Krell 707 vs Theta Casablanca 4

Wow, 'good' is a little soft at this level......

I have owned most every high end pre-pro ever made (except the Theta) tho I have heard it in several very 'good' systems.

The Krell Evo 707 is amazing, and if I wasn't getting divorced and needed quick cash to finance a sick attorney, would still have it! The bottom end is so solid and controlled, and is is as good a 2 channel pre (well, of solid state) as you can find in a pre/pro (I still used and aRC Ref 40th in HT passthrough for HT with it as I had it but.....) The build of the Krell is insane! The thing weighs a small ton, and runs hot in idle! Definitely not a green piece of gear.

The Theta is awesome as well, very musical and open, I wouldn't put much faith into the 'continuously upgradable' thing, that has always fell to the wayside. Well, except for Meridian, but the HD621 is a patch in most peoples mind....... The Meridian is one to also consider. It is the smoothest and lushest pre/pro made, and I love the computer set up system! There is a learning curve, but it is not too steep and once you know the steps, you have TONS of flexibility in your set up!

To sum up, the Krell has the tightest bass, plenty of space. Meridian smoothest and most liquid of the three, Theta is sort of in between to me, very good, somewhat analytical presentation, very open.

FWIW I now use a Classe' SSP-800 now and kept the ARC 40th anniversary for two channel. If I went back to a 'single box' solution for my preamp, I would buy the Krell again.

The Evo 707 is the one piece of gear I miss, it is amazing!

BTW What is the rest of your system?

HI! Thank you for the great detail!!!
Will post the rest of the system soon.
Sincere regards
T

HI Kenny! A bit more time this AM b4 work.
I have also been considering a 2 ch pass through arrangement.
Very similar to yours actually.
Been considering the 5SE, 10 and 40th
Just trying to wrap my head around the extra wiring etc.

I am building a new house with a large ent/living area...11,000 ft3
Dedicated Equitech 200A with good wire and outlets. Got this from a failed new house install.

Am installing multiple outlets ...all within 3 ft of each speaker placement for mono/bi and subs.

Only other pice purchased so far is a modded Oppo 105

Thanks again for your input

Thanks for the great info here on processors! I am very intrigued with the apparent audio quality they can achieve both for two channel and home theater.

But, with 4K/UHD and HDMI 2.0 now entering the market, where does that leave these HDMI 1.4 processors? I would hate to spend that much money and then find out I cannot run UHD signals through them.

Also, can the Krell receive native DSD via HDMI from an Oppo multi-disc player? What about DVD-Audio? I like the way my Onkyo receiver can handle all these formats, will play Sirius/XM via my network, and also can stream high res flac files of music via DNLA from my pc.