b&k amps

In my opinion, I would give them the nod as the go to value for amplification now that Krell has abandoned their design principles in favor of euro industry guidlines...in other words, the new amps suck! The B&K stuff was born out of some former Krell guy's ingenuity. The amps are well built, musical and a stone cold bargain.

had the older B&K 200mono's and thought they were excellent.

I had a Ref 220a stereo SS amp from BK... took it back after two weeks... bought a krell kav 250.... sold that off as well.

That was nine years ago this winter... perhaps the newer ones are better. Neither amp sounded refined or intently musical... the BK was thin and strident, and the Krell was just a big brusier and far better suited to HT than to music... they both, very likely would have been lots better if paired with a tube preamp.... but that was then....

I'm not familiar with the 200.1's but would expect them to rate well. I've had many of the older B&K units and a few of the newer ones (early 2000's) and like all of them. I still have a pair of M200 Sonatas and haven't found anything as good for twice the price.

One thing you get with B&K is bulletproof build quality and top grade support and service. As with all electronics, sound quality is in the ear of the beholder. They tend to be pretty well balanced/neutral sounding. Not boomy, not bright, sort of on the warm side.

Were talikin value here, not absolutes. For the money you can do a whole lot worse and be hard pressed to find their better for the power they offer.