Introduction

Kora, like most of you may already know, is a French manufacturer that started up its activity in 1990 in Toulouse. The beginnings were not in the Hi-fi field but as a supplier to Aerospatiale (a French aerospace company).
Their Web site includes their whole story, which I will summon up here.
The small team of engineers, in consideration of their common passion for music, in a short while turn their professional background in engineering Hi-end tube amplifiers.
In 1994 they produce their maiden gear, the DA30 integrated amplifier under test herein. In 1995 it is developed the first power amplifier relying on the then almost unknown 6C33CB and, from that moment on, the product range keeps on widening.
Today Kora’s product line includes four integrated amplifiers, four power amplifiers, one D/A converter and two preamplifiers.

Construction

The DA 30 is a 30W push-pull, integrated amplifier.
The tubes used are 4 EL34 and 3 ECC81 all manufactured by Electro Harmonix, and on the package of each valve its mounting position (keeping the amplifier in front of you) is indicated, a good indication of the care and reliability of the manufacturer.
Four inputs, all line ones, a tape recorder connection and a bridge to split the pre section from its power amplifier (we’ll go further into this) are present. Strangely, only two speakers output connectors are present, while usually in amplifiers with an output transformer there are several connectors to provide a better match with different load impedance.
On the front panel, from left to right, we find the power switch, a selector to choose among inputs, tape or straight input (this latter to be selected to use the power amp section alone). In the case of using this one I RECOMMEND to operate the switch after turning the unit off, under the penalty of a terrifying “THUMP” in your speakers – I well know what I’m talking about. Going on, wee find the input selector and the volume control.
The look is a rather peculiar one, I don’t go wild for it, but other people may like it.
Inside the unit we find a good level assemble; the layout is a well done one and the components are all of a high quality level; in particular we have ultra fast AC/DC converter diodes, Kendeil electrolytic caps and a plastic film volume control.

Sound

The DA 30 shows an extremely enjoyable sound, under any aspect.
The frequency response proves to be well balanced, reserving to all the ranges the same good treatment. The sound is extremely liquid and coherent, fluid, dynamic. The character is no way aggressive; this is an amplifier that lets a listener go on for hours and hours with no fatigue.
But it is not a soft-belly: on the contrary, when the going gets tough the DA30 has strength to sell, but giving it out always with elegance, almost with a kind of detached attitude. In a word there’s no reason to be worried for the dynamics, there’s enough and even more.
Now I should add that this is a very noiseless amplifier, really one of the best I have ever tried under this point of view (the person who’s saying this to you has got a set of 100dB speakers) and this is all in favor of the S/N ratio. The detail is excellent, rich without getting X-ray-like. The soundstage image is a very good one, rather wide and deep.
The DA30 is also very versatile, being it possible to use its pre and power sections separately. And this is a feature not to be undervalued, since it allows a development of one’s system towards multi-amplification preserving the initial investment.
Under this aspect, I tested both configurations: in the first one (power amp section of the DA30 driven by my preamplifier) I found a very good synergy between the two units. The power amp let the pre imprint the sound, put into the deal its energy and elegance and melt its slightly aggressive attitude.
The result has been a musicality a bit more vivid than that of the integrated alone but with the same character of sweetness and enjoyment, in a word a very good match.
The soundstage image has further improved and the whole thing has achieved a broader “breathe”. Under the second configuration (i.e. with the DA30 working as a preamplifier for my power unit) it definitely came out that the aplomb of this DA30 mostly comes from its pre section (like one could reasonably expect).
An enjoyable sound once again, even though after all I preferred the previous match.

Conclusions

What more can I say, I really liked this DA30. It has an extremely enjoyable sound and lets one listen to it for hours.
The attitude is neutral but absolutely NOT characterless. It will not surprise you with special effects or stunning performances under this or that point of view, but it will do so with its outstanding musicality.
And this makes of it the ideal partner for those who like listening to their favorite music without caring of bass, mid, macro dynamics, micro dynamics and all of the remaining gobbledygook.
If we add its sound assembly, its good quality components and the very good versatility it has shown, we have here a truly worthy product.
A machine to listen to.

