Krell EVO 302 or 302e

Your Pass is a pure Class A amplifier and the Krell is not. Since your speakers are not so power hungry, I would think your pass would be hard to beat. I have heard the Krell 402e and it is a very, very good amplifier. I just bought the smaller, and much less expensive, Krell S-275 because it sounded similar to the 402e. My dealer, who carries the Krells has said that the 302e is a fantastic amp. Based on what I have heard of the Evo series, I would have to say that the 302e would be a great amp in any system.

Again, the fact is that your pure Class A Pass may be really tough act to follow….Hopefully you can do some auditioning.

Let us know what you find out.

_Ben

I own the XA160.5's and was considering the Krell 402 before choosing the Pass. I agree that the Krells are quite good. Not as warm as the Pass, but very transparent and with vibrant color in the midrange. I have only heard them with Focal beryllium models, and this seems like a good pairing IMO. You shouldn't have to travel too far to hear one.

More power is an advantage even with un-power hungry speakers.

I have heard the Krell Evo 402 directly A-B'd to the 402e and the improvement with the 'e' model was immediately evident to all in the room, more open and cleaner, smoother and more natural top end, a significant improvement. FWIW from several long conversations with Dan and Brett D'Agostino the more power the amps have in the Evo line the better they sound, before leaving/getting kicked out of Krell, Dan was working on a two chassis 1,800 Watt Evo amp....

When you buy Krell, go big!

I have tried both brands. Both brands sound good but if you like your XA 30.5 you will not like the sound of the Krell. The Krell sound is a bit dry for my taste. I have a Pass Labs X350.5 and did have a Krell EVO 302 and 402 in my home for evaluation before buying my X350.5. I also owned a XA30.5 for for 5 months that used for a speaker project and liked it better than the Krell amps. The delicate detail, smoothness, sound presentation, wide open soundstage and tonal balance was all better with the Pass Labs. Both brands have different design philosophies. Krell amps have very complicated circuit and power supply designs. The Pass Labs use very simple and straight to the point circuit and power supply designs. I find myself turning up the volume on the Krell amps to get the detail and then other problems would occur and then I want to turn it down because now my ears are fatigued. It is a vicious cycle with the volume control. The Krells sound good for 5 to ten minute demos and then I am done listening. The newer big Krells are Class A/B. Class A is different kind of power. It is much more rich, open then class A/B. 30 Watts of Class A is the equivelant of 90Watts of Class A/B in most cases depending on design, input impedance, and headroom. I will upgrade to the Pass Labs XA160.5 mono blocks sometime this comming summer.