Mcintosh MVP871 vs Krell SACD

I've been down this road before with Krell. But delt with them directly. When my drive went down in my sacd standard. They upgraded it for free after demanding it. If your unit is still under warranty call Krell (do not emIl them) ask for the service manager or the vice president of the company. They should help you out. Keep demanding a free upgrade to version 3 or if you trade it in for one of their new models which are way better than the sacd standard. Even their cheaper $2500 one is better. If you any trouble message me directly.

Get it fixed at Krell. You should be able to get the upgrade for free if the unit is still under warranty. Then sell it on AgoN and get their new player, which retails for $2500. The new player sounds better, has digital inputs and uses reliable Esoteric drive.

The SACD Standard is the model to forget. It was doomed the day they opted for unreliable Philips drive (ofc, they did not know that back then). Other manufacturers, like dCS, Musical Fidelity have the same problems. Its all Philips fault and their 'engineering'.

Krell at least did not left their customers empty handed, and enginereed a replacement drive that can be retrofited. NO OTHER manufacturer I know of did this. Give Krell credit for this !

At least Krell learned from their mistakes (or more precisely - Philips mistakes) and now uses the tried and tested Esoteric drive. It should be good for years.

FYI - the Denon drives that Mac uses also aren't reliability champs. Esp 201 drive, which is also very noisy.

FYI #2 - the $1500 upgrde is not an easy drive swap. The servoboard is replaced as well, the new (blue) display is fitted, complete with a big board, the size of the front panel. I belive it is $1000 parts and $500 labour.

I have heard this about the MCD201 before. I own one and it has never failed or created noise. As for the original question...do you need DVD? Do you like McIntosh? If yes then get a McIntosh SACD player. If the older versions are not what you want get the MCD500 which can also be used for outboard DAC connection. I have never heard anyone complain about McIntosh service, ever!

I have heard this about the MCD201 before. I own one and it has never failed or created noise.

I had MCD-201 in my system. The sound it makes just spinning the CD was unacceptable for me. I could hear it from 10ft away, during quiet passages and when no music was playing. I though it was broken, but then the dealer brought me another, unopened 201, that was just as noisy.

This is just a bad design IMO. My dCS Puccini on the other hand is dead quiet.

I have no experience with Krell. However, I did demo an MVP871 a year or year-and-a-half ago. At the time, it was a demo being offered to me for $3k. Because it was only super at music and really not much better at video and I needed both (or so I thought), I let it go and went another way. If I could have had one for $1,750, wow, I'd have taken that deal. Especially NIB. -I did not listen to SACD, don't have any. But redbook was stellar. I still remember it. Very, very nice. No offense to the 201 owners out there, but the 871 was hands down better in every way. And it was really great for concert DVDs too. If I didn't have my current 840C and Marantz BD 7003 and were starting over, I'd really like to have an 871. Everything but BD and quite a sexy package too. You won't be dissapointed.