Kenwood KA-3020SE chip amplifier The archetypal cardinal 3020 is so characteristic and acclaimed that one can't advice activity that if they could, NAD would accept registered it as a trademark, and that added manufacturers would abstain putting it on an amplifier at all costs. Clearly neither is the case, back actuality it is afresh on Kenwood's KA-3020SE. The SE stands for Special Edition, advertence that the amplifier is an upgraded adaptation of the accustomed KA-3020, which it replaces; as able-bodied as accepting an bigger achievement stage, the SE appearance a heavier-duty ability accumulation with 50 per cent bigger backlog capacitors and a mains agent uprated from I50VA to 220VA.
The administration is characteristic and analytic elegant, and the flavour of the amplifier is appropriate by the about space, admeasurement and bulge accustomed to the vari ous controls. The advanced console is bedeviled by the huge aggregate knob, which for some acumen is calibrated from 0 to 30, a abnormally approximate number. To the appropriate of this are two beefy rotary selector switches, one for the capital alert aisle and one for the almanac outputs.
There is a acceptable alternative of ascribe and achievement possibilities: a Phono ascribe is abutting by three bandage akin sources—CD, Aux and Tuner—and there are two abstracted sets of bandage record/replay sockets, rather grandiosely labelled Tape/DAT I and 2. The two switches acquiesce the user to accept to one antecedent while recording another, but as is generally the case the crosstalk achievement is not absolutely acceptable abundant for this to be a absolute advantage in analytical applications— anniversary arresting bleeds agilely but audibly into the added path. That is not to absolutely abolish the facility, as there will be affairs area the account outweighs the slight compromise. This agreement additionally agency that ecology oft bandage is accessible from either of the affiliated recorders (given that the recorders themselves accept the facility) and the almanac selector about-face allows either apparatus to be fed to the other—a acceptable adjustable arrangement.
Between these switches and the aggregate ascendancy lies a baby button which declares the amplifier's audiophile aspirations; apparent Antecedent Direct, it bypasses the accent and antithesis controls to accord the beeline accessible arresting path. The aberration it makes (given that the accent controls are set collapsed and the antithesis central) is slight but perceptible, giving a aloof aural access in transparency.
Measurement showed the aberration to be a constant 05dB addition appropriate beyond the bandage up to about 1500Hz with the added chip switched in. The average cachet accorded the blow of the controls is fabricated bright by their baby admeasurement and their position forth the basal bend of the fascia. They are in actuality a bit fiddly to operate, but are no beneath advantageous for that back affairs crave them.
The advanced console is completed by the On/Off switch, a headphones atrium (which absolutely accurately does not aphasiac the loudspeakers—the beneath contacts there are to become bedraggled and accommodation the arresting the better) and selector switches for two sets of affiliated loudspeakers. These switches do not backpack the apostle signals themselves, but accomplish relays abreast the rear-panel terminals, which should accommodate heavier-duty switching contacts for added believability and bigger sound. The aforementioned relays accommodate a power-on delay, alone abutting the speakers a few abnormal afterwards the amplifier is switched on in adjustment to abstain thumps.
