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Katana in UK and gained the Best-Buy Award in the Hi Fi Choice magazine ( see August 2004 Issue)
Inca Design Katana
Those of you with long memories will remember a British electronics company called Inca Tech which produced a popular if inconsistently built amplifier called the Claymore in the eighties. The similarity in name between that brand and this new one is not entirely coincidental. When the idea behind Inca Design was hatched the plan was to call it Inca Tech and launch it with a brand new Claymore for the 21st century, with design input from Colin Wonfor, the original founder of the brand. As things panned out, other designers were brought in to work on different products and the decision was taken to change the name to Inca Design - not a bad idea given Inca Tech's less than enviable reputation for reliability, or lack thereof. The first Inca Design product to reach fruition turned out to be this, the Katana CD player, a product that looks far more expensive than it is.
This quality of external build is rare at twice the asking price here so we had to ask how parent company Activ Distribution had achieved this extraordinary result. They claim that it is simply a matter of honesty - by designing the player in the UK and manufacturing it in China they say that costs can be kept low enough to maintain the price point. The fact that other brands who use the same approach have not achieved as much is, they suggest, because products are priced in order to maximise margins. Another reason could be that there is no export margin built into this price and should the Katana prove a success overseas, don't be shocked if the price rises to cover this necessary evil.
The Katana's build quality is, according to the spec, more than skin deep. The chassis is built to allow the transport to operate in a resonance-free environment and uses profiling on the aluminium panelling to break up vibration. The side cheeks are 4mm thick while the top plate is a millimetre thinner and heavily damped. The baseplate, meanwhile, is a composite of aluminium and copper, a fact that is clear if you turn the player over. What you'll also notice is the unusual chequerboard pattern printed onto it, described as both a faraday cage to keep out RFI (radio frequency interference) and as a means of further breaking up resonance. Presumably there is more than the ink in the pattern to achieve the former but quite how it achieves the latter is not clear. The other, more straightforward, element you'll see on the base is an on/off switch which can be reached from the front of the player - if you know where to look!
Inside the case, a Philips VAM 1202 transport sits on a slab of 10mm thick copper, this having been machined to cancel resonances and has the effect of mass loading the mechanism - effectively giving it a base into which to sink its own resonances. A single Burr-Brown chip contains an upsampler to 24-bit/96kHz, a DAC and an HDCD filter selected for its performance rather than to help the limited range of HDCD-encoded discs on the market, but it does this nonetheless.
The combination of balanced and single- ended output sockets on offer means that even the back panel on the Katana looks like it's from a more expensive player. The fact that Inca Design supplies both single- ended analogue and optical digital cables to hook the player up is another bonus.
Something you can't miss with this player is the remote. This is the first time we've seen a remote that's made of teak and crafted so attractively as well. The laser-cut legends and rounded ergonomic form mean it's great to use as well as look at and it earns the highest 'fondleability' rating of any handset we've had the pleasure of rubbing.
SOUND QUALITY
Given the company of considerably more expensive ancillary components the Katana proved itself as accomplished sonically as it is physically, displaying both beauty and brains when it comes to the fine art of music reproduction. Its character is relaxed and smooth but not to the extent that detail is masked - in fact this is a pleasingly transparent player for the price and reveals a great deal about any disc you care to place in it. Doing so requires access to a button on the top, so tight shelf mounting isn't a cunning plan, but then a player that looks as good as this one warrants being put on display.
Playing Outkast's remarkable The Love Below CD on the Katana, we could immediately appreciate the use of reverb and phase-related effects in the studio. The beat, the words and the instruments were all clear enough, but it was the three-dimensional stereo aspects that really stood out. Bass lines were tuneful and weighty, and this player clearly has no shortage of range. The midrange is just a touch relaxed, however - you can hear what's going on but there's a degree of smoothing which may frankly be a blessing with many systems.
The complex rhythms of jazz groovers EST were not handled quite so slickly. Interaction between piano, double bass and drums was easy to follow but didn't have quite the synchronicity that can sometimes be heard. But by the standards of its price the Katana is no slouch and there are few players for any money which combine stereo imaging with great timing, let alone for less than a grand. Image depth with this acoustic three-piece was as strong as ever, each instrument sitting in its own acoustic environment and claiming its place in the mix.
Resolution of detail is also very strong - it has to be to produce the stereo image but there is also a sense of richness to the overall sound that makes other players seem a little 'simplistic'. It bettered a less than youthful Sony SCD-XA555ES SACD player in nearly all respects, unless you gave the latter a head start with an SACD disc. Even then the Katana put in a sterling performance with the CD layer, Norah Jones sounding open and clear yet warm and personal.
Eminem's Stan gave the player a chance to show off its weighty bottom end, the thunder and rain sounding remarkably convincing behind Dido's telephone-effect vocals. This player seems to thrive on studio effects and reveals each producer's tricks with ease thanks to its sensitivity to spatial cues. The Shostakovich Jazz Suites revealed another side to its abilities, namely the resolution of tonal colour. The bells on this disc rang out with clarity and strength - many CD players struggle to produce fully formed high frequencies but that certainly isn't the case here. Another rather entertaining element to this piece is the banjo playing, the short solo seeming almost to parody the style of twenties jazz - an effect which the Katana had little difficulty revealing.
Four Tet's rhythmically dense Rounds album presented a greater challenge to the player's timing skills, but it remained relaxed and enjoyable nonetheless. This disc can be rather bombastic, the sampled nature of most of the sounds making them less than sweet with some players but this is not an issue here, long-term listenability being a by-product of its relaxed presentation.
The Katana is an accomplished CD player with considerable poise for one so affordable. It may not be all things to all men but then such players do not, unfortunately, exist at this price point, and its enjoyable mix of sonic skills and superb build quality should make it something of a giant slayer in the sub-£1,000 arena. Inca Design intends to hold its price until the end of the year, but don't be shocked if it fails - this is a bargain!
Hi Fi Choice August 2004 Issue 257
