My new L-07M Kenwoods

That is not enough information. Kinda a tweet not a introduction to the amps. What speakers are you going to use? Where did you find em, what accessories did you get, they came with a speaker wire (1 meter) and a trigger wire. Just giving you an opportunity to talk about em a bit more as you wait for them to warm up properly.
 
Blue Shadow,
I do have some 1 meter speaker wire but no remote trigger cables. Seems like I can make some trigger cables up. I still would need to provide the trigger from the pre. I have ideas (and should have all the parts) but need to build it up. I just hope I have long enough interconnects.

Found them over on audioasylum. Someone PMd me when I was helping someone else.

Not sure what pre amp I'll use (currently have a Mac in the main rig) but I have a few to try (Hafler, Lafayette, 6SN7 CF buffer, Audionics, ...). Magneplanar speakers, Empire TT, SACD, Raspberry PI with i2S DAC, ... typical stuff.

Probably don't need them and probably spent too much but I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Still kind of excited to try them out.
 
Last edited:
Here is a pic of the back. If you look close, I'm missing a ground and a couple screws holding in the trigger inputs. I'll take a look inside to see if anything is affected. Also something is missing next to the IEC connector in the right amp. I knew about the IEC and the speaker binding posts but didn't know about the ground binding posts.
l-07m-rear.jpg

The owners manual says to tie each amp together via the ground post. I picked up a ground binding post from the lab but don't know how critical the grounds are. I'll at least add the ground binding post before I fire them up.
 
Last edited:
The L series gear is spectacular. IMO if you want to get the most out of those L-07Ms you're going to want an L-07C or L-07Cll to pair with them. FWIW my L-09Ms aren't tied together, and I have had zero issues. I cant locate my amps close to the speakers so I'm using 8ft Kimber Kable 8TC speaker cables and have noticed no ill effects from those either.
 
After looking more closely at your pics, what's missing next to the IEC is the remains of the original power cord. The IECs are not original to your amps.
 
IMO if you want to get the most out of those L-07Ms you're going to want an L-07C or L-07Cll to pair with them.
Thanks roadrash. Last night I when through the Lafayette and thought about using it. It is a tube pre but like the mac no trigger port. I was looking for a L-07C but unless something fits my budget, it is going to be a stretch. I found a KC-209 but couldn't do it. It would be my first pre with a remote but it looked like BPC.

FWIW my L-09Ms aren't tied together, and I have had zero issues. I cant locate my amps close to the speakers so I'm using 8ft Kimber Kable 8TC speaker cables and have noticed no ill effects from those either.

I'm working on fixing the missing ground binding post. The PO didn't tie the amps together either and he said there were not problems.

After looking more closely at your pics, what's missing next to the IEC is the remains of the original power cord. The IECs are not original to your amps.

I haven't pulled to side cover to verify bit that makes sense. I knew about the IECs.
 
The KC-209 isn't the worst of Kenwoods BPC but it's definitely not worthy of your L-07s. The basic C1 or C2 are viable alternatives to the 7C or 7Cll, and much more affordable. I was using a C2 with my L-09Ms until I was able to acquire the L-07Cll, and it sounded very nice. The L-07Cll is in a completely different league though. FWIW I own the C1 and C2 and they are both very, very good preamps. Enjoy your L-07Ms and keep us updated!
 
One last point. I don't have the trigger cables for my amps so I just turn them off and on with the toggle switches. It's pretty damn cool that you got the original speaker wires with your amps. My two crazy dogs kind of rule out having the amps sitting next to the speakers.
 
I don't have the trigger cables for my amps so I just turn them off and on with the toggle switches.

I powered my SWTP Tiger mono blocks by the toggle switch for many years so I'm used to that. Not sure why I retired them but I recently refreshed the caps, set bias, ... and they still work and sound great.

I was going to do a pre-amp shoot out but now with the recent addition maybe I need a power amp shoot out.
 
Here is a pic of the back. If you look close, I'm missing a ground and a couple screws holding in the trigger inputs. I'll take a look inside to see if anything is affected. Also something is missing next to the IEC connector in the right amp. I knew about the IEC and the speaker binding posts but didn't know about the ground binding posts.
View attachment 1427248

The owners manual says to tie each amp together via the ground post. I picked up a ground binding post from the lab but don't know how critical the grounds are. I'll at least add the ground binding post before I fire them up.

I spy a broken RCA jack in the right amp.
 
I spy a broken RCA jack in the right amp.
Thanks Sam. I think that amp took a hit on the back. I had to realign a few things when i installed the ground binding post. I'll look at the RCA jack closer tonight.
 
Thanks Sam. I think that amp took a hit on the back. I had to realign a few things when i installed the ground binding post. I'll look at the RCA jack closer tonight.

One of my ex-Sevens came in like that. Jack is mounted to a PCB which is then mounted to the chasis. Exposed jack took the hit and broke the PCB. Luckily, I had a L-07C hulk which had the correct part.
 
Just a quick update.

Cleared the bench and removed the bottom cover and rear face plate on the banged up amp. RCA jack is ok. Added ground binding post. 100mA trigger fuse blown.

Re-aligned rear switch and trigger ports. Brought up on DBT. Relay kicked in.

Plugged into house AC and warming up to check DC offset. So far, 6.3mV. Scope didn't find any garbage on output.
 
Other side bias measured 25.0mV (woo woo!) and DC offset at 8.6mV. I'm ok with these values.

Trigger fuse blown on this side too.

I really don't mind working on stuff that was worked on in the past but how hard is it to install *all* the screws back in? I had to find some extra screws and two were not original.

l-07m-bias-sm.png
 
Back
Top Bottom