Instruction manual

30
Australian
ON TESTON TEST
Modwright KWI 200 Integrated Amplifi er
captivated by all the works on it, I was blown
away by the Praeludium in G Minor, which
is simply amazing, for both its concept and
execution. I can do no better than quote
O’Donnell’s liner notes, which say in part:
‘its striking opening section, in particular, seems
to lack either predecessors or successors. The
lyrical theme of the central fugue is worked
out effortlessly at considerable length, while
the closing section showers us with descending
broken chords, often harmonically unexpected.’
As you’d expect of O’Donnell, who is an
exponent of Bach and world-renowned as
both an organist and harpsichordist, his
playing is crisp and wonderfully precise
(and a harpsichord is unforgiving if you’re
not!), perfectly revealing the attributes of
the score that he described in words. I was
amazed by the expression O’Donnell was
able to imbue in the music—far in excess of
what I’ve heard from any other exponent of
the harpsichord. No doubt he was aided by
a marvellous instrument, built by William
Bright in 1995, the sonics of which have been
captured perfectly by Melba, but all credit
to O’Donnell—his playing is exceptional.
I had the volume of the KWI 200 turned
up ‘way too high for realistic harpsichord
reproduction, so I was really forcing the
amplifi er to produce both the transients and
the sonorities, but the Modwright responded
effortlessly. The amplifi er was also able to
reveal those essential but elusive
‘silences between the notes’ thanks
to an ultra-low noise fl oor, and
the sense of me being able to hear
the venue’s acoustic was uncanny.
Needless to say, if you love music,
you should buy this disc. It seems
incredible that were it not for the
fact that J.S. Bach (and his children)
made copies of Böhm’s scores,
most likely for academic purposes,
the works on this disc may have
been lost forever. As you’ll hear for
yourself, that would have been a
tragedy.
Recognising that the harpsichord
is not a popular instrument, even
amongst keyboardists, I auditioned
the KWI 200 with my full gamut of
‘discs that I use for evaluation’ so
that there was barely an instrument
that I didn’t hear during the weeks I
had the KWI 200 on loan… though
I did draw the line at banjo and
harp. I also made sure I listened to
everything from solo instruments
(and voice) through to orchestral
and choral works. Never once in
all my listening to all these genres
did I hear the KWI 200 set a foot
wrong, no matter whether I was
listening at whisper-quiet levels
in the dead of night, or annoying
the hell out of my neighbours on sunny
weekend afternoons by playing rock ‘n roll
at rock concert levels. Modwright’s KWI
200 took everything in its stride, delivering
note-perfect reproduction without raising
so much as a sweat… as if saying ‘is that all
you got? And, where one would expect such
a powerful amplifi er to excel at dynamic
realism (and it did), the KWI 200 also
excelled when it came to microdynamics
as well, with not even the smallest musical
details escaping its attention. And where
some high-power amplifi ers can sound a little
harsh, and some solid-state amplifi ers can
sound a little too clinical, neither description
was true of the Modwright, whose sound
I found was more akin to that of a valve
amplifi er, with a defi nite warmth and fullness
of sound across the audio spectrum. The
spectral balance was, in general, excellent,
with no one part dominating over the other
but I found that the spectral balance did alter
subtly but quite audibly depending on what
loudspeakers I connected to the KWI 200, so
that with larger, fl oorstanding loudspeakers
with a low impedance there seemed to be a
little more ‘bloom’ in the bass than there was
in similar models with higher impedances,
or with stand-mount designs, so in this area
as well, the Modwright’s performance is also
reminiscent of valve designs, where correct
speaker selection is so essential in achieving
the desired sound quality.
My sessions were made much easier by
the useability of the KWI 200’s remote, and
particularly because the up/down controls
on the remote worked magnifi cently well,
adjusting volume quickly and smoothly and
instantaneously, making operation from the
listening position a true delight. It turned
out that Dan Wright is one of those very
few designers who has the good sense to
make the ‘Mute’ control work exactly as it’s
supposed to work, so that the amplifi er will
unmute itself automatically if you touch
either of the volume buttons on the remote,
or the volume control on the front panel.
My only regret was that the remote’s curvy
exterior meant I could not stand it on its end
on the coffee table alongside my listening
chair.
CONCLUSION
As mentioned previously, the KWI 200
loaned to me for this review didn’t have
the phono and DAC options fi tted, and so I
couldn’t help wondering if I’d option them
in if I were buying this amplifi er. I’ve decided
that I wouldn’t, and that I wouldn’t even if
they were available for free! I liked the KWI
200 just the way it is, so I’d personally rec-
ommend you buy the plain, basic KWI 200.
It’s a great amplifi er: powerful, well-built, and
honest.
greg borrowman
LAB REPORT ON PAGE 90