Preamplifier and Power Amplifier Reimyo CAT-777 MK II and KAP-777
Author: Uwe Kirbach Photography: Rolf WinterCreative Imagination
Somewhat restless is how I get
whenever a product from Kazuo
Kiuchi enters my home; such unrest
being

due

to

the

prospectoflistening to music in a better andmore exhilarating way. This genius
from Japan derives great pleasurefrom breaching the bounds of theconventional to create the truly
exceptional.

How do the more creative and successful think? What inspired
Claudio Monteverdi to compose the first opera with his L’Orfeo,
or Steve Jobs to take the ailing Apple corporation to the pinnacleof the business world with a series of extraordinary and highly
popular products? Or how was it that the Serbian performance
artist Marina Abramović almost single-handedly led her form ofart to earn prominence and respect? And although a rung or two
lower on the ladder of familiarity, but in my eyes still way up
there from today’s perspective, what drove the young researcher
Koichiro Akimoto to rattle the scene by brazenly disregarding theacknowledged rules governing tonearms in order to develop his
remarkable ViV Rigid Float? One answer can be found in the last
question: Disregarding established rules is a requirement forbringing novel ideas to the world. Staying within our own realm,
you can see that anyone who sits before such a Rigid Float armand only compares the standard measurements of angles andpercentages will simply miss the essence of the matter, to include

360° view available at image-hifi.com

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the fact that the human auditory system
can react more sensitively to a constantchange in angles and the much greaterskating force exerted on the needle
holder in tonearms of conventional
design, than to a somewhat greatergeometric deviation involving what is
an overall smoother and moreundisturbed movement of the needle in
the groove.
Just as it is clear to all of us thatmankind is facing great upheavals, it isequally clear that we must question
outmoded structures and ways ofthinking, and open ourselves to thatwhich is new. And just as a Monteverdi,a Jobs, an Abramović, and even an
Akimoto did, so too does Kazuo Kiuchi,
who has since become one of the mostimportant researchers within thatwondrous realm of the cultural
technology of musical reproduction. Mr.
Kiuchi’s products are more often than
not a source of amazement, whether it’s
those small Harmonix room tuning discs
that vastly improved my listening room
(his latest version of these recently
delivered impressive results within thispublisher’s own listening room), or
tuning bases no larger than a cent piecethat aided the venerable Martin Logan
CLS IIs to a much-improved bass, or the
RF-999 spike bases which elevated the
Jadis JD1 MK II CD transport to a fresh
level of sound. This is why I was not allthat surprised when, while visiting thisesteemed fan of vacuum tubes and his
local Germany partner, Virgil Warren,at this year’s HIGH END show, the twowere demonstrating a new solid-state power amplifier instead ofthat immaculate PAT-777 300B tube amplifier.
To be sure, I was curious about this new KAP-777, but notthat curious. It was clear that Kiuchi-san would be able to draw
from it enough power to allow his Bravo speakers to finallyaccommodate larger rooms and spaces, and there was no doubt
whatsoever in my mind that this Japanese gentlemen with his
incorruptible ears would manage to create nothing less than aremarkably good transistor amplifier. On the one hand, it seems
to me that there are any numbers of outstanding power amplifierson the market, which, in my view, do not fall within that more
problematic category of devices, such as loudspeakers, preamps
or digital equipment. Do we really need another highperformance solid-state power amp? On the other hand, all of thetransistor amplifiers I had recently listened to were so hard put to

