The look is a popular minimalist one consisting of a large front facia with two huge round knobs flanking a centrally located rectangular display. In appearance, the EX-M1+ is, what I call, of the “Swiss School” of audio design and it resembles the Goldmund Mimesis 27.8 preamplifier as well as several other preamps/integrated amps from companies such as Hegel and several others sold today. Among the well known international components used in this design are such stalwarts of the high end as Furutech, Alps, Neutrik and Xilinx, making it a true international effort. Of Chinese manufacture, the EX-M1+ certainly is, but the company takes full advantage of parts known the world over for quality. The plus differs from it’s older sibling by using higher quality parts and a refined circuit topology and it adds a preamp output and theater bypass. The EX-M1+ is a development of one of Kinki Studio’s earlier designs, the EX-M1. What you do get is a world class integrated amplifier of uncompromising build and sonic quality. You can connect up to four line-level sources, change volume, mute the output and dim the display, and that’s about it. This amp is a line stage and a power amp only. Need a built-in DAC? A built-in phono stage? Perhaps a headphone jack? Then my advice is to keep looking. Kinki Studio seems like a funny name for a really high-end amplifier company, but the name is deceiving (Kinki is the designer’s wife’s nick-name). In amplifiers, the days where quirky tube amps from companies like Yaqin and Cayin were all that one ever saw from China (not that they were necessarily bad) have given way to companies like Denafrips and Topping who sell state-of-the-art DACs at more than reasonable prices to the topic of today’s review, the EX-M1+ integrated amp from Kinki Studio. Luckily, those days are going away fast as the Chinese have come on in leaps and bounds lately with cutting edge yet affordable components from digital-to-analog converters to amplifiers, speakers and even turntables. There was a time … not too many years ago, when Chinese-made hi-fi components were kind of looked down upon by Western audiophiles.
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