The Kora TA480 and the Weiss Helios DAC: a magical chord
Contents
The choice of source and preamp determines the musical output you get out of this TA480 amplifier. The power amp delivers, no doubt, but when combined with the right equipment, you can get a performance that exceeds the sum of its parts. We are lucky to have the Weiss Helios DAC with preamp at our disposal during this review.
For a review, we often look for tracks that try to push the limits of a system or device. That is a futile attempt here. You are not concerned with it either, the combination of Weiss Helios DAC and Kora TA480 is so balanced that everything you play is all about the musical expression and how you experience it as a listener.
All you have to do is sit back and relax and let the music engulf you. From disco to death metal, from folk singer to folk music, from lute solo to symphony, everything is rendered the way it should sound: raw or sweet, hushed or exuberant.
Peeling off layers
The Helios and TA480 combination is magic. It is as if a lot of layers are peeled away between the recording and the listener. It is so pure, the feeling of being there live is so strong. And that with almost every album. It is the speed of power amp, the infinite reserve of the Kora TA480, combined with the power and speed of the opamp from Weiss’ studio line.
A tap of a drumstick is not a tap, but in a split second you can hear different sounds. Especially in the voice of a singer or vocalist, you hear the onset in dynamics, how words are emphasised or sounds are lengthened.
Rappers, as in the track “Sot-l’y-laisse” by Rone & Friends and the Serge Gainsbourg-like speech-singing are therefore precisely fitted into the sounds draped around them. Voices also sound more personal because of the precision.
Timing is all-important in music. The expression of voices and instruments becomes clearer, more correct and more natural when timing improves across the whole frequency spectrum. All instruments sound more ‘lifelike’, whether acoustic, amplified or electronic.
Being able to listen deeper into the recording
In “Et le jour commence” from the same album, the synth sounds light up out of nowhere like fireflies and dissolve into the air. They seem to have no connection with the equipment that is playing.
Robin Kester’s album “Dark Sky Reserve” sounds better as the audio chain gets better, in that respect the album is a nice measuring stick. I have never heard the album sound as good as it does on this combination. Better, by the way, does not mean overwhelmingly special. Rather the opposite, it sounds more organic and natural, with just the right proportions in the soundstage.
Subtle additions of instruments, placed softly somewhere in the mix, become audible without effort, but also without demanding attention. Strings are also real strings, they do not sound as if they are reproduced out of a tin can. The high quality of the songs Robin showcases on this album also becomes more apparent than when I listen to the same recording in the car.
Lifelike
The French company La Tempête has recorded a beautiful performance of the Rachmaninov vespers. In the playback, the listener is treated to powerful, clear voices that blend beautifully into the sound of the room in which it was recorded. I saw this performance live in the concert hall Vredenburg in Utrecht, The Netherlands and it sounds on the combination of Weiss Helios and Kora TA480 alike as live. You obviously miss the experience in the hall itself, but you feel the same intensity of the performance in the playback.
Amazing speed
The album “Barí” by Nuevo Flamenco group Ojos de Brujo is their rawest album. The mixture of flamenco, African rhythms and hip-hop beats is irresistible and the absurdly fast and complex rhythms, including in the amplified bass guitar, leave many an amplifier and speaker gasping for breath. So great was the surprise – dare I say bewilderment – that in the fastest passages, where as many as three rhythms are played interchangeably, the space between all the notes is still audible, but without sounding dry. This gives the music a schwung that was perhaps only ever heard before in one of our livestreams, where a Halcro amplifier drove three large speakers and a track from Ojos de Brujo was used.
Conclusion
This is a seriously good amplifier with a serious price tag. With the Weiss Helios DAC, the Kora TA480 demonstrates that it effortlessly delivers what a high-quality source demands, but also that an investment in a Kora TA480 yields optimal musical returns when the entire chain is at the same level, or with speakers that are difficult to drive.
The speed of this power amplifier is particularly evident in the microdynamics of sounds, regardless of how complex the music is. This results in that extra step towards lifelike reproduction.