From donniemac88@yahoo.com Wed May 03 06:01:54 2006
Subject:Re: Traynor K4 reviews?

Walter and I have been trading PMs, but I thought I'd respond to
Bill's post.

I've been using the K4 for a couple months now, and am still quite
pleased with my purchase. The convenience of having a 300 W stereo
amp, built-in mixer, and tube preamps for my clonewheel all in one
package that I can use tilted back or upright is perfect for my
needs. I've played the K4 at about a half-dozen gigs (a 9-piece horn
band), several rehearsals, and one LOUD jam session and it is plenty
loud -- I haven't needed to turn the master volume past halfway yet.

As far as Bill's comments concerning the construction of the unit, I
haven't noticed any of the issues he mentioned. My K4 seems solidly
built, and the form, fit, and finish are all quite good. The knobs
are indeed plastic, but so are the knobs on every piece of electronic
gear I own, so... okay...

I will note that this is my 2nd K4 -- the first one I received was
damaged in shipment. Yorkville had me process a claim thru UPS and
replaced the amp, but I feel that the damage was caused more by
skimpy packaging on Yorkville's part, rather than anything that UPS
might have done.

I haven't noticed the mid-range distortion Bill talks about. In fact,
I've been impressed by how well the K4 can reproduce a dirty,
growling clonewheel organ tone thru the tube channel layered with a
clean piano patch thru one of the other channels. As Bill mentioned,
maybe it's all in what you're comparing it to. The K4 doesn't have
the lows I had back when I used two Roland KC-500s, but overall its
tone is much more pleasing.

The toughest thing for anyone considering a K4 is that, as far as I
know, there are very few (if any) places where you can try one out
before you buy.

> state amp I want clean.
>
> Bottom line: I "didn't like it" and sent it back to DirectProAudio.
> The sales guy was quite surprised. I guess most customers are happy.
> Maybe it depends on what you are comparing to. I found both my jbl's
> and the ms kbr3d (modded with eminence deltalite woofers) more
> satisfying.
>
> my 2cents.
>
> -Bill
>