Could this improvement be due to the settling of the electrical draw on the hotel's circuits? I'd imagine that the first day has many components being plugged in, turned on, turned off, plugged into a different outlet to better organize the room, etc., etc..... Surely there must be some fundamental electrical effect occurring..
I only said that Gary's room sounded better the second day, not that all rooms sounded better the second day. I would have no way of knowing that since I only heard two rooms before the show officially began on Friday. I didn't hear a big change in Jonathan Tinn's room on Friday like I heard in Gary's room and I have no explanation for that.
I had another interesting night last night listening to the system and trying to come to grips with what I’m hearing now. I can understand why tube lovers would not love Krell. An argument could be made that tubes are able to recreate the actual harmonic envelope of the instruments and thus sound richer than SS in general and Krell in particular. Another argument could be made that tubes add harmonics that don’t belong there and they are fattening up the sound. If you are a dyed in the wool tube lover, I can almost guarantee you that you would find the sound of the KBL and KSA-250 to be antiseptic in comparison to tube gear. There are other adjectives that could be used as well, depending on your perspective. Words like clean, pure, and neutral come to mind. I really don’t want to get into another SS vs. tube debate. I used to be on the other side of that argument slinging mud and it’s pointless.
I will say that the Krell sound in my system is a very clean and pure sound. The dynamic range increases as a result and there is more information to be heard. I love having a lower noise floor.
I gave St. James Infirmary another spin last night and I liked it much better than the night before (pace Tom). The sound I was getting last night was very close to the 30 ips tape I heard in Jonathan’s room. Damn close. I’m very happy to own the 45 RPM version of this LP-it’s a stunner.
I played lots of jazz last night on LP and tape. I threw in some Steely Dan and some Tom Petty for good measure. I enjoyed it all and I still haven’t wrapped my head around it all yet.
You'll continually notice nuances in your recordings reproduced more clearly, where you'll say to yourself, "Gee, I never heard that before" or "I didn't realize that there was a foot stomp AND a drum hit at the same time!", etc. That was my experience when I moved up to the KBL/KPA and Krell amp system. I'm sure there are other brands that can produce the same AHA moment, but that's what happened when I first went all Krell. I believe the low noise floor (you're using balanced ICs!) contributes to this sense of see-through clarity.
One of the cool moments last night was listening to “Hey 19” by Steely Dan. The way the bass guitar was doubling over the drummer sounded really good. This was some super-tight playing that I hadn’t really noticed or paid attention to before. Maybe I just never heard it so clear and didn’t pay attention. They were all over each other’s beat.
Frantz-You need to read back a few posts on this thread. Yes, the Krell gear is here. I went to Indy last Friday and picked them up at the UPS freight center. Both pieces are sounding fine. The sound is very pure. So far I'm very happy and it should continue to get better as all of the new caps break in (56 new caps alone in the KSA-250 and another 40 caps in the KBL).
I just wanted to sum up this thread a little bit. It took approximately 5 weeks from the time I shipped my KBL and KSA-250 to Krell before they returned to me. At the time I shipped the gear to Krell, they were just recovering from the hurricane and they moved their service department to another location in their facility. Overall, I’m very pleased with the speed of their repairs.
I originally paid $1190 for the KBL and $2190 for the KSA-250 and those prices included shipping to me for both pieces. Because they were broken, the seller of the KBL refunded $190 to me and the seller of the KSA-250 refunded $500. It cost me $786 to have the KBL repaired and recapped and it cost me $1299 for the repair and recapping of the KSA-250. That puts me in for a total of $1786 for the KBL and $2989 for the KSA-250 for a grand total of $4775.00. Considering the KBL sold for $4500 when new and the KSA-250 sold for $5700, I consider my total cost a relative bargain. When you use an inflation calculator, the combined cost of both pieces when new in today’s dollars would be $17,032.87.
