About LKV Research

LKV Misson

LKV Research offers music lovers great sounding audio preamps and amps at affordable prices. We focus on the characteristics of each component that truly matter for sound quality and use good engineering design and extensive listening to achieve excellent performance without incurring unnecessary cost.

LKV Essentials

At LKV we believe that designing excellent audio components involves three fundamental steps:  (1) identifying the necessary characteristics or elements necessary for the device in question to perform well;  (2) applying sound engineering principles and techniques to design a component that will achieve those characteristics, and (3) most importantly, listening to a variety of music played through the component  over an extended period of time.  Based on the results of this listening, we select the best parts and circuit topologies and modify the design to achieve an optimum balance among the key characteristics.  The result is a component that well serves the music.  The first two steps are the science, the third is the art.

Chief Designer - Bill Hutchins

I grew up listening to live classical music played in our living room by my mother and her chamber music aficionado friends.  Really well reproduced violin or cello music still transports me back to the spot on the family’s living room rug where I lay to listen.  As a teenager, whenever I could scrape up three or four dollars, I went to the local record store to buy an acoustic folk recording.  I wore out every one of those records playing them again and again on an old record player that I now think must have had a chisel for a needle.

Made in America

One of our goals at LKV is to contribute, in at least a small way, to restoring manufacturing in the United States.  Our products are designed and assembled in North Conway, NH.  We use as many parts manufactured in the United States as feasible, including all enclosures and transformers, most resistors, switches and connectors, and the low noise JFETs used in gain circuits.

FAQs

LKV’s Chief Designer Bill Hutchins answers some questions.