Krell K 300i Vs Hegel 390 Help

hegel will sound smoother
krell bit brighter bass sound bigger (but not tighter) than hegel
B&W speakers err on bright side, suggest Hegel over Krell

I went from separates, back to an int... I wasn’t sure what I wanted and I had a budge of about 6-7k... tubes were impractical due to setup realities, so the line up was Luxman, Krell, Naim, and a few others. I have difficult speakers to drive so I needed something with some grunt. I didn’t want to go through the process of ordering, auditioning, going used... whatever. I remembered a demo I did with my local dealer awhile back with a Hegel and started doing some research... overall excellent reviews, power, and good bells and whistles. I call my guy and went and picked up the floor model of an H390 for a demo... keep in mind, my wife had no idea what I was up to... so I get the thing home, set it up and fire it up. I’m sitting there liking what I hear, digging in to some tunes and my wife, out of nowhere, says... wow, what did you change? Ding... Hegel it was. In my house with my setup, the 390 is great, very happy overall. But as we all know, this crazy hobby is rarely status quo... there may be something else in the future. But for now I can say, I could live with my setup for a very long time...

@geof3 

geoff wait you hear the soon to be released hegel h390i se mark 2 limited edition!!!!  you will think your plain jane 390 is broken!!

LOLOLOLOL

hegel will sound smoother
krell bit brighter bass sound bigger (but not tighter) than hegel
B&W speakers err on bright side, suggest Hegel over Krell

Actually, I completely disagree with this.  If you are referencing the new K300i integrated, it has the new Krell sound, which is very smooth and lush.  The highs are not bright or harsh at all, but very smoothed over.

The Hegel might sound a bit bright and harsh, to be honest.

Thanks for the comments, I am referring to the new Krell K300i