I feel better if I compare what I have in to both pieces total to the cost inflated value of what they would sell for in today’s dollars because that means I’m in at less than 25% of their original cost. With no consideration for price inflation, I’m in at slightly under 50% of their original cost. And none of this would matter a damn bit if both pieces didn’t sound great.
By the way, my wife saw the KSA-250 for the first time last week and the looks of it startled her. She exclaimed, “Jesus! It looks like an alien!” And with the KSA-250 sitting on top of the Adona amp stand, I kind of get that remark. The KSA-250 is very futuristic looking in my opinion and pictures don’t do it justice with regards to how stunning it looks and how massive it really is.
In summary, I’m fine with where I’m at in terms of the investment I made and the quality of sound that I’m hearing in return. I need to work on making my cable runs neater as they are not "well sorted" now.
Again, congratulations on the "new" Krell KBL and Krell KSA-250 as well as the new Adona amp stand. I hope that you enjoy them and please keep us posted regarding their performance. By the way, Paul and Adona make a very nice product and they are quite handsome.
Hopefully it won't be too bad. Not only does the KSA-250 run hot, the KBL preamp and power supply also run very hot. I think I could toast marshmellows over the top of the KBL after music has been playing through it for awhile. The Yamaha C2a is also runs in Class A, but as toasty as it gets, it doesn't run as hot as the KBL. Even though my preamp and amp are SS and not tubes now, they still cook.
Interesting the preamp also runs hot and not something I expected.
Part of the indication of how much bias the AB amp runs is its heat (although cooling-heatsink design is a consideration), but this should not really be applicable to preamps compared to amps.
I appreciate you know about the bias of an AB amp but just mentioning for those who may not know.
Interesting the preamp also runs hot and not something I expected.
Part of the indication of how much bias the AB amp runs is its heat (although cooling-heatsink design is a consideration), but this should not really be applicable to preamps compared to amps.
I appreciate you know about the bias of an AB amp but just mentioning for those who may not know.
Congrats Mep
I had the KSA 250 for several months,untill I was watching "Friends" on TV and realized I had to watch it in my underwear(LOL).I also had the KCT and WOW,talk about HOT.I have a KSA 300s and 2-FPB 600c and when the music is ""loud and proud""...well,here comes the undies again.My friend and audiophile buddy has my KSA250 and will never let it go.They sound great...Enjoy!!
Congrats Mep
I had the KSA 250 for several months,untill I was watching "Friends" on TV and realized I had to watch it in my underwear(LOL).I also had the KCT and WOW,talk about HOT.I have a KSA 300s and 2-FPB 600c and when the music is ""loud and proud""...well,here comes the undies again.My friend and audiophile buddy has my KSA250 and will never let it go.They sound great...Enjoy!!
Myles-I’m sure you are being slightly facetious. However, it’s nice to know you don’t have to worry about tubes going south and going noisy or blowing up and taking other circuit components with them. They do remind me of tubes though by the heat the heat they throw out.
As for the guy who still owns his KSA-250 and couldn’t imagine selling it, I get it. I wonder how many people who have owned the KSA-250 and sold it ever regretted their decision? I think you could spend many multiples of what I have into this amp and not approach its sound quality and its capabilities. I have always believed in the power of power. Specially this type of refined power. I like to listen at levels that are realistic for the music being played. 2-8 watts aren’t going to take me there in my system.
Myles-I’m sure you are being slightly facetious. However, it’s nice to know you don’t have to worry about tubes going south and going noisy or blowing up and taking other circuit components with them. They do remind me of tubes though by the heat the heat they throw out.
As for the guy who still owns his KSA-250 and couldn’t imagine selling it, I get it. I wonder how many people who have owned the KSA-250 and sold it ever regretted their decision? I think you could spend many multiples of what I have into this amp and not approach its sound quality and its capabilities. I have always believed in the power of power. Specially this type of refined power. I like to listen at levels that are realistic for the music being played. 2-8 watts aren’t going to take me there in my system.
