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Should I Upgrade My Krells

Here are the details. I have a Krell 150A Amplifier, Krell 250P Pre-Amplifier, Cary 303/200 CD Player, Vienna Acoustic Bachs, AudioQuest Viper XLRs throughout. Some Very Thick Monster Cable speaker wire (M100 series I think). I bought the Krells off of E-Bay in ABSOLUTE pristine condition 1 1/2 years ago. I will say that my Bachs are HERE TO STAY as I'm a silk dome tweeter fan as well as a Vienna fan! IMHO, nothing sounds better than Vienna. . . again MY personal opinion. Also, the Cary is quite phenominal!!!

When I purchased the Krells on E-Bay, I paid $2,150.00. When new, both units went for $4,800.00.

It has been said that sometimes Krell can be a bit too agressive and that may be true (I don't know with authority). If this is in fact the case, I believe that since the Bachs and Cary are very much laid back, this offsets the brashness of the Krells. I think the Krells do well in producing bass on my Bachs especially since they have no bass driver, but rather are ported on the back. IMHO, I feel as thought the midrage is positively intoxication and the high end can be likened to mercury. If I had one complaint, it would be imaging. I wished that my system was able to do this more effectively!!!

I went to audition the Mozarts side by side to the Bachs at my local Tweeter store. To my amazement, I truly believe the Bachs sounded better! Further, the set up I heard at the store which included B&K electronics and a no name cd player sounded better than my home system???? In short, I experienced far better imaging than my home system???? Can B&K be on the same level as Krell in this aspect?? I know my Cary is not in question as it's about as good as it gets at the price point I paid.

This all being said, should I replace the Krells? I don't want to sacrifice what I already have in Bass, Midrange, and Treble. I want to improve the imaging as I know that can be done and have heard it demonstrated!!

Any advice would be welcomed!

Itch
itch
nrchy's avatar
nrchy
2,111 posts
 
I doubt that harsh could be anyone's nirvana. What does harsh mean? I left room in my thread for any number of opinions. There is no piece of equipment that would be the best for everyone.
The problem could be your room, your ears, or any number of things. Are we to assume that since you don't like it the rest of us should throw our equipment away?!?
The real story probably has more to do with the sound you are accustomed to than how bad the Krell sounds. With the technological advances made in this age it's just foolish to think that any company would want to build an amp that sounds harsh. I don't know for a fact, but I would guess they have enough money to develop a good sounding amp. Why would they knowingly put out an inferior (read: harsh) amplifier.
audio999
178 posts
 
You said, "These are words which are typically applied by people who have never owned Krell" mean that you don't think John has never heard or owned Krell.

Are people who said that have never owned Krell ??

I never said or against Krell or Krell's owner or even said that you should throw our equipments away since i don't like them in my statement.

BTW : Happy New Year for all of you !!
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
Nrchy, it's a matter of different taste. Harsh is a harsh word. Some like their equipment to be 'detailed' or 'revealing'. What may be detailed and revealing to one person is bright and harsh to another. The other side of the coin is some prefer a 'warm' or 'musical' sound. What may be warm and musical to one, may be dull or uninvolving to another. It comes down to a matter of balance and individual tastes. That's all. I admit I prefer a warmer sound to a revealing sound. You may not, that's your right. It's your money and you should be entitled to spend it as you see fit. Don't let anothers opinion of your system bother you. I actually enjoy it when a established audio magazine doesn't like something I like, because then I know the price will be falling and I can get it for less.
I was simply offering a suggestion. You're welcome to disagree with it. FWIW, I have owned a Krell DAC many years ago, and I have auditioned Krell amps and preamps in my system and others, I simply don't care for them. Nothing nasty. I'm not trying to start a Krell war, they're just not my cup of tea. That doesn't mean you're not entitled to enjoy them. If they make you want to listen to music more, then they are successful.

Regards,
John
michaela
288 posts
 
We own similar equipment. I have Beethovens with a Cary 303/100. Although I run a tube amp and preamp, I've found that placement and room interaction is critical. Don't spend money on changing amps yet before doing some homework in placement. Different cables will indeed make a difference but I think the major improvement will be with proper placement. In my 18 x 14 room the Beethovens are about 4' front the back wall and 3' from the side walls, with just a slight toe-in. In addition, using the supplied spikes, tilt them up about 5 degrees or so.

Good luck, Mike.
sogood51
2,157 posts
 
Itch, You could replace your krell with an old onkyo and get that imaging. Here is what I did the other day, I have been building a new room on to my home for the last few months. The room is far enough along to do some sound checks on so for the fun of it I took some of my old gear out there to have some New Years eve fun. There was a thread here about a month ago about correct speaker placement in a room so I thought I would try it out in my new room. I have a krell ksa-250 and a krell kav-500 but did not want to lug them out there so I took an old onkyo receiver that I do not use anymore. For speakers I took my rears out of my SS system (vmps 626's) and an old cdp player I do not use. I have a very good set of speaker stands I had bought a year or so ago but were still in their boxes so I took them out and used them for the small vmps. I got out my tape and armed with the info I got from the link in that thread I set to work on the correct speaker placement for that room. In about an hour I had some of the best imaging I have ever had out of any system. There were five of us out there and everyone kept saying how good the musc sounded, How the sound was so big,so deep and just seemed to wrap around the whole room. So what am I trying to say? Imaging is all about speaker placement not about gear. Oh buy the way, speaker wire was Home cheapo 14 gage and interconnects were bottom of the line vampire wire. You might want to keep that Krell and find that thread.
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