Listened by Bebo Moroni

In this crowded and wild second renaissance of the tube, in a field where many want to talk but very few really got something to say, a brand like Kora looks a bit like the typical oasis in the desert. At least from what I had occasion to listen to for the time being. More, taking into consideration my forewords, I’d better say it’s a peaceful corner amid a frenzy crowd.
Nowadays those public listening demos where tube gear is on show are the less reliable tests one can imagine to really understand the true qualities of the system that is presented to us.
And this for an array of reasons mainly related to a reckless use made of the ears and of the concentration of those who are listening, bewildered by the incredible crop of words that the re-discovery of the tube amplifiers / high efficiency combination has produced.
A crop of words that bears as its main result that of bringing under the spotlight, often in a totally deceptive manner, electronics and speakers that are in most cases barely sufficient when not substandard. This is done by betting on the confusion of a public as aficionado as often unsheltered from the boasting arguments of those new Solons (or Sell-ones?) of the sound.
The matter here gets very long - and complicated as well, nevertheless we’ll face it confronting the positions of those who write and read this magazine, very soon, in a kind of large public discussion.
More, I dare say we can start it right now in our Forum
http://www.videohifi.com/forum/DEFAULT.ASP
– don’t worry if the first post are in Italian, if you write in English the language of the answers will follow accordingly.
I want to provoke. How can I state what the sound of an amplifier is like when I listen to it driving speakers that may well have an emotional impact but scream in the high frequencies? Speakers that let the bass range messy roll around the listening room, and turn mid range into “The Kingdom of the Telephone”?
And this is exactly what I have been listening to, for a good while now, in the diverse hi-fi shows around the world.
And I am too often forced to avoid answering to the kind requests coming from readers and simple audiophiles, requests to become their accomplice by backing choices that I find not much sensible, to say the least.
Saying this, let’s make it clear once for all, I’m taking a position neither against tube amplifiers (how could I?) nor against that current niche trend, precisely “tubes & high efficiency”.
I’m taking a position, and it’s a strong one, against the rough with which it is often offered to the public: speakers that used to be ugly thirty or forty years ago are still ugly, one can’t re-evaluate really everything.
Awful projects are not made noble either by any twin set of 2A3 or by any quartet of EL84 or 6550. And it’s pointless struggling about the quality of specific tubes, spending buckets of money to buy vintage Mullards or Telefunkens, if the layout is mistaken from its beginning.
And, if the loudspeakers those tubes will have to express themselves along seem to have been concealed by some Doctor Strangelove instead by a skilful electro-acoustics designer.

After this forewords, you will have well understood that the fact that in eight days recently spent in Paris I managed to listen to three good sounding systems and that in all of the three there were Kora amplifiers, well, after all aroused my curiosity about this brand.
This especially because I listened to these three systems in different places, with extremely diverse speakers and despite of all the limitations of a demo in a shop or at a fair.

If, in one word, what I had listened to from the individual systems had an even partial impact on the integrated amplifier we’re talking about, well I sure would have had something to talk about.
And in fact I had, because the DA30, that before this listening test I didn’t know except for some pictures, is an amplifier – I state it immediately so we get straight on this – that I didn’t find good: In fact, I found it very very good.
I liked it in an almost unusual manner, to assure me that this passion of mine for this hysteric and barely profitable matter has – evidently – some raison d’etre of his own.
When everything looks like being pure boredom, noise, repetition, here it comes from the horizon an object that reconciles you not so much with your passion but with your will to keep on discovering this world.
I left passion alone because no one can take it away from you in your private life, and because it can be fulfilled even with some old, out-of-stock gear.
I believe I made a discovery: and though I’m not so selfish to speak for Giovanni too, his listening report sure backs my opinion.
And the fact that many others had already made the same discovery (Kora engineers, French audiophiles, and not only: the gentleman that decided to market this brand in Italy too) doesn’t make me any sad at all.

The DA30 is an amplifier with great musical qualities, which are really hard to find in this price range. I won’t get lost in details; our Excellent Mr. Aste has already gone through a splendid and - in my opinion – correctly synthetic review of the qualities of Our Friend.
When an amplifier sounds this good, this musical, this deliciously liquid, there’s little detail to go into.
I can say that my Tannoy Berkeley + ST50s seldom had shown such a refinement in mid range, such silky vocals, and a mid-high range so little aggressive though so incisive.
The dynamic can’t be the one extrapolated by that old, wise giant that usually drives them – the Harman Kardon Citation II. That amplifier under this aspect, and many others, is a true phenomenon. But the impact is touching anyway and can get – with some pieces – violent (giving this word a positive meaning for once).
This is not an amplifier with a lack of physical impact and plastic features. The bass range shows both tightness and an extension that are delightful in many ways, and that often can fire the listener with enthusiasm.
We have to add to this picture a soundstage that is unusually wide on the orthogonal plane for a tube amp of this kind. It is an especially enjoyable depth since it comes with a sensation of presence that is really not common for a device with such a soundstage reproduction capability.
What I mean is that, even though theorems don’t apply to hi-fi, it is almost an axiom that an improvement in the perspective depth brings in a loss in presence. By presence we mean the ability to sculpt the sound elements in front of the speakers and next to the listener.
So we have an “A Grade” here, and another “A Grade” for a choice that I’d call a choice of deep politeness by the Italian distributor.
In fact, he made it possible (clearly, giving up a share of his own profits) that the price of the DA 30, like the one of the other Kora gear, is the one for which it is sold in its country of origin – in some cases even lower than that.
And this is something that, globalization or not, like our readers know well, does not happen seldom: it never happens at all.