Pass labs krell parasound amps

@dclone I have to agree on the krell 300s, I have one and it was too bright until I put a good tube preamp in front of it.

@jl35 I haven’t had the opportunity of trying out Pass amps in my set up.  Their reputation though is stellar.  Nelson is a legendary designer that uses high quality parts with top notch engineering.  If you like their sound signature, hard to go wrong with Pass.

Parasound, I’ve had the A21 in my set up.  The A21 + is a great value, punches above its weight class for sure, not really in the same league as Pass, Krell or Coda which was referenced in the thread. 
 

I had a Coda CSiB integrated that I was able to compare to both the Krell 300i integrated and the Krell 300XD Duo amp.  The Coda was fantastic, uses the 8’s amp section.  The Krell XD gear has a magic, liquidity, sweetness to the sound while maintaining the drive, control over the speaker that made Krell legendary.  Important to clarify it’s their latest XD gear.  That said, their co-founder, Dan’s ex wife recently passed away, Krell’s future is a little cloudy.  
 

I recently brought a Coda 07x Pre into my system, had me thinking about replacing my Krell amp with either the 8 or 16.  Reached out to Coda to see which amp would be comparable to the 300XD and they said the 16 was the amp to look at.  My thought process was as good as the Krell sounds would the Coda Pre sound even better with a Coda amp.

For my system, the Krell is special, to my ears bested Coda and Parasound.  Build quality, parts used, Pass or Coda is likely a bit better though I’ve never compared them on that level.  The Coda 16 is likely a game changer, beast that should deliver the best of SS with some of the attributes those who favor tubes.  If it’s me, I’d take a long look at Coda, if I could find a good deal on a used Krell 300xd or the integrated 300i I wouldn’t to hesitate to jump on either.  Good Luck!  

@dclone , have you tried any of the more current Krell products?  Most of your Krell products were made in Krell’s heyday period some 20+ years ago.  

@testpilot I am sorry to say that I have not got the opportunity to listen to the new XD series. In Sweden there is no hifi dealers that have them for demo so there is no chance to listen before buying and it is to much money to just buy without having the chance to evaluate. Krell had a "dark" period, I think it is after the Evolution series, with some series of, according to me, bad quality and sound. I am reffering to some KAV products and multichannel gear. I believe they now are back on track with the XD and i series. I prefer my older gear even if the are enormously powerhungry and gets hot because they work in class A and, my Infinitys sounds wonderful and needs huge class A amps. One must be aware of that they all need a recap and renovation but with that done they will sound amazing for another 25-30 years.

Thanks for the input. I think I have narrowed down between the Pass Labs x250.8 and the Simaudio Moon 870a as both have great reviews and power range I'm needing between 250-300 wpc. Although the Mcintosh is interesting.