It's been said many times, but is worth repeating "The Krell 400xi sounds best when run in balanced mode", Krell KAV components are fully balanced by design, the single-ended RCAs are an after-thought. Treat yourself to a good balanced CD Player and quality XLR ICs, and you will hear a very noticable leep forward in performance, equal to a component upgrade. Many people buy this Integrated because it's cheap and make the mistake of pairing it up with a cheap source and ICs, and end-up disappointed with its performance. I recently heard a 400xi hooked-up (balanced)to the new Krell Evo. 505 CD Player ($10K) and a pair of Wilson W/P-8s ($28K) and it blew my mind. Unbelievable, what an inexpensive but well-built Int. Amp. can do when paired with a state-of-the-art Source and reference-grade Speakers. It was by far the best system that I have heard out of 2 simple, modest sized boxes and a pair of generic ICs.
