Finally!!! I just purchased some Aerial Acoustics 7T speakers! How do I power them???

I actually owned a B&K 7250 back in the day.  It's an excellent amp with lots of current and slam.  However, it is voiced very warm and doesn't have the high frequency clarity/transparency that other amps do.  Similar amps could be something like Parasound or Rotel, but B&K still has a warmer sound than both of these.  Marantz is also in this category.

The latest Krell amps (Chorus / Duo / XD) have a very smoothed over and lush sound to them.  They are in a different sound category.  Levinson is also in this category.

Neither of these amplifiers are 100% neutral / transparent / uncolored, in my opinion.  Ultimately, it really depends on what kind of sound you are looking for.  Both the B&K and Krell are excellent choices, but have completely different sounds.

My opinion would say that you want a transparent / uncolored amp for home theater.  For music, it really depends on personal preference, but some people like warmer for HT as well. 

The uncolored / neutral amp category would include things like Anthem, ATI, Bryston, Classe, maybe Plinius.

My experience with Adcom amps back in the day was that they are voiced warm like the B&K, but lacked fidelity and slam.  They also sounded dirty/grainy/messy.  Ultimately, the B&K amps were just so much better.


I don't have experience with the Theta amps, but I think they are going to be in the neutral / uncolored category.  Likely to be very excellent.  I don't have experience with the nCore Class D circuits, but I have always preferred Class AB amps because they have better extension into the ultra-high frequencies.

The Theta Dreadnaught D can get very expensive.  If you are looking for an alternative, take a look at the ATI AT5XXNC series.   They use the same nCore amp circuits and also have linear power supply like the Theta, but these are much cheaper.  The Theta looks to have much beefier power supplies, but it can cost double or more $$$.

The Krell TAS (Theater Amplifier Standard) is part of the Krell Evolution series amplifiers.  In my opinion, these were the absolute best amplifiers that Krell made.  They are very high resolution and very transparent / uncolored.  They are not like the newer Chorus/XD line, which are lush and colored.  The downside is that they are very old (17-19 years).  If you are interested in the TAS, I would consider sending it to Krell to have it refreshed / recapped. 

I wouldn't be against the TAS7 Its just the right rack(Sound anchors maybe), dedicated power and a known parts path in the future.

Okay, there seems to be a confusion on this Krell amp naming. 

"TAS" actually refers to the amp with the full name of "Theater Amplifier Standard".  This amp was part of the Evolution series and was manufactured around 2002-2005.  It was a 5 channel amp only.

When you say "TAS7", you might be referring to the newer amp which has the full name "Theater 7".  It should NOT be called TAS7.  This is a 7 channel version of the latest Chorus or XD series amp and has the same smooth / lush / colored sound.

The ATI has good reviews, as does D-Sonic...

I would lean toward the ATI Class D because of the linear power supply.  D-Sonic uses switching power supply like most of the Class D offerings.

I was wondering if I could use the older Aerial speakers and maybe change the tweet to the ScanSpeak Discovery

Changing tweeters is not necessarily recommended because they will have a different impedance curve and frequency response.  This could throw the balance of the sound off a lot.  That being said, in my opinion, surround speakers do not necessarily have to be perfect match.  They should be close in sonic signature, but they are not as critical as matching left / center / right channels.