Not happy with Krell SACD

I would love to see a journal of 500 hours of listening/breakin.

I'm sorry--if I spent 4k, it better sound good out of the box. It may get better, but if it doesn't sound good now, don't keep it.

The Cary 306/200 uses the same transport as the Krell as I recall (Philips) which most cdps in that price range use. I personally prefer the Wadia transports (Pioneer, Teac).

Keith

Has anyone compared the Krell SACD Standard with the Meridian 508.24 for playback of regular redbook CDs?

Even after the player is well broken in, be SURE you warm it up before each session, or just leave it on. Somebody above already mentioned this but its very important. The player will not operate optimally until the temperature of all working parts is stable.

If you still dont like it then its time to look into other options.

If someone hasnt said it already, i would suggest putting a cd or sacd disc in it and putting it on repeat for a few days. You dont have to have the system playing, just have it hooked up to a preamp. I did this with a Krell 280 cd a couple of years ago. Right out of the box, it sounded much much worse (hard and grating) than the inexpensive Denon dvd player i was using before. After letting it run on repeat for a few days, it was sounding much better.

RB

You could run a radio signal through at low level and not put unecessary mileage on the transport. Also I leave my main amps on all the time. If they are not in an enclosed area or have good ventilation. This really works for me.