TAS review of Krell SACD:why?

If you believe what they said in the article, Krell found a new source for a transport mechanism. My guess is the units you saw being sold for half price are the older units with the Philips mechanism, which according to the article had reliability problems.

Krell has brought the unit back into production. The transport issues were with a Philips transport that was pretty much a disaster. One a new OEM drive was available they were able to resume production, and have been retrofitting earlier models with replacement drives if they had failed, which was my case. I have not experienced any issues with the new drive, although the TAS reviewer pointed out a couple of display anomalies.

Sdatch,how would you describe the sound differences between the transports.Was the original Philips better sounding?Thanks.

I bought my SACD player in OCT,2003. I have never experienced any problems with the transport or the display. I read several persons complaining about this problem, but I am completely baffled.
BTW, these units never sold for half the price even used ones.

Overhang,

It is difficult for me to comment on the differences in sound because I only had my unit for brief period of time before it failed. What I CAN day is that with its new drive, this is an excellent sonic performer for both redbook and SACD. And the sound is not at all stereotypical Krell - in my opinion the SACD Standard almost sounds like there's a 12AX7 somewhere in the output stage. Yet it serves up heaps o' detail. They are not cheap, but I think at $4k it more than holds its own.