Friday, March 29, 2024
Home Review Keces E40 integrated amplifier

Review Keces E40 integrated amplifier

0

Pros

  • Refinement and balls
  • Compact
  • Solid construction

Cons

  • Limited number of inputs
  • USB up to 16/48
  • Gets warm (watch out for cooling)

Price: € 599

Build quality
Usability
Sound
Price
Keces E40

Restrictions?

Contents

Keces E40

The rather fresh Audio Vectors quickly became good friends with the Keces E40 but how will it go with a set of brand new ATC SCM19 V2 monitors. These oversized monitors with their closed construction and low sensitivity (85db) require quite a bit of power and control. The result is mainly positive. There is enough control, although the small amplifier is now out of breath a bit faster. Yet we play at quite a high volume without distortion.

These monitors can sound quite ‘bare’ without the right components feeding them. But with the E40 it goes much better than expected. A big, fat floorstandig speaker might be difficult (we didn’t have a big one during the test) but with a fine little monitor this little amplifier knows what to do. The bass is tight with lots of punch and detail. And there is not a hint of sharpness. The longer we listen to the Keces E40, the more impressed we are.

Listen

The first CD we play is “Mr. M” from Lambchop. Their music often sounds very laidback and the Keces E40 only reinforces that illusion. The languid, often dragging songs sound extra fluffy and get extra texture and tonality. Kurt Wagner’s very recognizable voice comes through nicely and the instrumentation sounds more intimate, smaller than we are used to. It’s like sitting in a jazz club listening to a private performance. You know what we mean.

Time for some vinyl. Already at the first notes of Toots Thielemans we know it will be a nice afternoon. A harmonica can quickly sound sharp, but this is not the case here. The presentation is fast, with excellent timing and sufficient involvement. We have a lot of fun while listening. We therefore estimate the phono stage in the Keces E40 of higher quality than the one in the Audiolab 6000.

We are streaming “African Giant” (MQA Master) from Burma Boy and are impressed by the beautiful continuous low end in the song ‘Destiny’. We can’t stop talking about what the Keces E40 is doing in the lower regions. We listen to the whole album and see that we don’t miss anything. For the sake of completeness we connect our laptop to the usb connection. Now the amplifier is on the desk with the Cabasse Surf mini-monitors as viewers. This near-field setup is excellent, especially at lower volumes. The dac with its limited specs does what needs to be done and we hear a playback that doesn’t really disturb.

We are testing the headphone amplifier with our simple Sony MDR 1A. Here again, the bass is too much of a good thing. A fresher set of headphones will be much more balanced here, just like the speakers.