Krell XD gear in the House Initial Impressions


For those who were following a post we started a few weeks ago about considering bringing in Krell gear here is our follow up post after we just received the display gear.

We had 0 interest in adding Krell to our product portfolio before attending the Capitol Audio Fest we almost missed the room it was on the First floor in the back and it was VPI's room and we are not VPI dealers so it was almost a fluke that we even poked in. The huge Wilson Alex's were beckoning us in, so we decided to take a brief listen.

The sound in this room was mesmerizing, someone played Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side and there in three dimensions was Lou Reed and the three back up vocalisits, the sound was smooth, engaging, transparent, and has a sense of presence that made you take notice. 

So we started looking at the setup, VPI table $15k, Soundsmith cart $8k $110k Wilson speakers, lot of expensive Nordost Vallahalla or Odin but what was driving this insanely good sounding rig there in the bottom of the rack were two Krell 300XD amplifiers and a Krell preamp. 

Here was the best sound at this entire show, and the electronics were a fraction of the price of all of the other reference setups which were $80k monoblocs amplifers, $40k reference preamps and other such expensive gear. 

So we figured we would give the Krell a try part of the reason was logistics, powering our Paradigm Persona 9H is a $50k set of the phenominal T+A electronics from Germany, a $19.5K 300 Watt power amplifier, a $16.5 preamplifier and an optional outboard power supply at $13.5.

We have no issue with this gear it is incredible, however, we didn't have in this room a set or electronics which we thought would really give the T+A stuff a run for its money and yet be more affordable, so the Krell 300XD amp at $10,500 plus their Illusion 2 preamp/dac at $8k we thought would bring the price of doing a top notch system with the Personas down a bit in price and perhaps be a nice addition to our other electronics lines of T+A and Naim for top of the line solid state gear.

We hooked up the new Krell gear yesterday and even after only 24 hours of break in the sonic signature is very similar to what we heard at the Capital Audio Fest. 

The new Krell gear was liquid in the midrange, with nylon strings having the right type of roundness that makes acoustic guitar sound so right, tight well defined midbass, excellent rhythmic control, good top end extension with a slighly soft warm top end, and a big dimensional soundstage.

One of our questions is are there anyone on the boards who has this combo in particular the 300XD power amplifier and the illusion 2 preamp/dac we are currious to the affects of break in and how they improve. 

The sound after only 24 hours of initial plug in and break  in the gear is allready sounding ridiculous good how much better does it get and in what ways?

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ  new Krell dealers




128x128audiotroy
Are you in a trial period as a Krell dealer?   You are not listed as an authorized Krell dealer. 
i’ve owned several krell pieces over the years and wish them well. i personally think that departing from their distinctive aesthetic didn’t help. the gear always looked cool and you knew it was a krell. it looked expensive.. very bad marketing decision in my opinion. to come back big they need to consider serious cosmetic changes and add a great rotary volume control to go with great sound. you need all ingredients cooking for expensive audio gear to be desirable imho.

A couple of years ago I replaced my Krell MDA-300's with a pair of Solo 575's.  I first auditioned the Duo 300 in my home driving current Legacy Focus SE speakers.  The Duo 300 had nice midrange and high but didn't have the bass slam of the older mono amps.  Krell and my dealer arranged for me to try the Solo 575's in my home.  They sounded great from day 1 and still do.  I am still using my old KRC-3 preamp and see no reason to change.

I am waiting for a date to bring the amps to Krell for the upgrade.  I don't expect any dramatic sonic improvement but willing to give the upgrade
a try.  The lower output impedance should work well with the Legacy speakers.

As for the fans... I have never heard them.  Aesthetics???   Are you kidding? Large power amps never look like fine furniture. These are understated and don't stand out in the room.

I may post my impressions after the amps are upgraded.

I attended the Rocky Mountain Audiofest in October and heard the K-300i, chatted with David and Walter, and based on what I HEARD I extrapolated that of course the dedicated amp and big brother to this unit - the Duo 300 XD - HAD to sound AT LEAST as good as the baby brother “all in one,” and I was right. 

I have owned 3 Krell amps since the mid 80’s and most recently was in possession of the 400 FPBcx. I am happy to report this AMAZING amplifier is easily beyond impressive, delivering all of the wonderful sonic qualities alluded to in the post here.  I thought it was impossible that this eco-friendly Class A amp drawing only one watt in standby mode could equal, let alone surpass the sonic quality of my 400 FPBcx “muscle car.” The amplifier BLEW it away. Just fabulous. As an aside, I had listened to the NON XD version and was not compelled to trade up. There is magic in what David accomplished here with the introduction of  XD platform and there is simply hands down, no comparison. I traded up to the Duo 300 XD and couldn’t be happier.  The amp drives my Confidence C2 speakers and am using the Krell Foundation prepro  for both 2.0 stereo and home theater and I am in musical nirvana. This amp is musical, involving, highly detailed and delivers an entirely immersive experience with a huge soundstage . At around 10K it is quite a value. 
Frank you should be in for a treat the new XD version of the amplifiers has an organic quality that is very unlike most solid state amplifiers the sound just flows, the best example of this is that strings and piano keys have a glowing roundness that just sounds beautiful.

All the amplifers seem to have a better rhythemic pace than past Krell amplifers. Past Krell amps that we had included the KSA 250s and the 450MCX.s.

The new XD versions are just much more musically involving than the older Krell products which were clean with good bass and dynamics but sounded much more artificial. 

Krell Fan truer words could not be said our reference stack of electronics and digital is upwards of $70k and we are now breaking in a Krell 300XD amplifier and an Illusion 2 preamp with dac board and the sound isn't quite as good as the big stuff, but I am willing to bet if we blindfolded someone they would not think  the uber expensive stuff is worth nearly 5 times the cost. 

The illusion 2 is very surprising the digital board is clearly out of date without ethernet connectivity no DSD, and only 192k sampling rate however with that being said the sound of the board is really really good and for a $1k is a great value for a very listenable digital experience.

It is nice to see such a venerated American company is on its way back.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor Krell dealers