The Accompaniment
Turntable: Nottingham Deco, Brinkmann LaGrange 2 arms withtube power source Tonearms: ViV Rigid Float 7 and 9,
Nottingham Anna II, Brinkmann 12.1, Thales Cartridges: Kondo
I0-M, Transfiguration Orpheus L, Brinkmann EMT ti
Transformer: Kondo KSL-SF-Z CD Transport: Jadis JD1 Pro
MkII D/A Converter: Jadis JS1 MkIII Tuner: Marantz 10B
Preamplifiers: Kondo KSL-M7 and M77 Power Amplifiers:
Jadis JA 80 (2010), Gryphon REF One Mono Speakers:
Gryphon Atlantis, Living Voice OBX-RW Cables: Kondo KSL-Vz,
KSL-LP, KSL-SPz, KSL-Spc Signature + KSL-ACc/Furutech
E50(R) + KSL-ACz/Furutech E50, Acoustic System Liveline LS +NF, Hovland MG-2, Harmonix Golden Performance, Adagio Audio
Digital Reference, Aural Symphonics Magic Gem v2t
Accessories: Hensler Cablewave NL-7 + NP-1000, Magnan
Signature power bar, Vibex, Audioplan Powerstar, Antispikes,
Acoustic System resonators, Shakti Hallograph, Harmonix RFA78i, RF-999 MT, TU-220 MT, TU-210 ZX, MY-TU-201, and RF900 tuning spike bases, Shakti Stones, HRS base, Black Forest
SoundBoards, Sound Bridges, Audio Magic Delta, Salamander
Design shelves, Shun Mook valve resonators, Mpingo Discs, L’Art
du Sonimage-hifi.com 1/2013

59

Preamplifier and Power Amplifier Reimyo CAT-777 MK II and KAP-777

Acting alone: The entire visible effort serves only one purpose - to provide ideal
working conditions for a single MOSFET transistor per channel

compete against my enormous Gryphon
Ref One Class A from the 1990s, that I
really wanted to dedicate myself
primarily to those products which
promise more excitement.
I was familiar with Mr. Kiuchi’s
abilities and should really have known
better. After all, the KAP-777 stood not
only next to the JA 80 tube monoblocks
from Jadis, but atop the Harmonix TU505EX MKII tuning feet, which I am
pleased to report come with it. This new60

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Reimyo power amplifier was not originally connected using the
new Harmonix X-DC350M2R power cord, which is also
included at no additional charge, but with that outstanding Magic
Gem v2t from Aural Systems in order to enable a controlledswitch from the JA 80s, which also draw their power through that
cord. Clearly, this could not result in a truly fair comparison,
especially since the Jadis had been powering the Gryphon
Atlantis speakers for weeks; abiding combinations like thesealways sound better than recently set up components, even when
the latter have been warming up together for days in a second
listening room. And naturally I was able to elicit the maximum
from the Jadis JA 80 Signature edition, which Thomas Kühn has

raised to a fantastic new level by using Telefunken NOS EL 34
metal base tubes, along with Shakti Stones on the power
supplies, and Shun Mook power tube resonators. Not tomention the TU-201 tuning feet from Harmonix on which the
JA 80s always sounded noticeably the best.
And now for the changeover to the Reimyo KAP-777. This
can’t be happening! I hear something that my ears have neverbefore discerned in a high-resolution system when switchingfrom vacuum tubes to transistors: At first it sounded almost
exactly the way it did before! The way the harmonic structureof Miles Davis’ trumpet in “In a Silent Way” (CBS 63630, UK
pressing) makes the sounds of the air more explicit, and themetallic sparkle of Tony Williams’ cymbals that play through,while urging the music forward thanks to the intrinsic energy
from their medial spatial proximity – all of which sounds
laboriously flat and shadowy in slightly less-harmonious audio
systems. And the best part: You’re now swept instantly into
the midst of this musical indulgence on the part of Herbie
Hancock and Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul, the latter of whom
now and again appears more broadly from the background,while all of them together provide a foundation for John
McLaughlin’s guitar. They are making music together freely,
and yet you still notice how well they hear and respond to one
another. My goodness! How often have I listened to this LP
and gotten the impression that they were all playing
independently of each other. Besides succeeding at the mostimportant thing, namely the inner musical cohesion, the KAP777 also fulfils those more easily describable audiophiledemands by delivering that distinctively soft tone of Miles
Davis, while letting him retain his emotional vigor in a manneras energetic as the way his breath rouses the air.
Certain tonal differences gradually came to light as the firstside was playing. The imaging seemed a trace slighter andsomewhat less immediate, and the bass in the digital piano’s
lower ranges was faintly tighter and yet more assertive at thesame time. The differences were so minor that it seems to
make little sense to emphasize what is “more correct.” And it
really doesn’t matter anyway in light of the literally unlikely
similarity between the mono tubes and the transistor amplifier.
My thoughts begin to wander as I put on Gustav Leonhardt’s
exceptionally detailed and demanding recording of Bach’s
Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue, BMV 903 (RCA SEON RL
30391), especially in terms of spatial definition and musicalflow to include within the overtone range of the plucked
harpsichord strings. If the Reimyo KAP-777 sounds similarly
and delivers the same degree of purity, then surely nothing will

