UA 10/10 times.

 

[living sounds]

Wait until you have exchanged the tubes in the signal path for decent ones...  8)

 

[dickiefunk]

Hi,

I'm new on here and have the KT-2a (along with the KT-76 and EQP-KT). When I bought these to try I wasn't expecting a lot and thought I'd be sending them back but they have really exceeded my expectations!

I am considering changing the optocell after hearing demos of the Kenetek and Black Lion upgrades as I preferred what I was hearing after the change. Black Lion advertised their T4BLA as a direct plug and play swap but I'm unsure how this will effect the metering? However, I'm not entirely sure how accurate the meter is stock?
I heard the engineer Joe Carrell say that with his Warm Audio clones, you are getting a little more compression than what the needle is saying? Would I be correct in guessing this would be the case with the KT-2a?

I actually like the saturation of the KT-2a in moderate amounts. I like the subtle thickening it adds and I noticed that with the Kenetek T4b and Black Lion T4BLA they thickened the tone a little more.

Which of the optocells would work best in the KT-2a without re-calibration and give the thickest and smoothest tone?

Also, what valves would you recommend for smoothing out the highs and adding a little more depth to the tone? Ideally I'd like these to have even lower noise without reducing the gain output?

 

[FarisElek]

"I am considering changing the optocell after hearing demos of the Kenetek and Black Lion upgrades as I preferred what I was hearing after the change. Black Lion advertised their T4BLA as a direct plug and play swap but I'm unsure how this will effect the metering? However, I'm not entirely sure how accurate the meter is stock?
I heard the engineer Joe Carrell say that with his Warm Audio clones, you are getting a little more compression than what the needle is saying? Would I be correct in guessing this would be the case with the KT-2a?"

I didn't test my meters functionality before installing the Kenetek. But, with the kenetek (maybe stock) the ratio if compression is different than the meter. So I'm always 1-3db behind where it says depending where Its says I am on the meter. This shouldn't really be a problem as you should be applying compression by ear. When you adjust the meter to the new kenetek or Black Lion you can just get an idea of what you're looking at my applying however many dbs of compression and monitoring the voltage.


"Which of the optocells would work best in the KT-2a without re-calibration and give the thickest and smoothest tone?"

If Black Lion says that its a drop-in, then I guess that one. The Kenetek I spent sometime trying to recalibrate my machine. Not that it was hard. I was just trying to figure out how to make the meter work accurately enough for me. I think I worked on making 3-7 most accurate because I figured I'd be in that area the most. Leaving compression under 3db and over 7db fairly inaccurate.

"Also, what valves would you recommend for smoothing out the highs and adding a little more depth to the tone? Ideally I'd like these to have even lower noise without reducing the gain output?"

I used NOS RCA for both. The way I'd describe the sound characteristics is that there was nothing noticeably different in the highs or lows, but there was a solid change in the "girth" of the signal. Overall it's very transparent. I'd recommend Mullard's typically to someone trying to tone things down in the high. However, I personally don't think tube swaps effect the signal as much as they would in other equipment.

The modifications I personally recommend are a new t4b, change the big yellow 10uf output cap to a higher quality mundorf or similar pro audio cap, and then an optional tube swap for NOS RCA, or in your case Mullard. In that order of most noticeable to least noticeable.

This is my personal opinion based on my ears. I have no measurements.

 

[jazzcrisis]

I'd like to point out that I found tube swapping to be pretty much useless in these units. There's so much negative feedback going on in the circuit that it obliterates any sonic differences. I A/B'd between stock, all NOS RCA, all NOS Telefunken, and some various other stuff and in no case did I hear any difference.

 

[dickiefunk]

Thanks for the replies. Yes the Black Lion optocell does look like a good option.

Did you notice any difference in noise when swapping tubes?

 

[vintagelove]

Personally, I am hoping Uri puts out the opto 3 pack for $50 somewhere down the road.

 

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as FarisElek said, I changed the big yellow capacitor and the sound changed completely (for the better).

 

[dickiefunk]

Thanks for the advice. How difficult is it to change the yellow capacitor?

Did you notice any difference in noise with the changed T4b, Mundorf capacitor and upgraded tubes?