I think I’m over my Krell *period.* I never was able to completely eliminate the hum from my KSA-250. It usually hovered around the *tolerable* level, but at times it really got on my nerves. I just hated the fact that my noise floor of my entire system was set by the KSA-250. That is not the way things are supposed to work. And then last night I noticed that neither of my subs was playing and hardly any bass was coming out of my main speakers. Yup, the Krell KBL preamp is dorked up again. I just had both of these pieces back at Krell to be repaired and recapped in October of 2011. The main reason I wanted to send the KBL back was the set of RCA main outs wouldn’t pass a signal through. And the main reason changed when the KBL quit working entirely. And now it just sort of works.
So last night I had to pull the Yamaha C2a out of retirement. While I was at it, I decided to grab my pair of Phase Linear 400 Series 2 amps and put them back into the system. Now I’m back to an ultra-low noise floor which is where I want to be. And yeah, the *darkness* of the Krell gear is fully exposed with this combo. I stayed up until 2:00 AM last night and I didn’t want to quit listening. I had to force myself to go to bed (Self, get your ass to bed!).
I guess I am going to pack up both pieces and go through the extreme hassle of shipping them back to Krell again so I can sell them. If I had a brain in my head I would be content with the great sound I have right now although the pedigree of my current preamp and amp surely doesn’t pass the audiophile sniff test and all noses would be pointed northward. I tell you what, this gear is one hell of a “B” team when it comes off the bench and joins the game. Call it synergy, serendipity, or ideally matched electrically. Whatever, it sounds really good and if you have read my posts over time, I have owned some fairly snotty gear through the years.
What’s next? Hell, I don’t know. Anybody got some *B* team gear sitting on the bench that you think I should hear? I might just go crazy and go back to tubes.
So last night I had to pull the Yamaha C2a out of retirement. While I was at it, I decided to grab my pair of Phase Linear 400 Series 2 amps and put them back into the system. Now I’m back to an ultra-low noise floor which is where I want to be. And yeah, the *darkness* of the Krell gear is fully exposed with this combo. I stayed up until 2:00 AM last night and I didn’t want to quit listening. I had to force myself to go to bed (Self, get your ass to bed!).
I guess I am going to pack up both pieces and go through the extreme hassle of shipping them back to Krell again so I can sell them. If I had a brain in my head I would be content with the great sound I have right now although the pedigree of my current preamp and amp surely doesn’t pass the audiophile sniff test and all noses would be pointed northward. I tell you what, this gear is one hell of a “B” team when it comes off the bench and joins the game. Call it synergy, serendipity, or ideally matched electrically. Whatever, it sounds really good and if you have read my posts over time, I have owned some fairly snotty gear through the years.
What’s next? Hell, I don’t know. Anybody got some *B* team gear sitting on the bench that you think I should hear? I might just go crazy and go back to tubes.