One MOSFET for the signal; the second
transistor for the drive

Harmonix on the outside and an Enacom line
filter on the inside

Specially made large capacitors from Rifa

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61

have been “twisted and turned” by theuse of circuitry. After all, I have heard
my share of tube-like solid-state power
amplifiers. One of the big things I
missed with these was transparency, as
they all seemed faintly opaque sounding.
On the other hand, and when fully
pushed, the JA 80s don’t sound“tubular,” but neutral at best. Here one
has simply arrived at an almost identicaland pristine ideal in terms of sound. But
wait! The associated Harmonix power
cord has not yet been connected.
And the manner in which the KAP777 captures the musical structure of
Gustav Leonhardt’s Zell harpsichord,through which the unleashed energy ofthis – Bach’s perhaps most unconstrained – composition fascinates by
how closely it approaches the free reinof Miles Davis’ creative power (acrossthe centuries, so to speak), is just as
astonishing with this Reimyo as are thisdevice’s sonic capabilities. Finally, thepower cord has been replaced with the
XDC-350M2R, which is included withthe amplifier that was designed to use it.
And sure enough: now that last iota ofimmediacy is also there and, which indirect comparison, sounds even morenatural than before. Although this
distinction – one that can be both
described and objectified – may notseem very significant when taking aquick listen, it does set off aphenomenon that may prove addictive
when playing the finest of recordings:
the feeling of no longer listening to arecording, but being a witness to acreative process. Not only does thisphenomenon have to do with timecoherence, but with a complete and utter
sense of consistency and integrity of theenergy being transmitted. And for those62

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who find this description rather disingenuous: It is precisely thatwhich permits a total concentration on the music without actually
having to put your mind to it, or needing to listen around or
through something.
Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 3 provides an impressive
example of this. The recording by the Fine Arts Quartet (Saga
Records XID 5204) demonstrates all the difficulties – from its
musical expressiveness to the melodic escapades – inherent inthis work. You can hear the glissandi and the crystalline way thepassages are played, along with the hard pizzicati and the sounds
generated with the stick of the bow. In addition to that, the rurallife and folk culture motifs, which Bartók elsewhere uses tocaptivate his listeners, appear here almost exclusively as mererhythmic figures. But with an amplifier of such a class as the
Reimyo KAP-777, these difficulties seem to become quite theopposite: Its intimate, unadulterated and entirely effortlessmanner of operation fully emancipates this music’s sensory andphysical attributes and overwhelms the listener with Bartók’s
passion. Terms such as complicated and arduous, which neverfail to obtrude when such music is played on bad systems or as
the result of second-rate renditions, yield to the impression ofmusic that can only be described as original, authentic andpowerful. Just as it does with selections by Miles Davis and Bach,this amplifier succeeds in capturing the music in all its rhythmic,
corporeal, spatial and melodic levels of expression, and at that
instant makes it come alive and in turn immediately intelligible.
Whenever you have the opportunity of reviewing an
exceptional product from Kazuo Kiuchi, you naturally also want
to report about how he arrived at his results. And yet evasive
answers always make your efforts in vain – he generally steers
clear of providing any information about technical details. But inthe case of the KAP-777 he did allow a glimpse into thedevelopment process: The amplifier originated mostly fromwithin the JVC studios, where he himself also does his masteringwork. Instead of modeling it using existing software, he and his
staff were able to build on the knowledge of original soundsources and draw on a wealth of listening material in which hehimself was involved in recording and mastering. The amplifiercame about over a very long period of time – long enough as wasnecessary for it to reproduce the original performance as though
it were live. In the end, said Kiuchi-san, he had created exactlythat power amplifier with a completely balanced signal across theentire frequency range he had been dreaming about for years.
This engineering effort was fostered by the desire to create asPreamplifier and Power Amplifier Reimyo CAT-777 MK II and KAP-777

