KRONOS PRO LIMITED PRODUCTION Turntable (250 units worldwide).
Kronos Audio turntables from Canada, have been around for some years and have received a number of positive reviews from a number of audio reviewers. This is the brainchild of designer, Louis Desjardins who is a Canadian of French descent.
I was hoping that this well designed turntable be represented here in Malaysia but then, the nearest distributor is in Singapore. I did travelled there just to see and hear the Kronos Pro turntable. My then impression of it is positive.
This year, HiFiCreation of Malaysia contacted me that they have been appointed as the sole distributor of Kronos Audio. You can imagine how excited I am to hear this and my excitement was further increased when I was invited for a dinner with Louis. That dinner session with Louis proved to me that this well designed turntable came from a well knowledgeable person. Our conversation was most fruitful and informative. We ended that session with an invitation to have that turntable in my home for some serious listening.
On that faithful night, after the KLAV 2015 show, Victor Pheh of HiFiCreation, James Chin of OceanFive Loudspeaker and Louis came carrying a big flight case containing the Kronos Pro turntable. It is heavy and required at least two person to carry and more so to lift it up to my solid wood rack of 43″ high. Louis set up the Kronos Pro rig that comprised of the Black Beauty tone arm and the ZYX Premium Universe cartridge, to my system personally.
Louis brought over some of his personal vinyl albums. He started the session with Dave Brubeck’s Take Five where he directed our attention to the piano played. The way each piano key being sustained and the strings attached to each key. That instance made me realized how profoundly clear the Kronos Pro combination is able to present piano in all its glory, presence, weight and with substance. Louis shared to us all that the piano is one of the difficult musical instrument to recreate or playback by any source component. He believes that the Kronos Pro is able to capture the Piano as it is supposed to be (given that the recording can do justice to the Kronos Pro, of course).
After that Louis is pleased with the Kronos Pro set up in my system, I was encouraged to play tunes that I am used to. I played the Count Basie and His Orchestra’s Me and You (Pablo 2310-891) and immediately I realized that at the same volume, the dynamic and transient at the lower region seemed cleaner, clearer and more. The low bass went lower than what I am used to. Louis explained to me that the counter rotation of the lower platter coupled with the other designed features in the Kronos Pro contributed to the possibility to retrieve another octave of low bandwidth information. The result is a cleaner, clearer and deeper bass.
Another feature I find interesting here is the accuracy of the speed of rotation in either 33.3 rpm or 45 rpm. In addition to that, you will be treated with one of the faster start up and speed change from 33.3 rpm to 45 rpm ( compare to the TechDas Air Force One ) to a number of high tech turntables out in the current market. I find that rotation stability is the key importance from a good turntable to a great one. The Kronos Pro’s speed rotation is controlled by, not one chip used in some Digital to Analogue devices, but a few of them. “I am here for the result”, as some of you are interested. I do hear a fuller body in any musical instrument recorded.
There seem to be more energy stored in each musical instrument. You can feel the energy being purported or directed at you. This is excitement or liveliness in a presentation. Some believe that such property in the presentation may be the result of a suspended table but many such table lack the control and definition especially in the lower region. The Kronos Pro will give you the desired or positive attributes of a suspended table and add the control and definition that are so lacking in many suspended tables, which resulted in the rise of the high mass turntables.
My impression of this turntable throughout its short stay in my audio system is that it present music with accuracy and energy that very few turntables that I have came across manage to do the same and even fewer are able to surpass the Kronos Audio Pro Limited turntable. My final word is, “I am going to listen to Analogue Production ‘Festival’ by Reiner/Chicago Symphony, before it is taken out from my audio den”.
Dato’ Danon Han