krell mda 300 ..mono block amp..

Having owned a pair of MD 300s for several years I can only comment on my own personal experience. Get the amps to Krell to have them re-capped. They ALL (Every KSA and MDA series ) need to have this done every 10 to 15 years if they see any consistent play time. Shipping, caps and labor ran me in the area of $1200 back in 2009 for the pair of amps.

The MDA 300 is a very pleasing product. Character of Class A SS but a very refined and easy balance in tone. I used them with an Ayre K1 pre to excellent effect. Use of a differentially balance pre always sounded best in my system. Speakers ranged from Apogee Studio Grands, Dynaudio Contour IV ( early BIG ones ), to JM Labs Mezzo Utopias.

To echo Lloydlee21, the Krell house sound from that era is "
"unbelievable composed and controlled into any load, visceral bass, warmer mids than in newer evo-generation krells"

Power cords will make a difference to the MDA 300 but not nearly as much as making sure you have a dedicated 20 amp or 30 amp AC line for them to run on. I ran an 8 gauge 60 amp service to my room and the sound of the entire system improved. Every note sounds more free and effortless. Dynamic contrast and shading became more evident and natural. Ease and control improved as well.

To borrow a current commercial phrase:

Feed your Krell. Feed it!

wow Meadowman...very cool post. Have not come across anyone who owns one. Enjoy!

I owned these amps for several years including there big brothers the MDA 500s. Yes they need recapped by now. Yes provide them each with a dedicated line. Yes they will sound very musical and explosive. A great amp. Will they heat up your room and eat power Yes! Yes! YES!😥 But musical and classics they are!🎶 b

When you say a Krell needs to be recapped, what does that mean?

Hi Jimmymac928,

All SS amps have capacitors...i am no techie, but the simple man's understanding is their job is to hold and store energy. How much "capacitance" is a measure of how much energy the amp can store...this helps among other things provide headroom and dynamic capability for when there is a surge or draw on energy due to significant transients in your music.

Over time, capacitors tend to lose their ability to store energy reliably...in a worse case, they leak. Older-tech capacitors had elements that could dry up. In any event, with Krell, which at that generation was largely Class A--meaning the least efficient, hottest burning (but i love the sound best)...capacitors tend to need replacing after 10-15 years. So you 're-cap' them.

Hope that is helpful. A Krell would probably cost about $1000-$1500 to recap...and done well, you should be good to go for another 10 years, as (i am told) most of these well built amps dont have any other areas which would go wrong under normal circumstances...you almost have a 'new amp'.