The Sound of Silence | Richard / New Record Day Serene is not just a preamp. It is matching the Holo MAY perfectly! So by function, it’s nothing particularly special at first glance. Fully balanced amp. And each channel has 2 discrete amp, one for buffering and one to amplify. Jeff Zhu has put tremendous amounts of time to develop this amp and has researched a way to get more detail and natural sound from a discrete transistor based amplifier. This is more comparable to tube sound however with better detail retrieval. We have chosen specific transistors that have high performance of thermal character. So with a large amount of these transistors we have made an amp that performs extremely well by design. As we have said before, the Serene has discrete amp modules. Each module has about 50 transistors per module. This ensures superior linearity. In a tube amp, the more tubes improves linearity, but how many tubes are considered reasonable? The amount of transistors in the Serene is very high for many discrete amplifiers on the market. This is key for its performance, sound signature, albeit a bit more costly… we think one might agree it is well worth it. Premium grade components have been carefully chosen to deliver the best possible sound signature that Holo Audio is well known for. For an example; Quality Holo Audio Caps are used and our most preferred after testing many other choices. Also a quality O-Type transformer is used for optimum audio performance and of course is properly shielded from surrounding components. Each part of this circuit design has been well sorted out and specific components paired for optimal audio performance. Input impedance 6.8KΩ Input impedance 13.6KΩ Output impedance 20Ω Output impedance 3Ω Output impedance 40Ω 110-115V 50/60Hz – Fuse Type 4A SB 5x20mm There are 2 XLR stereo pair outputs available on the Serene. XLR 1 has the lowest output impedance and is recommended to connect to your amplifier or can be used for headphones. (requires balanced cable with XLR 3-pin connector for left and one for right channel). The XLR 2 output could be used for amplifiers with an higher input impedance. The output impedance of an ideal preamp is zero in theory. This means that regardless of the amount of current drawn by an external load, the output voltage of the preamp remains unaffected. This is an undesired effect so in most situations we prefer the preamp to have a very low output impedance. XLR 1 = Preferred output for amplifiers and suitable for headphones
highlights
Standard Model includes:
Kitsune, KTE Edition includes:
Analog Input
Single-ended RCA input (QTY 3)
Maximum amplitude 12Vpp
Balanced XLR input (QTY 2)
Maximum amplitude 24Vpp
Analog Output
Single-ended RCA output
Maximum amplitude 8.5Vrms
Balanced XLR output 1
Maximum amplitude 17Vrms
Balanced XLR output 2
Maximum amplitude 17Vrms
Physical Characteristics
Size
430x300x55mm / 16.93×11.81×2.17inches (W x L x H, Dimensions do not include protruding parts)
Weight
9kg/19.84lbs
Configuration
Power Input (configurable, see label on bottom of unit for specified input)
220-230V 50/60Hz – Fuse Type 2A SB 5x20mm
Power consumption
30W
XLR 2 = Suitable to drive amplifiers (specially for higher impedance inputs)
HoloAudio – SERENE KTE – Kitsune – Balanced discrete pre-amplifier
€3.499,- ( €2.891,74 excl. VAT)Purchase & earn 350 points!
Serene is a preamplifier from HoloAudio. Serene adopts a fully balanced structure. The left and right channels completely separated form a fully balanced structure. Each channel has independent amplification modules to complete the buffering and amplification functions.
KTE Serene – This is Kitsune Tuned Edition (KTE) model of the Serene Pre-Amplifier note: this version includes a CNC remote control, Holo Audio Caps, Flatwire Otype transformer, AudioNote Kasei Caps, Mundorf Evo Gold, Elna Silmic2, Nichicon Muse, Only North America include AC power cable.
READ MORE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS REVIEWS |
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Weight | 9 kg |
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Dimensions | 430 × 260 × 55 mm |
Brand | |
Warranty | 3 year limited warranty |
7 reviews for HoloAudio – SERENE KTE – Kitsune – Balanced discrete pre-amplifier
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Roj (verified owner) –
The sound quality separation , vocals etc has surpassed anything I have ever heard. I’m so happy with the serene , it’s a delight to use and I could play the music for endless hours.
Ian (verified owner) –
I thought I would send you some initial listening impressions after a longer music session last night.
In a word ‘Wow!’
I have ‘tested’ the Serene KTE preamp using my Technics SL 1200G turntable and some high quality half-speed mastered vinyl recordings.
These sounded even better than when played through my Schiit Freya S balanced preamp.
Both the May KTE and Serene KTE are clearly superbly designed and built products.
It was a bit of a gamble spending so much when I already had a good DAC and Preamp, but the new Holo audio gear has exceeded all expectations.
I think I now have my ‘end game’ audio system..for now 😉
Thanks you Jos and Rob for your advice and help.
Igor (verified owner) –
SERENE KTE performs nicely right out of the box. It finally brought back to life my home theatre and media center with all it’s analogue and digital connections all together. In the “digital” part of my chain SERENE performed precisely as expected. Connected to HoloAudio MAY KTE, it is absolutelly not in the way of sound, it is transparent and precise, like it is not there. However in the “analogue” chain SERENE has surprised me ! With it’s crazy level of transparency it has shown exactly what I have – good phono stage (from Kitsune HifI) and somewhat average turntable. But ! Now I CAN hear all smallest imperfections coming from the turntable. My analogue chain became really sensitive to quality of a records. The good ones are simply – EXCELLENT ! The medium ones – honestly, you just don’t want to listen to. IMHO, this is the whole point of “vinyl story” – hunting for and collecting the ultimate quality recordings. My previous pre-amp was hiding all this and coloring the sound with mellow low registers. One could have considered that being better, may be… But SERENE is just plain honest. At last, don’t underestimate break-in period. Now, over alsmost four days of constand listening “out of the box” harshness went away and SERENE settled well into the system. Highly reccomeded!
John (verified owner) –
Within 20 seconds of using the Serene I knew I am now hearing what the May DAC is truly capable of, as good as I thought it was already!
Images are tighter in the soundfield and instead of planes of distance, every instrument/voice has its own 3 dimensional space that is much much clearer/cleaner.
ie Decays are also slightly longer and more fine detail is exposed.
Robert (verified owner) –
I love my Holo Audio system. They now have had the required burn-in and they sound fantastic. It a major upgrade. Thank you for the great support.
Goran (verified owner) –
Straight out of the box the Serene pre-amp sounded fantastic and as a bonus the XLR1 out used as a headphone amp sounded also very nice. An incredible improvement over the the Audio-GD M1 pre-amp. Much bigger difference than I thought it would be. So far I’m really happy with the pre-amp! :-)
Arnold (verified owner) –
The gear looks good and after some 40 hours of break-in it sounds already great: tonality well balanced, soundstage expanded (compared to my former setup) every instrument at its proper place, revealing yet natural. Miles Davis’ ‚Tutu‘ for example always sounded a bit sharp and harsh; now the SERENE-MAY-combination provides more details in well separated layers but still a homogeneous sound. Comparing some high-res-files with CD-quality differences seem apparent even in non-audiophile recordings like RHCP ,Blood, Sugar, Sex Magic‘. Finally, the dac seems to love the piano and so do my wife and I. Up to now it is a great pleasure and maybe the best is yet to come.