As to the issue of whether or not Krell is "rebranding", I can relate that at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest last October, I visited the Krell room often because it sounded so good. And every time I did, CEO Walter Schofield was telling everyone, and I quote: "Krell is trying to relaunch its brand" and "Krell is rebranding with this new integrated amp."
Krell XD gear in the House Initial Impressions
For those who were following a post we started a few weeks ago about considering bringing in Krell gear here is our follow up post after we just received the display gear.
We had 0 interest in adding Krell to our product portfolio before attending the Capitol Audio Fest we almost missed the room it was on the First floor in the back and it was VPI's room and we are not VPI dealers so it was almost a fluke that we even poked in. The huge Wilson Alex's were beckoning us in, so we decided to take a brief listen.
The sound in this room was mesmerizing, someone played Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side and there in three dimensions was Lou Reed and the three back up vocalisits, the sound was smooth, engaging, transparent, and has a sense of presence that made you take notice.
So we started looking at the setup, VPI table $15k, Soundsmith cart $8k $110k Wilson speakers, lot of expensive Nordost Vallahalla or Odin but what was driving this insanely good sounding rig there in the bottom of the rack were two Krell 300XD amplifiers and a Krell preamp.
Here was the best sound at this entire show, and the electronics were a fraction of the price of all of the other reference setups which were $80k monoblocs amplifers, $40k reference preamps and other such expensive gear.
So we figured we would give the Krell a try part of the reason was logistics, powering our Paradigm Persona 9H is a $50k set of the phenominal T+A electronics from Germany, a $19.5K 300 Watt power amplifier, a $16.5 preamplifier and an optional outboard power supply at $13.5.
We have no issue with this gear it is incredible, however, we didn't have in this room a set or electronics which we thought would really give the T+A stuff a run for its money and yet be more affordable, so the Krell 300XD amp at $10,500 plus their Illusion 2 preamp/dac at $8k we thought would bring the price of doing a top notch system with the Personas down a bit in price and perhaps be a nice addition to our other electronics lines of T+A and Naim for top of the line solid state gear.
We hooked up the new Krell gear yesterday and even after only 24 hours of break in the sonic signature is very similar to what we heard at the Capital Audio Fest.
The new Krell gear was liquid in the midrange, with nylon strings having the right type of roundness that makes acoustic guitar sound so right, tight well defined midbass, excellent rhythmic control, good top end extension with a slighly soft warm top end, and a big dimensional soundstage.
One of our questions is are there anyone on the boards who has this combo in particular the 300XD power amplifier and the illusion 2 preamp/dac we are currious to the affects of break in and how they improve.
The sound after only 24 hours of initial plug in and break in the gear is allready sounding ridiculous good how much better does it get and in what ways?
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ new Krell dealers
We had 0 interest in adding Krell to our product portfolio before attending the Capitol Audio Fest we almost missed the room it was on the First floor in the back and it was VPI's room and we are not VPI dealers so it was almost a fluke that we even poked in. The huge Wilson Alex's were beckoning us in, so we decided to take a brief listen.
The sound in this room was mesmerizing, someone played Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side and there in three dimensions was Lou Reed and the three back up vocalisits, the sound was smooth, engaging, transparent, and has a sense of presence that made you take notice.
So we started looking at the setup, VPI table $15k, Soundsmith cart $8k $110k Wilson speakers, lot of expensive Nordost Vallahalla or Odin but what was driving this insanely good sounding rig there in the bottom of the rack were two Krell 300XD amplifiers and a Krell preamp.
Here was the best sound at this entire show, and the electronics were a fraction of the price of all of the other reference setups which were $80k monoblocs amplifers, $40k reference preamps and other such expensive gear.
So we figured we would give the Krell a try part of the reason was logistics, powering our Paradigm Persona 9H is a $50k set of the phenominal T+A electronics from Germany, a $19.5K 300 Watt power amplifier, a $16.5 preamplifier and an optional outboard power supply at $13.5.
We have no issue with this gear it is incredible, however, we didn't have in this room a set or electronics which we thought would really give the T+A stuff a run for its money and yet be more affordable, so the Krell 300XD amp at $10,500 plus their Illusion 2 preamp/dac at $8k we thought would bring the price of doing a top notch system with the Personas down a bit in price and perhaps be a nice addition to our other electronics lines of T+A and Naim for top of the line solid state gear.
We hooked up the new Krell gear yesterday and even after only 24 hours of break in the sonic signature is very similar to what we heard at the Capital Audio Fest.
The new Krell gear was liquid in the midrange, with nylon strings having the right type of roundness that makes acoustic guitar sound so right, tight well defined midbass, excellent rhythmic control, good top end extension with a slighly soft warm top end, and a big dimensional soundstage.
One of our questions is are there anyone on the boards who has this combo in particular the 300XD power amplifier and the illusion 2 preamp/dac we are currious to the affects of break in and how they improve.
The sound after only 24 hours of initial plug in and break in the gear is allready sounding ridiculous good how much better does it get and in what ways?
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ new Krell dealers
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- 104 posts total
Oddiofyl we never trashed Krell, if you actually read any of our posts you would see that only after hearing Krell at the Capitol Audio Fest and only with the recent XD mods did we have any interest in Krell at all. The setup of Krell 300 XD two at $10,500 each and a $7k Illusion preamp were the cheapest electronics driving a $110k worth of loudspeakers at this entire show and the Krell/Wlilson/Vpi room sounded the best of all of them, hence our interest in Krell. Also there are tons of people who did not love the new Krell products until recently, when they heard the XD mods that Dave Goodman came up with when we was designing the K300i integrated. Look at the Tone audio review comparing new XD amplifer vs an older non XD amplfier http://www.tonepublications.com/whats-new-homepage/krells-new-ibias-duo-175xd/ " The folks at Krell are calling this “The New Sound of Krell,” but I submit that they’ve just returned to what made them great in the first place, bringing it up to date with the best advances in audio technology that have come our way in the last few decades. I’d say they’ve found their way back home. " As per flavor of the month, we are allways checking out new gear, we have a Coda 8 series on order as well, recent additions Lumin T2, and Critical Mass products. Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ Krell dealers |
They should vet their dealers properly then... I heard all I needed to when learning that buying three Krell pieces sight unseen is all that's required to be a dealer .... that's funny. Great criteria for choosing partners ....most of their dealers are AV or home automation specialists. Krell lost it's way a long time ago.... |
oddiofyl ... seems unfair to other authorized Krell dealers in the NJ / NY area that you undermine the dealer network by pimping Krell on a forum....Pardon me, but audiotroy hasn’t "pimped" anything. They have posted on this site well within the forum’s rules, and it isn’t clear how their opinions "undermine" Krell’s dealer network in any way. If they had, I’d think those dealers would complain here, or to Krell, or to Audiogon moderators. But it doesn’t look like any of that has happened. ... a forum also where new hobbiests rely on unbiased views of equipment’s performance and value .Huh? People come to Internet forums for "unbiased views?" You must be joking. |
- 104 posts total