Krell Amps and Pre-amps

Well, one reason I said what I said is because I have witnessed it with my own ears. I had a perpetual ground hum with the Krells, although slight and you had to get close to the speaker to hear it, but it vanished when I got the McIntosh amps. Before selling the Krells, I tried rewiring the outlet and it would not go away so maybe they were doing it(?).

I also want to point out that when I said "go for McIntosh et al." I was not ruling out Krell entirely. Perhaps the models I had were not up to par or something. I have heard other Krell systems that sounded very good and so I am sure some of their amps/systems are fully worthy of their high praise. I did afterall love them for a few years.

I will say that my only disappointment with the McIntoshes is the fact that they ARE so revealing. Some of my not-so-good recordings do not sound great. However, play a well recorded CD and feel chills come over you. Love it.
Arthur

Hi Simancd, I don't know if you are planning on buying used or new. If you are going to buy new, there shouldn't be a dealer that won't loan you amps to try out in your home. If you are buying used, you take your chances.
My experience is the opposite of Karls concerning the Levinson. I always thought it a bit dark. a little forgiving and not the best in dynamics. Probably one of those system things.
I have to agree with half of what Kre111 said in his second post. Also, I am not sure what Krell you are talking about. I have not liked Krell in the Past. I understand from a very good source that their new stuff is quite good.
Get dedicated lines, good PCs for your amps, and I mean no offence to any PS PP owners, but I think the new lines and PCs will do much more for your sound.
Simoncd, please invest in dedicated lines and PCs. This will be much cheaper than thousands of $$$ wasted on things not needed. Sometimes the search is half the fun.
I wish you the best in your search.

aball: interesting...i have never considered mcintosh to be "highly revealing." in my experience, they are more "musical" than detailed. are you referring to their tube or SS products? i've only listened to the former, which i liked but just not enough to purchase. part of the reason i wasn't thrilled with mac tubes was that they seemed to lack some of the inner detail and spatial information that i heard through other components. maybe their SS stuff is more detailed? just curious.

For Krell1: I am not trying to trash Krell, they obviously are an expensive and heavy amp and use good-sized transformers. BUT that is not nearly the whole story in power supplies. As I mentioned, Ayre is one of the few companies I am aware of that goes to the trouble and expense of a choke-input power supply (i.e., a giant series inductor nearly as expensive as the transformer itself). This makes a gigantic difference in the quality of the power delivered by the power supply, and Krell and most others don't bother. And my ears tell me that it makes a huge difference in sound quality, on the same order of magnitude as adding a really good power conditioner (as you would expect...).
There are many other factors that come into play as well, including capacitor quality and sizing, rectifier types, and so on. In addition, there are other potential solutions that can deliver excellent results, including the excellent new switch-mode supplies on the Linn Klimax and Rowland 10/12. A good source of info on this is Pass's website www.passlabs.com. I am not saying that any designer can make a great power supply easily or for free, but that it certainly can be done if they are willing to put out the effort, and most (including Krell) haven't bothered to take it to this level. That is why some products benefit so significantly from power conditioners, and others either don't seem to care or, if they have really good power supplies, can actually sound worse with conditioners.

i,m new to posting on this board but do have experience with high-end amplifiers, as a consumer. i owned a cj mf 2300 as my first amp, and then traded for a krell ksa200's. the krell amps build, sound, and quality were second to none. i then got the single-ended bug and traded the amp for cary 805's. i have since owned ml 20.6's and am now using fpb 250's. the krell build quality is superior to all these amps in my opinion. as for the sound every amp has its sonic signature and they were all good. i still miss my ksa 200's because of the build, the machined front panel, the brass binding posts and the overall sound quality was right up there with the rest of the amps. on the used market for less than $3000. you can get a ksa 200's which is an outright steal. just wanted to add my input to all who are interested.