The K2 and its sister - the K2 M, equipped with a Streaming Client - are the latest K-series products, and form the high-performance core of a Hi-Fi or virtual surround system. According to personal preference, they can be used as the basis for a classic stereo system with two loudspeakers or as a virtual surround system with an additional centre loudspeaker and sub-woofer; we deliberately decided to make no provision for rear speakers. Since the K2 is fitted with no fewer than five power amplifiers, each generating a continuous power of more than 150 Watts, it can even be used to provide stereo sound in an adjacent room, with independent volume control. It was always our intention to install the potent output stages of the E-series Power Plant with their superb sound, as they enable the ambitious music and video enthusiast to use the machine with large, power-hungry loudspeakers, making it perfectly possible to fill quite large rooms with superb-quality sound!
Even when designing video equipment, T+A has always placed particular emphasis on superb sound quality, and for this reason the newly developed high-quality DVD mechanism has been carefully optimised to reproduce music from CD to a very high standard of quality, while the D/A converters are first-class Wolfson audiophile units. The picture quality is wonderful, and the sophisticated integral scaler is capable of upscaling DVD data to 1080p, and passing it on via HDMI and YUV outputs; this allows owners to use the unit to exploit the full potential of any modern television set or monitor.
A USB port on the front panel enables LPCM, MP3, photo JPEG and film files to be transferred and reproduced. The integral VHF RDS tuner offers very good reception characteristics and delivers all the radio-text information generated by the transmitting station. Two high-quality analogue inputs are also provided - e.g. for TV and turntable - in addition to tape sockets and a pair of digital inputs.
As an additional feature the K2 M offers access to all the new media, since it is equipped with the High-End network circuit board (Streaming Client) utilised by the Music Player of the E-series and R-series. The machine’s back-panel USB port gives access to MP3 players and USB media sticks, whilst Internet radio and network music servers can be exploited via LAN or W-LAN, and even iPods can be connected and controlled.
We have deliberately invested tremendous time in developing a simple, logical and intelligent method of operating the K2. In spite of its wide-ranging facilities, the machine is simple and intuitive to operate, either using the front-panel controls or the remote control handset which is included as standard.