Krell FPB 600 or 400cx?

What was silly is the fact that Krell would build such a big amp with lofty claims that was as powerful as they said it was in terms of watts but could not drive speakers with tough loads any thing below 4 ohms and had a steep impedance curve like most planar speakers. What made the wounds of expensive repairs worse is when they said that they would upgrade it to the 600c for way too much money, and when you asked what were the changes they told me the only thing that is used from the old amp is the chassis and the power transformer thus admitting that there may have been some design flaw(s). What hurts is I bought the FPB 600 through the audio store where I used to work and paid for lots of repairs having to keep a straight face when customers asked about Krell's customer service. Even in warranty it was $600.00 for shipping and the only shipping company they would use was Ocean Air. I once thought I would save $150.00 and ship the amp Fed Ex freight they would not accept the amp although it had the proper RA. So if are ever in the Albuquerqe area just email me, you can come over and enjoy cool beer listen to some great vinyl all while looking at some great flowers in my FPB 600 planter. To Krells credit they have recently made some good changes and I think they are fixing customer service.

I've sent my amp to Krell twice using Southern Freight once for an upgrade to 700cx and another for a checkup a year ago. The shipping was about 125.00 from GA. If there was a design flaw in the 600 I never experienced it but maybe the upgrade fixed it. I have owned the FPB 600, 600C and 700cx.

Hey Sound, send us a picture of that planter. Yeah, I thought so.

I have owned Krell equipment for many years. I currently have two Krell Evo 600e's and 2 S-275's and the Evo 707 processor. The amps and the processor are superb. I have never had a problem with Krell amps. I have had a few quirky functional issues with the Evo 707, but Krell has been incredibly responsive and it now functions perfectly. The Evo 707 sounds so good it was worth the minor inconvenience while they ironed out a few minor issues with HDMI handshakes. I love the build quality and the performance of my Krell equipment. The 600 model is the generation before the 600c. It does not have cast capability. I owned the 450MCX (extended frequency range)a few years ago and loved them. I have A-B'd Krell's mono to stereo amps and easily noticed an improvement in 3-dimensional sound staging and instrument seperation (air) with the mono blocks. I felt the MCX (450 MCX)generation high frequency reproduction was brighter (in a good way) and more pristine than the earlier generations (which tend to be a bit on the dark side). The 450 MCX also did a better job on transients. If you can find a pair of reasonably priced 450 MCX (monoblocks) in excellent condition, you should buy them. They will perform better than the two pieces you are considering. They are great sounding amps. If you do not match up with equally high end pre-amp, you are wasting your money.

and 2 S-275's

Matjet.

I started a previous thread looking for info on the S-150 and the S-275. I now have my sights set on the S-275. I cannot find any reviews...what is your take on this amp? I would run it in stereo (I assume since you have two you're running them in mono...?).

Anyway, this is the only relatively powerful Krell within my budget and I would love to hear about it from someone with experience...

Thank you.

_Ben