Krell Amps and Pre-amps

Neither Krell nor Levinson have yet gotten it right enough that I can stand listening to them, although I haven't heard the latest generation stuff yet, and they keep getting closer. Krell has always been unnaturally punchy and technicolor, and Levinson always neutral to the point of sterile and lifeless. And build quality is above average, but not where it counts. My Krell amp was the singularly most unreliable piece of gear I've ever owned, and all the 100 lbs did was to make it a pain in the ass to keep shipping back and forth across the country for repairs. My advice, sure to be pooh-poohed by many: buy Bryston and be happy, it's plenty good enough for HT use and it will never break.

The earlier Krell amps were too dry and too analytical to my taste. The later ones are much better but they also cost a lot.

If you really want mono blocks, I think a better idea is to buy two high quality two-channel amp in vertical passive biamp configuration. For example, two two-channel Theta Dreadnaughts will give you a total of 400w with an over-killed 2200w power supply on each side, for a total cost of about $7000.

I owned a Krell KSA 100 and KAV150a and have recently gotten into Mcintosh. After getting my MC2125, I sold the Krells and wished I had done so long ago! The Krells were just too bright and dead. The McIntosh are so much more refined and musical that I practically cannot believe it. I just bought a MC7100 that is many times better than the KSA100 and makes me appreciate music, and not a collection of sounds. I will never go back to Krell now so IMO, Krell does not justify its cost to me any more.

Maybe I should start another thread on this but, has anyone had a chance to hear or heard how the new PS Audio line is? It looks interesting to me because I also plug my entire Krell system into the P1200/P600 power plants and never could go back. Maybe thats why my Krell sounds sweet to me because I have a good dedicated room with accoustic treatments and the power plants. PS Audio has a nice selection of multi chanel amps and even reference monos. They aren't supposed to require the power draw also that most amps require. Does anybody think they will sound good?

I have always liked PS Audio, they aren't flashy but they do a great job. I haven't heard their recent amps but I have great respect for their P plants. But one comment here: Any amp (or other component) that really needs a P plant is showing you that it doesn't have a good enough power supply section to start with, and this is unfortunately very common (although very good for PS Audio's sales!). In other words, the designer skimped on transformer size/quality and/or power supply filtering, so now you need a separate and expensive unit just to improve on the performance of the original power supply. It's vastly more cost-effective (and space-saving, and energy-saving) to do it right in the first place than it is to have to add an expensive power conditioner. Hence my preference for amps which are designed with high-quality, properly filtered power supplies in the first place, e.g., Ayre. The power supply is perhaps the most important part of a power amp, and it gets way too little attention by most manufacturers, probably mainly because it is also the most expensive part to do right.