Big Krells Have Vanished From The Used Market

mitch4t,

     I may be hunted down and pummeled by big beast Krell owners for even suggesting this but I'm fast and packing:

What if a class D amp company offered their most powerful mono-blocks for free in-home auditions to owners of the huge,hot, heavy and electricity gulping Krell behemoths for fair and unbiased comparisons in their own systems?
Stereophile or The Absolute Sound magazine or even Audiogon could join the festivities, conduct the comparisons in an agreed upon method, ensure it's unbiased and report on the results as an ongoing magazine article or ongoing internet reports here on Audiogon.   

 I know, I know..... you're on your way once you grab your bazookas.


 But please hear me out since it may be a win-win opportunity for Krell owners.  Let's just compare D-Sonics top monos to what are the most powerful Krell mono amps ever made, The Krell Master Reference Monoblocks which are 1000 watts each, as one possible.scenario:

                             KRELL MASTER REF                 D-SONIC M3-1500-M
                                        (KMR)                                             (DSM)
.NEW PRICE/PR             $150,000                                      $2,750
__________________________________________________________       WEIGHT
         PER
         AMP                            683 POUNDS/EA.             11.5 POUNDS/EA.
__________________________________________________________
POWER@8OHMS         1,000 WATTS                         1,500 WATTS
__________________________________________________________
POWER@4OHMS          2,000 WATTS                         2,100 WATTS
__________________________________________________________
 AMP CLASS                        A                                               D

IDLE WATTAGE                 758 Kilowatts                        13 watts 
__________________________________________________________
DIMENSIONS
W X D X H                       HUMUNGOUS                      7.25" X 15" X 4"                                                                   SQUARED
__________________________________________________________
Just a thought,
     Tim

georgehifi,

You can be relied upon as a good class D denier. You seem to post on any thread even mentioning class D. What’s the deal? Do you have a hidden agenda?
I think you’re doing a disservice to the many owners of hard to drive spkrs who drive them with very large, heavy, powerful, inefficient, hot running but great sounding amps like the big Krells.
All I’m suggesting is that anyone using one or more tube, class A or class A/B traditional linear amps should at least take a listen to one or more good quality class D amps in their system and decide for themselves. Many class D sellers offer free or low cost in-home trial periods on their amps knowing how few are actually returned to them.
This is what I did a few years ago to replace a large class A/B Aragon amp to drive my inefficient large panel Magnepans and I’m glad I gave class D a listen. I was very surprised to discover they outperformed my old amp in every area most of us care about; extremely quiet, highly detailed, life-like dynamics on source content that still has it, powerful well damped solid bass with a neutral mid-range and treble response that is only as sweet as the music source and upstream components allow.
Good class D amps also have non-sonic benefits: relatively affordable,small, light, efficient, reliable and mine never get hotter than luke-warm no matter how hard they’re driven.
I am not associated with producing, selling or in any other way associated with class D amps in any manner other than owning 2 very good stereo and a pair of mono-block examples of them. I’m just a big fan now and believe others are best served by hearing from a user who has no bias, agenda or stakes involved in this matter.

Thanks,
Tim