A Krell Standard mrkII

I own a Krell SACS Standard mk3. When I was looking I even
called Krell and they told me the same as what all the
online posts have said. The mk1 and mk2 have a Bad
transport that will fail and it's just a matter of time.

To Krell's defense everyone was using this transport at
the time since it was once considered the best. Many
other highend Manufactures dealt with the same mess.

Krell lost hoards of money switching out transports under
warranty. Only the mk3 units or units that were repaired
by Krell to have the mk3 transport will be reliable.

The Tell-Tail sign is that if it has a blue display then
it's got the new transport. If it's got a red display
then it's days of life are limited. This is why mk3s
sell for $3000 (or more) used while mk1s/mk2s sell for
$1500 (or less) used.

I have owned The Krell SACD Standard MKI and MKII. While the MKI was an excellent player for the money it was plaqued with transport problems. I purchased my MKI in June 05 and within 18 months it went back to Krell 2 or 3 times. Krell replaced it with a brand new MKII, free of charge, and restarted the 5 yr warranty!

The main difference between the two was a new/improved servo-drive. The change in the drive made a significant improvement producing a wider deeper (to die for) soundstage, deeper and tighter bass and crisp but silky smooth treble.

I have read about complaints of load time, but mine loads in 3 to 7 seconds. I have read about noisy transports, but in complete silence, I can't hear mine unless I am closer than 2 feet away. Finally, I have read about, reliability issues. I have my MKII for two years. I play it nearly every day from a couple of hours to (a more typical) several hours daily. That's 2,000 hours without a problem!!

Arthur Salvatore tells it like it is. Get yours before the word gets out!

And now it's been lowered to Class C.

As Likecap says, Arthur tells it like it is.

I'm using a DVD Standard as a player and transport into a Benchmark DAC1 and I'm very impressed by how good it sounds on regular CD's.

Needless to say, the transport on it also went bad and had to be repaired. It's not the same transport as used in the SACD Standard, but a DVD transport. It was worth the price getting it repaired and I also updated it to HDMI.

From other Krell users I have spoken to, pretty much all their CD players are up to par, although some suggested the SACD Standard to be a tad bit analytical.

BTW, I'm using balanced outs to a 400xi.