Double mono: the insides of the CAT-777 MKII are designed symmetricallyright down to the length of the cables

simple a circuitry as possible – similar
to the single-ended circuit for a 300B
triode amplifier – yet much more
powerful. Mr. Kiuchi spoke about how
extremely tedious and difficult it was tocomplete this project, despite all theengineering and technical assets andcapabilities available to him as the chief
executive of the Combak corporategroup. What they finally wound up
using was a single MOSFET transistor
in what many would consider as being avastly oversized environment. For all of
those who look inside the amplifier and64

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discover a second transistor: This one operates in opposite phasewith the primary MOSFET and gives it a push, so to speak.
Functionally it resembles how a vacuum tube with the associatedoutput transformers operates. Nelson Pass popularized thisprinciple with his Aleph circuits.
What surprised me was that this one MOSFET per channel inthe KAP-777 was given cooling fins with such an enormous
surface area. Regardless of the performance demanded of thispower amplifier – it is capable of a steady output of 200 watts at
8 ohns and 400 watts at 4 ohms – the device always remained
cold. This behavior, according to Kiuchi-san, reflects an
observation that gradually emerged over time: Changes intemperature always have detrimental effects on sound quality.
These he minimized through mechanical cooling and an allegedlypermanently switched off MOSFET or one that is not always
getting the full dose of voltage; in other words: a circuit
similar to a Class A type, but without all the downsides of aclassical Class A. Exclusively designed and manufactured
capacitors ensure the unimpeded flow of energy. And even theinside wiring was apparently custom engineered for thisReimyo power amplifier. Not to mention the tuning feet – thespecialty of the house of Kazuo Kiuchi so to speak – which healso specifically designed and built for securely connecting to
the KAP-777.
Immensely more conventional than the new power
amplifier is the revised version of the CAT-777 vacuum tube
control amplifier, now featuring an MK II in its name. Hereagain the name bears the Japanese lucky number 7, this time intriplicate representing the three pillars underlying Kiuchi-san’sequipment development activities: the art of recording andmastering, Harmonix resonance technology, and high-techaudio engineering. His path to the MK II version was not a
voluntary one – the fact that sets of NOS tubes for the old
CAT-777 were no longer available in suitable quantities and at
reasonable prices made a change in design inevitable. In theend this led to an extension of the upper frequency limit from100 kHz to 200 kHZ, and this within a circuit without global
feedback. On top of that we now have a volume control thatwas specially made for Reimyo by the Japanese components
maker Amtrans. The other assemblies are also of only theutmost quality and include inside wiring – again speciallymanufactured – with extremely low impedance, in a defined
signal direction, and with a minimum number of soldering
points.
Compared to the two alternately used preamplifiers from
Kondo, the vastly more economical performance provided by
the CAT-777 MK II was magnificent. Tim Hardin’s “If I Were
A Carpenter” from his second album (Verve Forecast FTS3022) remained virtually unchanged in terms of body andproximity, his voice exhibited a little less softness ofexpression, and the contours of bongos in the middle were agrain less acute. In “Red Balloon” which followed, thepreamplifier displayed its remarkable ability to reproduce
dynamic contrasts in all their splendor and subtlety: from the
explosive lead by the guitar at the right in the beginning,which comes at you unblemished, to those times when Hardin
gets really soft on the last syllable of “red balloon…” and his
voice almost vanishes. And yet it doesn’t vanish, but remains
defined with the utmost sentience in even the quietest of
moments. In its rendering of resonance and tonal qualities, thispreamplifier makes you quickly forget that this ability has long

The black Enacom filters are used only toeliminate front LED interference

Hand-wound film capacitor(black jacket, yellow wrapper)

