Krell HTS1...Upgradable or NOT?

I had a HTS1 and I would say NOT. They are great selling you on the upgradeability, but I have only had one smooth upgrade done by them. I got tired of waiting and just bought an AVS which I really love for everything.

Call Krell.

Richard

Krell1
tired of wating....isn't that the truth. I can not seem to get any response from either the general service folks or a specific individual. You could not be more correct. I bought this thing barely over 2.5 years ago and spent a lot of money on it because of Krell's "reputation" and its "modular" and "upgradable" architecture. What a bunch of crap! IF I can not get them to figure this out, it will be the last piece of Krell equipment I EVER buy.

Drrdiamond

I have called them about 1 year ago iquiring about something entirely different and they basically told be that I would have to "replace" the unit with a new one and they would give me a meager $1500 trade in.
Meanwhile, I would spend $7000 on their new product that is, SUPRISE, modular and upgradable too. Once bitten twice shy! I was hoping that they may have figured something else out by now but judging from the complete lack of response from my many inquiries, I suspect not.

I'm surprised that you haven't gotten a reply - I have found Krell customer service to be very responsive in the past.

As for "modular and upgradeable" - once bitten twice shy is the right attitude, but don't think any other manufacturer is going to have a different tune or a different outcome. Everybody wants to believe that what they're buying is "future proof", but there's just no way. The best you can do is buy one of the high-end Theta, Meridian or Lexicon units, where there is at least some hope that they'll bring out add-in boards for future functionality. Better still, start viewing a pre/pro as a computer and realize that you're going to have to spend money every 2-3 years to remain at all current. Companies like Lexicon offer fairly attractive trade-in value to buy their new models, which is the only "upgradeable" claim I believe from anybody any more.

Krell is pretty good for most repairs, but I have also had problems with their shipping department. I had a KPS-20i improperly packed and I had to ream them whil I was on vacation I was so upset. The upgrades are another story, they make no real money there. Sure it is "modular", but there has to be a benifit for them to provide the upgrade.
Believe me the AVS with 7 balanced outputs for video and the 2 channel sound betters the HTS1. So what if there Showcase is 7.1, the used price on it is dropping like all the HTS units.....like a rock.