almost everything will have less control than your Krell in the bass department.. so expect a sacrifice.
2 options.... Get a tube preamp and flavor the krell that way
or Theta Citadel's work amazing with the WP8's, and have tremendous bass control. The Ayre MXR's are warmer on top and have way less bass control than the Citadels, plus I find the Citadel's to be more open and transparent (if you are running balanced because of their truely balanced design). Make sure you have at least 1 dedicated 20amp circuit, as the Citadels provide limitless current and volume with the WP's. another huge benefit with the theta amps are they idle at 80watts so there is no warm up time for instant pleasurable listening!! this was a key factor for me.
If you are a deep bass head that likes excessive volume don't get the Lamm ML2.1's (which I own currently along with the Theta Citadel's as I determine which I can live with my Maxx 2's, soon to be three's but I owned WP7's with Lamm M1.1's and M2.1's and the Citadels.) The Lamm's have more texture around the bass notes but the are about 30% of the impact of the Lamm's (then again I'm waiting for a new tubeset because I think the breaking up of sound at volume is a tube problem and not an amplifier problem) But there is no way the 18 watts will ever do what the Theta Citadels do with Wilson speakers (effortless transparent volume).
The only compromise that I considered that I liked better was the VTL S800's or VTL 750's which have all the current and provide the air that tubes have without the bloom/excessive warmness of other tubes. The newer VTL 450's or the S400 would work on the WP8's where they don't quite drive the Maxx's as well.
2 options.... Get a tube preamp and flavor the krell that way
or Theta Citadel's work amazing with the WP8's, and have tremendous bass control. The Ayre MXR's are warmer on top and have way less bass control than the Citadels, plus I find the Citadel's to be more open and transparent (if you are running balanced because of their truely balanced design). Make sure you have at least 1 dedicated 20amp circuit, as the Citadels provide limitless current and volume with the WP's. another huge benefit with the theta amps are they idle at 80watts so there is no warm up time for instant pleasurable listening!! this was a key factor for me.
If you are a deep bass head that likes excessive volume don't get the Lamm ML2.1's (which I own currently along with the Theta Citadel's as I determine which I can live with my Maxx 2's, soon to be three's but I owned WP7's with Lamm M1.1's and M2.1's and the Citadels.) The Lamm's have more texture around the bass notes but the are about 30% of the impact of the Lamm's (then again I'm waiting for a new tubeset because I think the breaking up of sound at volume is a tube problem and not an amplifier problem) But there is no way the 18 watts will ever do what the Theta Citadels do with Wilson speakers (effortless transparent volume).
The only compromise that I considered that I liked better was the VTL S800's or VTL 750's which have all the current and provide the air that tubes have without the bloom/excessive warmness of other tubes. The newer VTL 450's or the S400 would work on the WP8's where they don't quite drive the Maxx's as well.