What happened to Krell

Dan D. is out and has a new company. However, Krell remains one of the best amps; FAR better than Mac IMHO. The new line, 402e for example, are the best sounding amps they have made so far. The current Chinese made 300 series integrated amp is better than some of their old amps if not as good as their current top line amps. Krell has been around a while, I know as I was one of their original dealers around 1980, and the flavor of the month tends to get more press. I haven't been a dealer for decades and do not currently have any Krell gear so have no self interest here.

The ebb and flow of the hifi market happened. It seems that more folks are using tubes these days. The tube integrated amp has increased vastly in the last 10 years or so especially. The days of the expensive SS amps, at least those built in the USA seem to have ended. Krell, Mark Levinson, Jeff Rowland, Threshold....those were the 80's and 90's. There are still expensive SS amps from darTZeel, FM Acoustics, Goldmund, etc., but they are made overseas.

Nelson Pass seems to be doing OK...and Dan D'Agostino seems to have realized the need for more $60,000 amps in the marketplace...bless his little heart. Both are US based.

Yea, not sure anything's changed all that much -- just the model numbers. Rowland's recently come out with ~$30k monoblocks. Ayre's monoblocks clock in just south of $20k. Dan D'Agostino apparently outgrew Krell, but his new copper-cooled monsters are a sight to behold (if nothing else). Pass, of course -- and undoubtedly others. So, if your goal is to drop some outrageous coin on US-made SS amps, don't think you'll have any problem doing so at all.

The new Krell S300i integrated is rather good, even though their entry line is made in china now. It is much better than the kav300i and kav400xi models it replaced.