Even the most dedicated audiophiles will admit that there’s no small amount of excess at the top end of the HiFi market. There are plenty of products out there that slap off-the-shelf components slapped inside a bolted together “aircraft grade aluminum” box that make you wonder how they command a price tag that could buy you a new luxury car. So when Audio-Technica creates a $108,000 amp, you’d be forgiven if your eyes glaze over at the thought of another ridiculously expensive audiophile product, but a closer look tells you that HPA-KG NARU Narukami is something more than just a pricey tube amp. Do the materials, the sound quality, and the work that went into this amp make it something that can genuinely claim to be worth over $100,000?
Build and Design
Narukami doesn’t just deliver musical artistry through highly refined engineering, it’s also a work of visual art. The concept behind Narukami’s visual design is water flowing down from a garden, and other elements of its construction are borrowed from nature, like the grille pattern being based on Ayasugi needles. The wood used for the side panels is specially harvested Kurogaki – a wood that takes 100 years to develop its grain and is generally used in Japan for high-end luxury furniture crafting. It’s very clear that Audio-Technica’s intent here was to create a one-of-a-kind piece of heirloom quality audio equipment, and they succeeded with a piece that looks amazing, and only becomes more impressive the more closely you observe the materials and craftsmanship.
The selection of components and underlying engineering is no less impressive than the selection of materials and visual craftsmanship. Narukami uses a fully balanced SSRP design, with four highly valued Takatsuki TA-300B power tubes (with an additional four backup tubes included), four JJ ECC83S preamp tubes, and two JJ GZ34S rectifier tubes. The additional internal components, like the four Lundahl silver-wire output transformers, were carefully selected with no expense spared – the combined cost of just the tubes and power transformers would be $30,000.
In terms of features and capabilities, Narukami offers about as many options as you can ask for in a fully analog tube amp. For sources, you get one RCA, and two balanced XLR inputs. It can be used as either a headphone amp, with 4-pin XLR and 6.3mm outputs, or as a pre-amp with RCA and XLR preamp outputs. For headphones, you get 1.6 W of maximum power at 32 ohms, but the three selectable impedance modes (32, 150, 600) mean that works surprisingly well with harder to drive headphones. Narukami also includes a balance control, which can be useful for listeners with asymmetrical hearing loss or for balancing sound in a room, when in preamp mode.
The package also includes the $4200 ATH-AWKG Kurogaki headphones, which feature a similar general design to past Audio-Technica wood-cup headphones like the ATH-AWAS Asada Zakura and ATH-AWKT Kokutan. ATH-AWKG sets itself apart with wood that matches the Narukami amp and a sound that synergizes with the amp. With or without the headphones, can Narukami achieve a world-class sound that matches its materials and build?
Sound
Audio-Technica emphasized in their promotional materials that their engineers focused on the perception of natural sound in listening over strict measurements, and whether or not Narukami measures well, they absolutely achieved some of the most natural, lifelike sound imaginable. No matter what headphones you plug into it, from budget favorites like the Koss KPH-40 to flagship planar magnetic headphones, Narukami provides a lifelike, three-dimensional image.
While measurements weren’t the top priority for Narukami, there’s no sense of coloration to its sound, and the presentation is both neutral and natural. The sound is exceedingly clean, with a pitch black background, and if you have the necessary adapter, there’s no reason to not plug your IEMs into the amp as well. Probably the only criticism I can level at Narukami’s sound and performance is that it’s not designed with the hardest to drive planar magnetic headphones in mind. Susvara Unveiled performs brilliantly, but don’t expect the original Susvara to sing like it does on more power-focused amps.
In our time with Narukami, we listened to just about everything in the office, and the result was top notch performance across the board, but we spent the most time with the Audeze LCD-5, HIFIMAN Susvara Unveiled, Meze Empyrean 2, and, of course, the Audio-Technica ATH-AWKG Kurogaki. I have previously stated that the Cayin Soul 170HA is the best pairing I’ve heard for the Susvara Unveiled, but Narukami has definitively dethroned Soul.
The combination of LCD-5 and Narukami may be a new favorite all-time combo, as Narukami provides a surprisingly large soundstage for LCD-5, and LCD-5’s already impressive holographic imaging is further strengthened and enhanced. Acoustic instruments are so clear and detailed you can practically reach out and touch them, while voices have a strong “in the room” characteristic. Empyrean 2 isn’t quite as spacious as LCD-5, but it’s similarly holographic, with a lush presentation and strong weight to every note.
While the ATH-AWKG doesn’t quite match up with the other headphones here on a purely technical level, the combination of ATH-AWKG and Narukami results in an natural, organic sound, with perfect timbre and a striking balance of lush instrumentation and intricate layering.
While most of our listening was done with the dCS Lina DAC and Master Clock, we used a variety of DACs and sources to get an idea of what this amp can actually do. While there were aspects of the presentation of detail and imaging that could really only be appreciated with high end DACs like the Lina, even running with the line out of an iBasso DX180 or with a line split from a Questyle M15C dongle resulted in an impressive sonic presentation.
If headphones aren’t your thing, or only represent a fraction of your listening time, Narukami also makes for an incredible preamp. In our testing, we worked with the the options of an Eversolo DMP-A10, dCS Lina DAC, and the Narukami as preamps, and the Narukami absolutely blew the competition away with weighty, physical imaging and a perfect blend of bass power and control. While Lina provided an impressive upgrade in the level of detail over just the DMP-A10, Narukami (still using Lina as the DAC) elevated our system to the best we’ve ever heard it sound.
Is there a comparison?
While there are a number of very expensive headphone systems out there, most are based on electrostatic technology and have a vastly different sort of sound profile compared to Narukami. While something like the Warwick Aperio system has elements that are competitive with Narukami, it ultimately feels like it’s not even aiming at the same goal, and while Aperio presents an incredible level of detail, it ends up sounding much more analytical by comparison. Narukami, as if by magic, seems to deliver a level of detail and resolution that rivals Aperio, while displaying a lifelike, natural timbre that feels organic in a way that electrostats struggle to replicate.
The closer comparison in terms of the sound profile is probably something like the Auris Headonia 300B or even the Cayin Soul 170HA. In fact, I’d say that, in a lot of ways, Narukami sounds like an elevated version of the Cayin Soul. What these three amps share in common is a dedication to creating a lifelike, natural reproduction of sound, but where Headonia and Soul don’t match up brings us back to electrostatic systems like Warwick Aperio. Narukami provides both the exceedingly natural organic sound, along with the weight and timbre of high-end tube headphone amps, while also providing the world-class detail of a high-end electrostatic system.
While it’s hard to justify a $108,000 price tag on sound quality alone, Narukami brings together the best parts of both tube amps and electrostatic systems that cost tens of thousands of dollars, and delivers exquisite world class sound when it’s paired with world class headphones.
The Bottom Line
Narukami is an amazing sounding amp, and I’d recommend taking any opportunity you have to spend some time listening to music with it. But Narukami is more than just a great headphone amp, it’s a tribute to music and music lovers – an attempt to build the ultimate, best of the best amplifier with no expense spared. Beyond that, the materials and visual artistry bring that level of tribute to a whole different level, creating a timeless piece of audiophile art that represents the pinnacle of visual design, engineering, and sound.
