Krell Intergrateds..how come nobody likes em?

Heard one at a dealer when I auditioned speakers: smooth as silk, punchy in the lows and with an extended high frequency range that some could mistake for harshness at the extreme but that is merely extended highs that show cymbals and triangles in a most positive light.

I have the 400xi driving some B&W's. Tough as nails bass control, extended, transparent highs and somewhat papery mids. Glass like clarity and character, IOW a little cold. That being said, the overall sound is surely recording dependent. It will give you what's on the CD. Nice smoothly recorded CD's will sound sublime while typical compressed pop will sound as expected.

I realize this is an entirely subjective exercise - caveat delivered. I listened to the 400, and love treble and high midrange, but found them to be a bit hard & metallic in this regard. Could have been speakers, cable or source CD, but after trying a few variations on the theme, it seemed to be the Krell. To be fair, not sure if it requires an extended break-in period, but this was my experience at the dealer. Higher end Krell amps didn't seem to exhibit this characteristic, and were remarkably high in quality, but that particular experience was the only thing that kept me from the purchase. Otherwise, iron grip, silent backgrounds and a high degree of detail were the pluses. Carefully matched speakers that will take the edge off harsh highs while retaining the essential details (the Dali Helicon 400 comes to mind) may moderate the treble/mid effect.

I had the KAV-300i and liked it. For solid state, the Krell used a little less negative feedback than most transistor amps, so it had a surprisingly open midrange and good dynamics. It also had the "signature" Krell solid bass control even if its damping factor was a little high compared with many other transistor amps. Sound stage really improved with bi-wired speaker cables. Compared to other equipment, it seemed to show less change in sound with changes in interconnects, but better quality cables were always apparent. The sound can be just a bit "dry" sounding (often quoted about Krell) with some cables, but a careful choice solved this. It was never harsh or "metallic" sounding. "Build quality" could be improved. I appreciated having both balanced and single-ended inputs on the same amp so that it was compatible with many input devices. A good after-market power cord really improved the sound as well. It was a lot of fun.

I don't get the Krell negatives(is it because they were the best?). Anyhow, I recommend Nuforce amps and the Oritek X-2 interconnects.