krell ksa100 vs. audio research 150.2

If you can get the ksa-100 for $1000 it's much better for your Vandersteens. I had a kst-100 and now I have an Audio Research 100.2 on Vandersteen 2Ce and it's no comparison. The Audio Research is much better. To appreciate any improvement in amps you have to forget sattelite radio except for casual listening.

thanks digepix, so the ar is better than both the ksa and the kst?
thanks bryon

You will not get the same sound out of the KAV300r as you will out of the KSA100. The 300 R is a Krell budget component and in my opinion is not much better than many other similar types of components (Rotel, etc. . .). The KSA is a lot heavier because it has a properly designed power supply. With an amp, the power supply is one of, if not, the main component in terms of delivering performance.

As to the AR being better than the Krell, this is subjective. Secondly, keep in mind if you go with the AR you will need to replace tubes on a fairly fixed schedule (to be safe, lets say every 2 years). You better get the tubes from AR (all matched, etc. . . you could read a lot of the "up-in-smoke" stories about these amps and not using properly matched tubes). Replacing these tubes, I think, is currently about $700-800 + shipping the unit to and from AR (Minnesota). It doesn't sound like you want to set this type of budget for yourself and you should be aware of this upfront. Also, if you are getting the AR amp at a very good price, you can expect to have to replace the tubes right away, so factor that into what you are paying.

That being said, the AR tubed amps (several models) are great sounding amps. I am not suggesting in any way that they are not. They are also fairly reliable, assuming you maintain them properly!

The ARC 150.2 is a very good, excellent sounding solid state amp and works very well with the Vandys (no need to worry about tubes with it). It's comparatively small and runs cool; a very underrated performer, along with the 100.2, in my opinion. The Krell is a pure Class A amp, meaning that it draws constant current out of your wall and runs VERY hot--it will heat up a room very quickly. It is a very well-designed and extremely powerful amp and very clean sounding, with great bass control, but keep in mind that it is older (last made in the early 80s), and were you to get one used you might have to replace the caps in it (if not already done), and the cooling fan in the early KSAs was a slight trouble spot (one reason why they went to the big heat sinks on the KSA 80 and 200 models that followed it). Much as I like the old Krells (I owned both a KSA 50Mk II and a KSA 80 in my solid state days), given your budgetary constraints the ARC might be a better choice. Either of these amps is a step up in resolution and overall performance from your NAD preamp, which is a very nice unit but not quite in the same league as the amps you're considering, so at some point down the road you might also consider replacing it (though it should work fine with the amps in question for now, particularly if your source is satellite radio).

Be aware the KST-100 does NOT run in class "A" unlike the KSA-100 and should not be compared to. The KSA-50 (class "A" also) will sound better than the KST-100. I own a KSA-100MKII built Sep.14 1986 and have had no fan problems. Please read the Krell "primer" discussion.