Krell KAV-400xi vs. Parasound A21+P3

Audiobroke, thanx for the input - even if you somewhat overlooked that my question was kinda rhetoric... My main point was that there's obviously something heavily compromised in KAV-400xi power supply. Some "empty" watts, with no current enough, as you'd say...

Someone, on another forum, pointed out the whole thing with a very colorful comparison, refering to powerful output transistors and poor power supply to feed them, something like "...a big enough male organ, but with no blood enough to lift it up..."

>>why am I hearing such great air-moving, deep and extended bass from Donald Fagen's Morph the Cat on vinyl<<

The vinyl release of Morph the Cat is a flawed recording.

The bass is totally out of balance and the production team did a terrible job on this record.

Never ever evaluate any system's performance with this record.

Unless of course you want to impress somebody who knows nothing about audio and this recording.

Wow, I'm outta here, too much negativity. Back to listening where it's positive.

Zormi, ahh I didn't pick up on that. So we agree then.

Stevecham, nobody is saying that your stereo doesn't sound good. We are just comparing the A21's power to the Krell 400xi's. You are the one that brought up the "superior" current capability of the Krell piece vs a Parasound piece that you know nothing about. We are just correcting you. If you like your combination then great. I have had the Thiel 2.4's in my system for almost a month, so I am very familiar with them as well. They certainly performed better when the A21 was hooked up to them although I would never characterize the bass as "deep and extended". For an almost $5000 speaker the bass was lacking. The more current heavy an amp that I gave the Thiels the tighter the bass became. They actually had deeper bass in a more underpowered arangment. This is due to the amps inability to control driver excursion resulting in a heavier bass presentation although less accurate. The Thiels had excess brightness, and a metallic midrange which is why I ultimately didn't choose them. They are a sexy speaker though and fit and finish is first rate. They may find a certain synergy with the Krell piece though. If you have them and are happy, than just enjoy them!

Thank you for all comments. I had no idea that I would have so many responses on my thread.

I decided to buy Krell KAV 400xi along with Krell SACD MKIII about a week ago. Since I don't have NHT Classic Three's with me right now (I lent them to my friend a couple weeks ago), I have been using Krell with JBL L65 Jubal, and I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed with the bass, not quite tight and no punchy even though L65 has 12" woofer each.

I haven't tried to use balanced cables with my setup yet since I'm not sure whether I'd like to keep them or not.

I really want to try Parasound but it's kind of hard to find Parasound combo (A21+P3) at a good price. I know someone is selling Parasound HCA-2200 MKII. Is this a good amp? I have also read that Classe (CA-200 or something with its preamp) is very good as well. Can someone give comments on this brand?

I'm quite value the bass quality more than anything. I would be great if you could recommend which amp would be best fit to my preference.

Thank you very much.