Krell amplifier with Hales speakers?

Hello, here is an update to my system. I came across a Krell ksa 250 and what an improvement in my sound! The bass has punch and rhythm, hard to explain but an overall sense of the amp being in command of the speakers! This is what I have been lacking in the sound. I am currently using the pre-outs on the kav-300i to drive the ksa 250. I still need a preamp, and have now been reading favorable reviews of the krell kbl. any thoughts on this?

Congrats on the new (old) amp. I have a Ksa-250 on the bottom half of my Apogee Duetta Signatures. If you have not installed dedicated 20amp circut for this amp..I would do so as it's current draw can exceed 15amp circut with some speaker systems, this can effect it's sound quality. I've tried balanced and single ended connections on mine, balanced sounds better.

One of the nice things about this amp is the ability to stear it's sound in any direction you want with upstream components.."roll your own" flavor. I would play around with speaker placement for a good bit before buying a pre-amp, once you've formed an opinion (take notes even) of what direction you would like your system to take, find a pre-amp or other upstream component that will lead you there.

The best pre I have had in my system up to this point was a passive (Bent Audio TVC). The problem with that setup was volume level could have been to low for some people with very hard to drive speakers. The Krell needs more than 2v output from cdp to reach full output. The very easy to drive VMPS supertowers I had as mains at that time were not a problem at all, not sure my bi-amped Duetta Sig's would work as well with the Bent TVC but I may give it a try in the future.

Dave

Thanks for the info. What preamp are you currently using? In your opinion, what tradeoff am I making right now running through the kav 300i as a preamp, using the pre-outs? This is an integrated amp btw. I will try to install a dedicated 20a line as you say. I did this at the last house I owned and the improvement was noticeable even with the kav300i.

Well, it' a long story but I'll try to keep it short.

If you click on my system you can see some pictures of my present system turmoil. I am at this time forced to use the digital-out from my Technics Dvd A-10 into the DAC of my Sunfire theatergrand pre-pro. When I had the Bent passive pre in the system I had the Sony XA-777 sacd player in the system also. I sold the Bent and the Sony to help pay for a complete speaker system change-over: Going from all VMPS multichannel system>all Apogee multichannel speaker system.

The new room should be done soon and I will be adding back into the system another higher quality cdp and another higher quality two channel pre.

As far as the kav-300i, I have never listened to that unit. I do have a kav-500 amp that I use on the top of my bi-amped Duetta Sig's..it's a great sounding amp for that use but does not have near enough power for difficult to drive loads. The Kav series of components are very good..but are built to a much lower standard than other Krell gear, for instance: the Krell Kav-250 is a great sounding amp with plenty of power for most use, except difficult to drive loads. This is the amp that causes the word bright to be used in context with Krell, it's not a bright amp at all. People see the name Krell on it and assume it will do what the other Krell's will do..that is: drive any speaker system with-out strain. It won't, it can't and it does not, it clips and sounds bright.

I've found that pre-amp have a greater effect on sound quality than amps (unless the amp is of poor design or not up to the task of the job given it). The Ksa-250 is said to sound great with tubes (I have not tried them). It's a great match with passive in most systems (it was in mine) and should be a great match with Krell pre-amp of your choice. How does the pre-amp section of the Kav-300i sound to you? Is there something you want more of..or less of? Is the soundstage to forward or to far-back? I know it's large enough so I won't ask that. Are you using balanced outs?

I told you I'd make a long story short?? Sometimes I can't shut-up.

Dave

I think that the soundstage is a little too forward for my taste. I guess that I am blaming the preamp section of the kav300i. I read that this is a class "a" preamp section, but wonder what tradeoffs were made to fit into a 2500 dollar integrated? I have hear some tube preamps and have been impressed, but think that keeping everything Krell will result in a synergy that I want.

Today, I borrowed some Transparent Music Link cables to try out. One is the Standard cable, and the other is the Plus cable. I want to see if they take some of the grain out of the system that I hear. From what I have gathered, the components that I have should be relatively high resoloution and without grain. I think that the Audioquest Ruby cables may be contributing to this.

Will let you know how this turns out.

I am also wondering about the likelihood of the KSA 250 needing to be serviced. When switched on, there is an audible "clunk", and also when switching off. Does this mean that Capacitors need to be upgraded?

Thanks for all of the feedback.