Dear Audiogoners,
Your lack of experience is remarkable! No one has asked about cabling, power conditioning, or how much music vs home theater is happening. As usual with most audiogoners vs professionals you guys are not looking at the entire picture and asking all the right questions.
It is totally possible that a simple change of cables or adding power conditioning, may make a huge difference.
Also the Krell processor although good is not going to create the sound stage that this listener is trying to get.
If someone wants to listen to a combined home theater and music system the best thing is to use a real preamplifier with a home theater bypass function, I have never found a pre/pro that can beat a good tube preamplifier and usually the dac's in the pre/pros are good but seldom that remarkable compared to EMM Labs, DCS, Wadia etc.
I have sold numerous Krell systems fronted by tube preamps and yes you can use a Krell amp with a tube preamp, no problem what so ever.
The addition of a good tube preamplifier will make the highs much smoother and create a much wider sound stage.
Also there has been no discussion of what source is being used in the system.
An older digital source can have glare.
Hey guys what do I know, 25 years professional experience, gained at two of NYC biggest dealers.