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The Kondo Ongaku has always intrigued me somewhat to the point that I seriously began to consider acquiring one a couple of years ago. THe problem was that since each Ongaku has over 20 pounds of silver in each amp and a chassis made out of pure copper, the amp would remain waaaaaay out of reach.

This is an excerpt from a 6moons article (about a Kondo Preamp the M77) but with some background about Kondo itself. It makes fascinating reading. Having chatted to the President (Masaki-san) for about an hour a few weeks ago, I can really feel the thought and emotional content that goes into their products.

Ongaku takes us back to the legendary integrated amp itself, the one that made Kondo famous. In those days when huge American solid-state amps ruled the audio roost, the arrival of an amplifier using valves in a single-ended topology seemed almost surreally anachronistic. The Ongaku, though arrestingly expensive, almost instantly became the most coveted amplifier in the world, and so began the reaffirmation of valve amplification in general and the theoretical fascination with SETs in particular. We are of course still living with the consequences of that trend today. I must admit that I'm still fairly unmoved by most of the SE 300B amps I hear though on the very rare occasions when it works, there are few amps that rival them. Mr. Kondo's amplifiers were different. It's not just that he was the son of a Buddhist priest or a professor of electrical engineering and molecular metallurgy. It was his uncanny ability to fuse hard engineering with profound insight into the wonders of music that made him into the "Picasso of contemporary audio design". In brief, there is nothing quite like a Kondo amp and when you hear one, you just know.

How does Masaki Ashizawa, chief designer at Kondo and now company president of KSL Kondo, achieve these amazing heights? I want to suggest that it has a lot to do with the way Japanese culture produces these artist-artisans who have an extraordinary ability to focus on the intricate properties and very essence of physical objects; on matter itself; and then find a way of connecting it to what is transcendent in the human experience.

There's a Zen focus and concentration which takes something simple and transforms it into something both humble and ecstatic. In the West we can be 'ends oriented' and use tools and matter to get the results we want. For the Japanese artist, the process is sacred, the methods are sacred and the act of creating something simple is considered the noblest achievement man is capable of. This intense and spiritual relationship with physical matter and its counterpoint in our souls can seem bizarre to us. Have a quick look at the late Mr. Kondo talking about silver. You'd think he had taken leave of his senses.

"Silver is a living thing, as if it has a gene which seems to contain DNA as expressed a natural sound." Or what about his thoughts on sound:

"I believe that motion is sound. I am all the more convinced of my belief when I listen to the swelling mass of sound in the middle of Wagner's Tannhäuser Overture. Especially so when listening to the same music performed by the great maestro, Arturo Toscanini at his last concert of April 4, 1954. Which sounds as if the particles of the sound were colliding with one another and whirling in a thunderous march." Or -

"I want to produce a sound in which its individual particles may radiate energy into the ambient space just like the sun and fuse into one."

Hiroyashu Kondo may have been semi mystical in his relationship with physical matter but as befits a professor of electrical engineering and molecular mechanics, the engineering on KSL Kondo electronics is of the very highest order. Kondo is not about peppering fairy sprays on components in the hope something will happen. It is about rigorously looking for many years at how best to achieve a certain sound and adopting the technical solutions for getting there; investing in the equipment, in highly trained staff and research time to achieve it. But above all, it is about approaching the task with a dedication that borders on the obsessive; a love of music that acts as spur; and great humility which has been a characteristic of the Kondo aesthetic from the beginning.

Stay tuned.....