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High fidelity

Prague firm pushes for analog audio quality in a digital world

By Michael Heitmann
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
February 6th, 2008 issue

Jan Přerovský/THE PRAGUE POST
Retro cool: KR Audio's stylish, hand-blown vacuum tube.
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Jan Přerovský/THE PRAGUE POST
Owner Eunice Kron shows off some of KR Audio's boutique amplifiers at its Prague 9 workshop.
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About KR Audio

Founded after Italian engineer Riccardo Kron discovered Czech-made vacuum tubes, used by the Soviet military, and adapted their design for home audio amplifiers
KR's amplifier systems have gained worldwide respect from audiophiles for their bass reproduction
Vacuum-powered audio quality doesn't come cheap: The top-of-the-line Kronzilla can cost up to $24,000

The room looks like a premonition of hell. Flames fed by hydrogen-oxygen mixtures blast against glass; tungsten wires slither through tubes; liquid nitrogen freezes in vacuum flasks.
At its facility in Prague 9, KR Audio blows vacuum tubes by hand. The company’s sole goal — to reproduce music with a divine sound that has made the firm revered by music lovers worldwide.
In a time and age of mobile music devices like the iPod, with its compressed and tinny music files, everything about KR Audio yells old school. In all likelihood, every audio amplifier you have ever heard employs solid-state electronics, and most have since the transistor radio hit the market in the 1960s. But KR Audio’s amplifiers hark back to the days when electronics were synonymous with rows of glowing vacuum tubes.
The company’s dedication to audio fidelity has won it a global following. In January, its staff once again hit Las Vegas to showcase their Kronzilla and Antares amplifiers at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world’s biggest electronics show. For 14 years, KR Audio has been the only Czech company present at the trade fair.
Among all the flyweight gadgets at this year’s show, KR Audio’s oversized amplifiers, which can weigh 50 kilograms (110 pounds), invariably stood out.
“On this planet, you can’t have anything lightweight that will get this type of quality,” said Eunice Joy Kron, KR Audio’s majority owner, who took over the company after her husband’s death in 2002.
Her husband, Riccardo, was an Italian electronics engineer of Hungarian descent who believed vacuum tubes had a future. In the early 1990s, he discovered the Czech-made tubes at a Berlin flea market and quickly tracked down the research laboratory that developed the tubes for military use. It turns out that since nuclear explosions disrupt solid-state electronics, the Soviet military favored such tubes.
The Krons decided it would be a pity to let the tradition die. After 25 years in Italy, Eunice, who was born in New York, followed her husband to Prague. Today, Italian can still be heard on the company’s floors, since the Krons’ trusted secretary decided to join them in their new endeavor.
Kronzilla vs. iPod
On KR Audio’s current top-of-the-line amplifier, aptly named the Kronzilla, two high-powered tubes tower in prominent sockets near the front panel. Measuring in at a height of almost 40 centimeters (1.3 feet), miniaturization is clearly not the name of the game.
But combined with a decent set of loudspeakers, the Kronzilla elevates music listening to an entirely different level than the average MP3 player, enthusiasts say.
What makes the Kronzilla amplifier special “is its essential feeling of ‘rightness’ from the first notes that you hear,” said Bradley Morrical, a frequent contributor to the online audio magazine Positive Feedback.
“It gets the harmonic structure of the music as well as the timing and dynamics of music correct,” he added, noting that the use of vacuum tubes alone does not guarantee audio quality.
“Most [tube amplifiers] are just as flawed in correctly representing music as solid-state amps, but the flaws are often less obnoxious and destructive to enjoying music for long time periods,” he said.
The Kronzilla, however, is an exception: “No other tube amplifier has this kind of tightly controlled punch in the bass. Indeed, it outperforms most of the big solid-state amps that are known for powerful bass.”
All this audio bliss comes at a price. While the entry-level Antares 12-watt amplifier sells at a recommended price of $5,700 (100,320 Kč), a Kronzilla can set you back $24,000. Surprisingly, it beats competing reference models in price, according to the trade press.
“The Kronzilla will last a long, long time,” Kron said. Pointing to a tube radio on display in the showroom, she added: “One of these radios [cost] a fortune. It was given to a bride when she married.”
Although KR Audio uses great care in designing its components, the tubes still have a limited lifespan. “You have to trust us that we will survive. Most people buy two extra or three extra tubes with the amplifier, anyway,” she said.
Vegas, baby
Selling such high-end luxury items, it behooves KR Audio to attend the CES, although Kron understands why other Czech companies don’t make the hike out to Vegas.
“It is just too expensive for a Czech company to go over there without help, without money, without big partners,” she said. “The CES is a very tough proposition. Las Vegas is a city without a clock; it goes day and night. If you don’t have good language skills, if you don’t have someone to help you and if you are not technical, then you are up a creek if something happens,” she said.
Costs for show space, accommodation and travel can run high, but for a boutique firm like KR Audio, it is well worth the effort.
“Although we don’t get a lot of orders from the CES, it’s a form of publicity. People will come see if you show at the CES, which is a way of saying you have enough money to get in the door,” Kron said.
While businesses worldwide are looking out for signs of a looming recession, Kron is optimistic about the future.
“The machines seem to go to a high-end market, where people don’t feel that sense of panic about the economy. I even got orders today — two Kronzillas to Taiwan. With certain products like diamonds, like yachts, like golf clubs, it’s not as tricky today as [it was] in 1997 when they had the crash in Asia,” Kron said.
“I keep saying that good music and the desire to have it reproduced in your home should always exist,” she added.

Michael Heitmann can be reached at mheitmann@praguepost.com


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