kharma chameleon

kharma - exquisiteness rivalling planars and electrostatics

ever heard of 80s cult group culture club's hit single karma chameleon with the line that goes "you come and go, you come and go, karma karma karma chameleon..."?

this kharma speaker that i listened to doesn't come and go but instead it stays rock solid in imaging and creates such a stunning soundstage that you can walk into and wander around with the musicians. the air around the speaker is so intense that you can call it the "air supply" phenomenon.

i have long heard about the rave on dutch-made kharma speakers from reading articles by TAS' john valin, a reviewer whose tastes i trust. john has been living with the kharma exquisite speakers for years until he divorced them and married with mBL speakers recently. so the kharma must be something special.

stationed in high-end research's showroom are the smaller kharma ceramique 3 series and the bigger ceramique 2 series. both exhibit the same trademark quality, that of exquisiteness and refinement which is the guarded territory of planars and electrostatics. i have heard many big high-end box speakers but not many convince me that it can better than planars in terms of highs, refinement and soundstaging but the kharmas surprised me! however, they don't strike me as the typical rocker speakers so naim-proponents can stay elsewhere.

but they don't come cheap yeah. even the mid-range kharma ceramique 2 series is already RM70K, the same price range as eggleston andra, jmlab alto utopia, wilson watt puppy 7 etc. etc.

i have the feeling that many rich audiophiles in malaysia would embrace kharma with open arms.