Krell amplifier with Hales speakers?

Bfuehrer, you are smart to be looking for a powerfull separate amplifier for your great speakers. I agree with Kevinkwann in that a system with Hales does not have to be bright, but I wouldn't claim that Hales tweeters are not bright. They are quite correctably bright.

Also Hales are no SO hard to drive. If they were, your integrated would not still be working. They are, however, a deep well for wattage and benefit from a fairly stable amp. The impedance and phase are plotted in the archived review section of Stereophile's website.

There are not so many suitable amps in your price range that you cannot investigate most of them. One I think you should consider is the Classe CA-300. I'm not claiming its categorically the best amp for the money, but it gets along with Hales very well, without brightness. Another high power amp company that springs to mind (that I have no experience with) is McCormack.

As far as preamps you can do better than Krell.

Bfuehrer if your system sounds bright you might want to take a look at your room. Brightness has a lot less to do with your system than you might think.

Set up is huge and treating the room can cost less than new, while reaping greater rewards. Check out http://www.rivesaudio.com they might be able to give you some insight.

FWIW the weakest link in your system seems to be your cable. I owned some of that in the past and was not real happy with it when I had the Ruby.

NRCHY, I have considered going to a cable from transparent audio, after auditioning some in my system I felt that it had a much smoother sound without the grain in the highs.

I tried different speaker placement tonight, according to the "golden rule theory" on the Cardas website. My room is 16'5" WIDE, x 22' long. With the speakers on the short wall, approx. 88" from the wall, and 53" from the side walls, the sound stage was dramatically better. I am beginning to hear what the Hales can really do, and I have owned them for 3 years!

After about an hour and a half of listening, I moved them back to the original position, 48" out and 36" from sidewalls, and I was floored at how BAD they sounded compared to the other postioning. Less soundstage, shrill treble, and muddy bass.

I still think that more power would give the speakers more "punch" and "immediacy", since they sounded a little flat that far out in the room.

Howdy, I just picked up the new Krell integrated, the KAV- 400ix, to drive my B&W CDM9's. People consider these speakers to be bright. I don't completely agree w/ this assessment, but I digress. The KAV-400 sounds great. This is a big step up from the B&K/Odyssey combo it replaced. Clear, articulate, fast with well controlled deep bass. This amp grabs hold of my woofers better than the odyssey does. Check out the new Krell integrated, 200 watts per channel and $2500 list, you might be surprised.

Bfuehrer be careful it sounds like this might be going from a hobby to an obsession! Placement is soo important. The entire sound of a system will change dramatically with proper setup and placement, and it's free!

You are right about the new amp, but gives rives a chance. You can spend less and get more.

PS I have nothing to do with Rives, although I have bought a couple of things from them.