Kudos Audio SIGAO DRIVE...any listening impressions?

[matthias]

https://www.monoandstereo.com/kudos-audio-sigao-drive/

They introduced it at High End Munich this year, but unfortunately I missed it.
It seems to be a passive crossover sitting between preamp and poweramps for active drive of the speakers.
Any opinions or listening impressions are appreciated.
Thank you :-)

[matthias]

I believe that a very well designed passive series crossover between poweramp and speaker is more musical than the approach of Kudos Audio.

[sunbeamgls]

I believe that a very well designed passive series crossover between poweramp and speaker is more musical than the approach of Kudos Audio.

You've heard it?

[sunbeamgls]

I have heard it in three systems at the North West Audio Show in the UK.

A remarkable thing - I could actually enjoy listening to the new Naim Classic system it was being used in to feed the Titan 808 speakers. That's quite an achievement, in my experience.
I'd really like to hear it back to back vs Exakt Organik, but there's no doubt from the above that its better than the Exposure crossover, which was a big disappointment.

A local friend of mine has been running SNAXO and Naim electronics active into Titan 505s for a few years - a Sigao is on the way and that will be the more telling test for me, as I know that system very well indeed, having listened to it for 10s if not 100s of hours already. I will report back.

[sunbeamgls]

https://www.monoandstereo.com/kudos-audio-sigao-drive/

They introduced it at High End Munich this year, but unfortunately I missed it.
It seems to be a passive crossover sitting between preamp and poweramps for active drive of the speakers.
Any opinions or listening impressions are appreciated.
Thank you :-)

It creates an active system, but the crossover itself is has no external power supply, so is not an active component, in that sense. It has pluggable modules that allow the connections to be impedance matched to the other electronics. Its designation as a passive crossover in an active system really has confused a lot of people as there hasn't been a language to describe such a thing in hifi circles.

[matthias]

Thank you, as I mentioned I missed it in Munich.
Kudos do not offer an external passive series crossover for their speakers, so impossible to compare to Sigao Drive.
But for 6500 GBP you could design a very good passive series crossover and wouldn't need additional poweramps.
I found only this YT from Munich:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujHjN3iFTlE

[Spannko]

I know we have to be careful with what we say about the quality of hifi systems based on just one video or piece of music, but the Linn/Chord/Kudos system appears to be totally lacking even the slightest hint of musicality, which is shocking, given the high price of the system.

[Tendaberry]

I know we have to be careful with what we say about the quality of hifi systems based on just one video or piece of music, but the Linn/Chord/Kudos system appears to be totally lacking even the slightest hint of musicality, which is shocking, given the high price of the system.

With that music, I find it hard to tell. It just sounds mechanical...

[Rutger]

Its a passive line level crossover made to fit between a preamp and a poweramp, with no active components that needs any powersupply.

It avoids any active electronics in the signal path, but at the same time keeps the power amp directy coupled to the loudspeaker drivers.

As a passive line level crossover, its totally dependent on the output impedance of the preamp and the input impedance of the poweramps to work properly.

I think its interesting making such a crossover and I would really like to hear how it sounds. All crossovers, passive or active colours the sound and destroys some of the musicality and flow of the music.

In the DIY community, its not unusal to use a line level passive crossover in WAW or F.A.S.T constructions. It can work very well if just a LP and HP crossover is needed and using shallow crossover slopes ( 6 or 12 dB )