Should I trade-up from my Krell KAV 300?

I might suggest that if you listen at low levels you might well consider a pair of new speakers rather than change anyting else out of your system. A 6db gain in speaker sensitivity should be transformational. Do not get me wrong, I am not attacking the Thiel speakers. It is just that in my opinion you have to drive them pretty hard to get near their full musical potential.

Regards.

David

Or better still - high sensivity speakers with a SET amp. Such a combo offers much different sonic perspective, but at a cost.

You should really put the whole product number because they use KAV300 (something) on several things (even know this is the AMP section)

Anyway, I have the KAV300CD player and I would not trade it for two reasons. 1. It is the best sounding player I have heard, AND i have owned and used many many high end players 2. Since it is basically a TEAC, it is 100% repairable, as mine has been, by any local repair guy worth his salt. Unlike some other models that are Philps, which from what I undersand, are not always repairable and when they die you are SOL.

FWIW, I just auditioned some integrated units and it came down to a bakeoff of the 400xi and S-300i. I went with the S-300i. Both were great amps but as already mentioned the 300 sounded warmer in all ranges and, with my system, was more flexible with various source recordings. The 400xi was not as kind to recordings that were less than excellent, at least with my system (IMF TLS80 speakers, Rotel 991 CD).