MC402 vs FPB 300cx

Well that changes things! Oh well. Someone at the factory probably just forgot to put some jumpers on the board. Or the Krell person got it backwards.

Caps hold a charge if they are isolated from chassis ground. In this case, they can hold a charge for months. No joke. I have seen this many times with big caps of modern design. But many amps have a bleeder resistor to chassis ground for draining the caps very quickly, mainly to avoid fuses blowing if there is a brief interruption of power. I have no idea which way your Krell is.

Arthur

I am going to contact Krell tomorrow and ask if there is the possibility that they could have forgot to ad them etc, and ask them to send me some as well. I might as well see what happens when I put them in there. Although the more I listen the less the sibilance is an issue. I think things could stand to warm up just a smidgen, and the Auditorium 23 could help that. They are copper, but so is what I have now-a double run of 8tc for each channel bi-wired. Only way to know, is simply to try em out.

I know for sure what would solve this issue, but unfortunately is it an $8k solution. 803Ds! Because what you mentioned early about the 804s could not be more true. If they were a little more chubbed-out in the bass area I wouldn't notice much glare. In that way though, the 804 almost acts like a nice two-way speaker, which for alot of what I listen to is not necessarily a bad thing. But in the end I like a well-rounded system that can do all things.

Sigh.....Rome wasn't built in a day, neither are uber priced 2 channel audio systems.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, I have a FPB-300C (the 400cx predecessor). Keep in mind, even from stand-by status, this amp seems to take about 30 minutes of playing to truly sound it best. As you have found, you can tell it’s working by the heat. You play quietly and it stays coolish-warm. When you turn it up, it gets downright hot…don’t touch your forearm to it when playing loud (from my experience).

Also, I began with the 8TC speaker cables (pre-Krell in my case), and I can tell you from my own experience that there is more "life" in other cables. The 8TC is decent, but your system has surpassed them for sure.

Regarding glare - to be honest, changes in my source have had the most profound effect on anything that could be considered glare. I have an Esoteric DV-50, and I didn't realize how much glare there was until The Upgrade Company worked it over. It is very strange to me how the music can become more extended at the top-end while at the same time having less glare and being easier to listen to, but that is what happened in my case. My description seems contradictory...I know. FWIW, only after the Upgrade Company did the work on my player did I ever notice significant changes with ICs and PCs as well. Before then, changes in those cables were nearly impossible to detect.

As far as speaker cabling; I have heard big changes in different speaker cables, and surprisingly, I have ended up with an all silver cable. I can hear it now from those reading this…eeesh...Krell AND silver...sounds bad right...not at all. These no-longer-available silver speaker cables give the music more body and "roundness/realness" than anything else I tried, and it is the only silver speaker cable I ever tried…I think.

As a suggestion, you might want to try Reality speaker cables. I tried them a few months back and I felt my existing cables were better (and should be for the price); nevertheless, the Reality cables gave a nice warmth and musicality to my system. They are not at all expensive and have a good return policy. Actually, I’d call them a bargain for the money.

Just my 2 cents…maybe it worth less than that.

Dbld-thanks so much for your write up, helps to hear you had a similar experience.

I am getting a set of Aud 23's just to listen to in a week or so. I will start my search with those as far as speaker cables goes, then move along if they don't work to my liking. Synergistic Research? They make a cable specifically for B&W.

Although the culprit could be my interconnects in the end...Nordost from source to pre, from pre to amp. Possible.

I would also suggest looking into the Cable Company's demo library. You pay in very little (5%) but get to try all kinds of stuff (PCs, ICs, and speaker cables). They also have a database of experience from other users and their specific gear that might also help speed up the process for you.

I am doing this with PCs. Buying and selling on AudiogoN is a valuable resource for sure...if done right, but this way you know exactly what you’re getting into ahead of time. Plus, that 5% goes towards any purchase you might make.

I haven’t actually done this yet myself, so maybe I am missing something. I have reserved some cables that should become available in the next week or two. You are also limited to their predetermined lengths. I think it is 1.5 meters for PCs and ICs, and 10 feet for speaker cables.