Saturday (3/31/12), I decided to put the KBL and KSA-250 back into the system and confirm whether or not the KBL really wasn’t passing bass signals through either of the main set of outputs. I also rerouted the speaker cable for the right channel to get it away from a power cord. The short and sweet answer is that the KBL is working correctly and the hum from the KSA-250 appears to be induced hum. I forgot to mention that I also changed the grounding scheme for the KBL which may have also impacted the KSA-250. I have no answers for what I heard previously with the KBL and why it is fine now.
Honestly, it was a sonic relief to get back to the all Krell system. In terms of elegance and refinement, there is no comparison to the older and much cheaper SS electronics I was using. No comparison in mid-bass energy either. However, even though the cheap SS electronics are much brasher sounding, they do expose the inherent darkness of the Krell sound. There has to be a balance here somewhere between dark and too much light and right now, I’m one or the other.
My Krell pieces remind me of an old blue-blood from New England all prim and proper and buttoned down sipping a cognac. My Yamaha C2a paired with a pair of Phase Linear 400 Series 2 amps reminds me of a hillbilly slurping moonshine and screaming “Ya-Hoo!!” And I am exaggerating a little bit.
As Steve likes to say, changing out gear doesn’t necessarily mean your system sounds better, it may just sound different. This is so true. The first night when I put the old SS gear back in, I did stay up until the wee hours of the morning because I was hearing a “new” system with much more frequency extension on top. It was a very interesting contrast, but one that doesn’t hold up as being pleasurable over the long-run. For a few hours and a few beers that night, it was fun and I enjoyed it. Even though the top end on the SS gear is a little brash sounding, the mere fact that the extension was there in comparison to the more closed-in sound of the Krell was good to hear for a change. The correct balance is somewhere in between.
The Krell sound that I have is very smooth, refined, deep, powerful, elegant, and pleasing to the ear (and I will sell it to you). If not for comparison with reality or compared with another piece of gear that is balanced across the audio band, one might not realize that the high frequencies are closed in which leads to the ‘dark’ sound that Krell gear has been branded as having. To be fair, Krell is not the only high-end electronics firm which has been branded as sounding dark. Dark sells and I understand why even if I don’t find that sound to be neutral and therefore correct over the long haul.
I think this is the end of the line for me with the Krell gear and maybe SS in general. Tubes like all things analog are a pain in the butt, but they still have that breath of life that seems to elude lots of SS gear despite measurements that tell you how wonderful it should sound.
Everything in this crazy hobby is a compromise-you simply can’t have it all. You have to pick and choose your poisons. Tube amps are never going to have the bass that SS amps do. And even if your main speakers have powered subwoofers built in and you don’t think the quality of the amps that drive your speakers affects the bass, I think you are wrong. If I was to generalize, I would say that really good SS commits more errors of omission and tubes have more errors of commission.
If I do flip back over to tubes, I will miss the bottom octave superiority of SS amps. Tubes simply can’t match that. But, I will wallow in everything else that tubes do great (in great tube products), and that is breathing more live into the illusion we are all trying to capture. I might even see if I can find some moonshine and scream “Ya-Hoo!!”
