Khozmo and Hattor

Tony T

Tony T
Wammer
Jul 14, 2020
178
203
63
London
AKA
Tony
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
As I can’t find a Owners thread on Khozmo or Areks* premium brand Hattor I thought I’d kick one off.

Khozmo is well known for it’s Stepped Attenuators and Passive Preamplifiers and a quick look inside and out of his products immediately shows solid build and attention to detail, everything is so tidy and the enclosures are very robust.
Having owned one of Areks Passive Preamps and his base Hypex nc500MP Stereo Power Amplifier it was all the more impressive that it’s all down to one person. It quickly became obvious that the pair was limited by the power amplifier as I briefly switched the Khozmo Power Amplifier with a Quad 606 and the sound was less coarse which left me thinking how much better could the preamp get with a better power amp?
Enter a pair of Hypex ncore nc400 mono blocks, a literal match made in heaven. Comparing the Hypex nc500MP modules to the nc400 it’s immediately apparent that this is a rather large step up in sound quality, subtle and powerful and completely neutral without glare or turning clinical, bright or “missing something” or another, I think this is a important point and it’s essential to differentiate what Class D is being referenced in discussions as a blanket “it was Class D“ statement helps no one and is probably damaging ICE/Hypex/Purifi adoption imo.

It was around this point that I stumbled upon a review on the the Hattor Big Passive Preamp with Discrete OpAmps enabling +3/+6/+9 db gain and adding a active stage which is nice and useful imo so ordered one with all bells and whistles included. Wow.
Almost everyone I have had listen to it prefers the active stage at +3 or +6 gain preferring the more detailed presentation over a passive present, I’m ambivalent tbh and depends what I am listening to at the time. Anyway, I was enthralled with the performance of the preamp and coming up to 3 years ownership I’m still enthralled with it wether it be Punk or Pop, Acid House or Acoustic, it’s all good.
Some features: 64 step volume, Balanced, comprehensive remote, switchable Stereo and true Dual Mono operation, adjustable display brightness and mute.
5 Inputs (2 XLR, 3 RCA)
4 Outputs (4 XLR)
I think that’s enough for now….


*Owner/designer/manufacturer of Khozmo/Hattor
 
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bencat

Amplifier Destroyer
Wammer Plus
Feb 6, 2010
10,310
8,115
208
Liverpool
AKA
Andrew
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
I have a single source unbalanced Khozmo pre which sounded excellent and needed a very expensive active pre to sound better . before anyone says anything i have never heard a transformer couple passive pre so not able to comment. The Khozmo was by far the best and most neutral pre I had heard but as all my current systems do not use any pre it is currently packed in a box doing nothing . Sad really as it is too good a product for this but nothing I can do . I would agree fully that the design and mfg of these is top class .
 

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