Discretely designed level control with gold
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65Preamplifier and Power Amplifier Reimyo CAT-777 MK II and KAP-777

been an enduring problem with preamps. It seems to me that
the CAT-777 has made big gains compared to its predecessor,
just as earlier Reimyo devices chose to go that extra mile
before they would ever consider deviating from the high roadto superb tonal richness. Neither the preamplifier nor the KAP777 know of such modest compromises, as both stand out witha truly beautiful and authentic portrayal of the full range of
tonal nuances, while never sacrificing their completelytransparent and unfettered reproduction.
Even with Miles Davis the attacks are marvelous once more,
and there is a certain harmonic development within, and matterof course about, the way they come and go, the likes of which
are rarely found using other equipment. The fascination is still
not lost as Electric Miles Davis upholds the fervor, the groove
retains its energy and flow down to its tiniest fiber, and thebalance of expression stays true even within the lowest ranges.
Although long since held sacrosanct today, this repeated great
innovator in jazz was during his lifetime often accused inrecord reviews of droning, which in my view more often than

not reflects a shortcoming on the part ofstereo systems then and now, namely a lackof expressive differentiation. Special
attention must be given to the preamplifier inhigh-end systems. Where other devices
portend making the sound flat, grainy or
dumbed down, Reimyo CAT-777 MK II
proves time and again to be both invigorating
and powerful in expression. Bartók’scaprioles in volume, for example, do notsound arbitrary, such as would otherwise
threaten to rob the music of its emotionalism
and make it all a cerebral matter for the headinstead. Only in spatial reproduction can thispreamplifier not wholly emulate its power
amplifier partner KAP-777. In the case of
Bartók, the quartet is not seated as widely,
and the leading plane of the notes appears to
not quite reach as far forward, a situation that

Built to Reimyo specifications:the preamplifier’s RCA sockets

Free to choose: RCA or balanced XLR,
terminal connectors included

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somewhat diminishes the specificity ofthe spatial illusion as compared with the
Kondo KSL M-77. Even that
acoustically remarkable new album by
Flying Lotus, Until The Quiet Comes(Warp/RTD, 2-LP), spreads out andoccupies the space with more fullness,and envelopes you slightly less –whereas the mighty computer basses
ensure the needed thrust withextraordinary resilience, while the subtle
shimmer of the cymbals lingers in theroom with superb audibility. Here you
might object that one should notcompare the Reimyo CAT-777 MK II topreamplifiers that cost more than twice
as much – and, of course, you would beright. On the other hand, theincomparable new Reimyo KAP-777
power amplifier can indeed reproduce
the artistry, and it would be wrong tokeep quiet about this. With both, Kazuo
Kiuchi has not only proven his
consummate command of Harmonixfine tuning by raising it to abreathtaking level of virtuosity in theservice of music, but also how withcreative verve one can break the chainsof the ordinary and familiar. For me, theKAP-777 is the first power amplifierthat unifies the audio capabilities of
vacuum tubes and transistors.

Vacuum Tube Preamplifier
Reimyo CAT-777 MK II
Inputs: 4 x line Outputs: 3 x line
Frequency Response: 5 Hz-200 kHz
Input Impedance: 50k ohms
Output Impedance: 560 ohms
Special Features: includes Harmonix X-DC15SM350R power
cord and built-in TU-606Z tuning feet Dimensions (W/H/D):
43/14.1/41.1 cm Weight: 13 kg Warranty: 2 years Price:
18,500 euros (includes power cord 1,350 euros and feet 860
euros)

Power Amplifier Reimyo KAP-777
Power Output: 2 x 200W/8 ohms, 2 x 400W/4 ohms Inputs:balanced (40k ohms), unbalanced (20k ohms) Outputs: 1 pair ofwing-nut style binding posts Special Features: Harmonix XDC350M2R15 power cord, TU-505MK2 feet Dimensions(W/H/D): 43/21.5/49.2 cm Weight: 33 kg Warranty: 2 years
Price: 24,500 euros (including power cord 1,575 euros and feet
820 euros)
Contact: Warren Quality Systems, Am Katzensteg 7,
D-55578 Wallertheim, Germany, Tel: +49 6732-936961,
www.wqs-online.de