Performance

The Scythe Kama Bay Amplifier is intended for use with a set of efficient desktop or bookshelf speakers, but it can also be used to power a pair of headphones. Hooking up the amplifier to your PC is relatively simple all you got to do is use the mini jack to RCA cable you get with the amp and you are rolling. If you can assign the output of your computer to be a line out that makes it even better, but otherwise you will just have to play around with the settings in order to achieve the optimum sound quality.

I tested the amp with both my Travagan's Mini speakers and my big floor standing Energy speakers which are quite efficient as well although nowhere as easy to drive as the Travagan's speakers. I had this amp outside of my PC's case to eliminate most noise problems and it was powered by the supplied wall adapter at all times.

First of all, this amp is quite powerful even though it does not look like it, it can drive both the small and very efficient Travagan's speakers and almost pull off running my Energy speakers. With the Travagan's speaker it sounds quite good although the tonality and note decay is unnatural sounding compared to the Travagan's Green. Detail wise the Travagan's Green amplifier pulls ahead by a massive margin, but again it costs nearly five times as much as the Kama Bay amp. Of course the Travagan's Green has a few extra features one including a DAC.

The Scythe amp sounds quite cold compared to the class A/B speaker amp from Travagan’s, it is not necessarily a bad thing, but combined with its less than natural tone decay it is not as pleasing to listen to as the Travagan's amp. With my Energy speakers which are warm sounding it becomes less of a problem, although the sound quality is compromised because the amp does not have enough power to control the larger diaphragms. Especially bass quality and extension is lacking when you hook up them up to the Scythe amp. It does a more than alright job for a €50 amplifier, but do not expect miracles.

The Kama Bay Amp is a good choice if you just want to use some old speakers you have lying around. If you are going to build yourself a serious PC based listening rig you might want to consider an amp that you can use even if you decide to upgrade your source.

It is not as smooth or as controlled sounding as the Travagan's Green. It cannot compete with the much more expensive Travagan's amp in terms of sound quality, but in terms of bang for the buck it can easily exceed that of the Green's. Since the Scythe Kama Bay only has one input it is not ideally suited for use as a normal stereo amplifier, to be honest I can only see the Kama Bay amp used in combination with a PC and a set of efficient passive bookshelf speakers, so its use is fairly limited. On the other hand if that is just what you are looking for, the Scythe amp will give you that capability at a very reasonable price.

Durability

The terminals on the back of the amp are rock solid, however, the front panel and the headphone jack on it do not exactly feel study. The way the volume pot is mounted makes it feel a bit sloppy and might cause it to break down over time if you are not careful with the way to handle the amp. In case you have mounted it in a 5.25" drive bay you should be extra careful not to press against it because it could kill the volume pot or break of the knob.