The Sound System

Harbeth speakers, ModWright tube amplification, and a room built from the ground up for one purpose — to let you hear every note the way the artist intended.

Split-flap Now Playing sign displaying the current jazz record at Kissa Kissa listening bar in Brooklyn

The Philosophy

Sound First

Before the first record was shelved or the first cocktail was poured, the sound came first. Danny and Nina partnered with The Music Room — a Colorado-based firm specializing in high-end audio equipment — and sent them detailed diagrams of the space. Knowing that Kissa Kissa would be playing exclusively jazz, The Music Room designed a complete system configured specifically for the room — every component chosen to serve the genre and the space it would live in.

The result is a system that doesn’t announce itself. There are no towering horn speakers or glowing walls of vintage gear on display. Instead, the equipment works quietly in service of the music — British speakers known for their natural midrange, American tube amplification built by hand in Washington state, and a turntable setup designed to keep vinyl spinning all night without interruption. Dozens of soundproofing panels are strategically placed throughout the space for dampening and absorption, ensuring the room itself is as much a part of the system as the electronics.

What you notice isn’t the gear. It’s the space between the notes, the warmth of a tenor saxophone, the way a piano sounds like it’s being played in the room with you. That’s the whole point.

Harbeth speakers and ModWright tube amplification powering the audiophile sound system at Kissa Kissa jazz listening bar

The Signal Chain

From Groove to Air

Every component in the chain was chosen for the same reason — to get out of the way and let the music through. Here’s how the sound travels from the record to your ears.

Source

The Turntables

Technics SL-1200 & Nagaoka Cartridges

A pair of Technics SL-1200 turntables — provided by Technics — sit side by side behind the bar, running through a headphone-amplified rotary mixer. One record plays while the next is cued — the music never stops. Every volume adjustment on the rotary mixer is smooth, warm, and musical. No digital clicks, no harsh transitions. Just analog control.

The cartridges are from Nagaoka — the MP-200 and the MP-500 — a Japanese manufacturer with over sixty years of experience in precision styli. Nagaoka cartridges are prized for their warm, detailed sound and their ability to track grooves faithfully without adding harshness, making them an ideal match for the vintage jazz pressings that fill the wall behind the bar.

Technics SL-1200 turntables (pair) · Nagaoka MP-200 & MP-500 cartridges · Rotary mixer

Pair of Technics SL-1200 turntables with Nagaoka cartridges and rotary mixer behind the bar at Kissa Kissa Brooklyn

Phono Stage

ModWright PH 9.0X

Tube Phono Preamplifier

The signal from the cartridge is tiny and fragile — it needs to be amplified and equalized before it can become music. The ModWright PH 9.0X is a tube phono preamplifier that handles this critical first stage of amplification with the warmth and dimensionality that only tubes can provide. Built by hand in Amboy, Washington, it preserves the life and texture of the original recording while adding none of its own character.

ModWright PH 9.0X · Tube phono preamplifier · Handbuilt in Amboy, WA

Preamplifier

ModWright LS 99

Balanced Tube Preamplifier

The preamplifier is the conductor of the system — it takes the signal from the phono stage, controls the volume, and feeds it to the power amplifiers. The ModWright LS 99 is a balanced tube design that pairs naturally with the rest of the ModWright chain. Its tube output stage gives the signal a subtle richness and three-dimensionality that solid-state designs rarely match, while its balanced architecture keeps noise to a minimum — essential in a space where conversations and music need to coexist.

ModWright LS 99 · Balanced tube preamplifier · Handbuilt in Amboy, WA

ModWright LS 99 balanced tube preamplifier with glowing tubes at Kissa Kissa jazz listening bar Brooklyn

Amplification

ModWright KWA 99

Monoblock Power Amplifiers

The KWA 99 monoblocks are the muscle of the system — 99 watts per channel of pure Class AB power, each dedicated to driving a single speaker with total authority. The glowing VU meters on the front panels aren’t decoration. They show exactly how much energy is being pushed into the room at any given moment. Monoblock configuration means each amplifier has its own power supply, its own transformer, and its own output stage, eliminating the crosstalk that can blur the stereo image in a conventional stereo amplifier.

ModWright KWA 99 · 99 watts/channel · Class AB monoblocks · Handbuilt in Amboy, WA

ModWright KWA 99 monoblock power amplifier with glowing VU meter at Kissa Kissa vinyl jazz bar Brooklyn

Speakers

Harbeth Super HL5+ XD & Compact 7ES

British Loudspeakers

Two pairs of Harbeth speakers are positioned at different points in the room, ensuring that the music reaches every seat with clarity and warmth. The Super HL5+ XD is Harbeth’s flagship three-way monitor — a speaker designed in the BBC tradition that has spent decades earning a reputation for the most natural, lifelike midrange in the industry. Voices, saxophones, piano — the frequencies where jazz lives — come through with an honesty that lesser speakers can’t approach. The Compact 7ES provides the same tonal family in a slightly smaller footprint, filling secondary zones of the room with the same character.

Harbeth speakers are handmade in Sussex, England, using proprietary RADIAL cone technology developed from the BBC’s original research into natural-sounding loudspeakers. They don’t dazzle. They don’t exaggerate. They simply tell the truth about whatever record is on the turntable.

Harbeth Super HL5+ XD · Harbeth HL Compact 7ES · Two pairs · Handmade in Sussex, England

Harbeth Super HL5 Plus XD three-way monitor speakers in walnut cabinets at Kissa Kissa jazz listening bar Crown Heights

The Experience

Built for Listening

Kissa Kissa is not a hi-fi showroom. It is a bar — a place to drink, to talk, to be with people you care about. The sound system exists in service of that experience. It fills the room without dominating it. It rewards attention without demanding it. If you want to sink into a corner and let a Coltrane record wash over you, the system is there. If you want to lean across the bar and tell your friend about your week, the system stays out of your way.

Behind the bar, a split-flap “Now Playing” board — the kind you used to see in train stations — cycles through the artist, album, and label of whatever is on the turntable. No need to ask the bartender. No need to pull out your phone. Just look up and know what you’re hearing.

No Bluetooth. No algorithms. Just the needle, the groove, and the air between you and the music.

100%

Analog

5,300+

Vintage Jazz LPs

99W

Per Channel

Old-School Now Playing Sign

The Partners

The People Behind the Sound

ModWright Instruments is a small, family-run manufacturer of high-end audio equipment based in Amboy, Washington. Founded by Dan Wright, the company builds preamplifiers, power amplifiers, phono stages, and DACs by hand — each one assembled, tested, and signed off by the people who designed it. ModWright’s philosophy is simple: build equipment that sounds natural, looks beautiful, and lasts a lifetime. Every piece of amplification at Kissa Kissa carries their name.

Harbeth Audio has been building loudspeakers in Sussex, England, since 1977. Their designs descend directly from the BBC’s research into natural-sounding monitors — speakers built to reproduce music as faithfully as possible, without coloration or exaggeration. Their proprietary RADIAL cone technology is the product of decades of research into how materials vibrate, flex, and reproduce sound. When you hear a trumpet at Kissa Kissa, it sounds like a trumpet. That’s Harbeth.

The Music Room is a Colorado-based hi-fi dealer and consultancy specializing in high-end audio equipment. They worked with Danny and Nina to design a complete audio system configured specifically for Kissa Kissa’s space and its exclusively jazz format — ensuring that the equipment and the room work together as a single coherent instrument.