Krell KAV250A with Thiel cs3.5

May I humbly suggest you check the archives. The KAV Krells are HT amps and to my ears are not the equall of their "audio" stuff. You will see differring views on impedance matching here on Audiogon, suffice to say that I am more conservative than most of my fellow Audiogoners on this matter. Personaly I feel the 600 Ohm out put of most AI stuff is more than I'd want for a Krell. I understand that Krell doesn't generally recommend tubes with their gear and may require modification to handle the potential DC leakage.

I agree that from what I can tell, a KAV series Krell is not going to be nearly as satisfying as their FPB line, and in that price range, you should be able to do better. Some options that I am aware of in that price range would be the follwing:

Bryston 7B ST's (used)
Classe' CA-201
Edge AV6m (just over)
Krell FPB200c (used, just over)
McCormack DNA-1 or DNA-2
Pass Labs X150
Sim Audio Moon W-3 or W-5 (used)

Another option, which I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't just heard it with my CS3.6's, is the Theta Intrepid. Yes, it's only 100w (200w into 4 ohm), and yes it runs 5 channels off of one transformer, but darn it all, it somehow manages to drive those Thiels and sound good doing it. You might be able to get a used Intrepid near that price range, or for a bit more, go for a Dreadnaught. I really like the sound of Theta amps with my 3.6's.

Tom.