Krell KSA 250 – rustling on one channel


Hi,

I bought one of these beasts on the used market from a store and from the day it arrived at my home, the left channel is causing me grief: from time to time, there would be like disconnections on it in the form of rustlings that would either be audible from my listening spot and/or cause the sound on the left channel to decrease and the whole soundstage to shift rightwards.
this could be happening a couple times an evening or sometimes once every other day. when it happens, i disconnect and reconnect either the HP cable or the interconnect and the problem usually disappears.
It’s less likely to happen if I first let the amp warm up before playing music and it’s more likely to happen while playing music in low volume.
I live in Paris and service for those amps here is basically inexistent and if existent, it’s not very reliable and extremely expensive. Other than that the entire Krell support in France is doubtful (they don't even answer emails).

any ideas where this problem could be coming from?

how would that be resolved and how much it should cost?

any recommended Krell service centres in Europe?

Thanks for your help.
amuseb
Hi, sorry guys, didn't check in for sometime now.
First of all, the unit was shipped to Holland to the carying hands of Marcel Croese who found several issues on the left channel that needed repair.
He then fixed it and sent it back to me.
Unit is long sold.

Steve's email is: support at krellservice.com

Good luck.

PS, Polyglot, how did you figure out "Amusebouche"... (-:
Amusebouche: So how was the technical issue corrected? It would help others with your experience and if I may say so, show some respect to all those who tried to help you. Too many threads for help are not "closed" by the OP.
Hello Amuseb My Krell Ksa Amp have problem with power board, Can I have Steve email so I could seek help from him. Thanks, Guy25
hi Amuseb
It sounds to me like the dealer knew of this problem before he sold it to you and "ONLY" if so,you should let others know so it doesn't happen again.
Good Luck sir
Hi,
From previous experience the relay for the on/off switch become corroded and will have to be cleaned by a tech. The amp has to be partially disassembled it cost me around $300.00 US to have mine fixed up.
I also forgot to mention, not knowing if related, the left channel also warms up much faster than the right one. once reaching the working heat point the heat differences don't seem as obvious but when firing up the amp you can clearly tell the left channel is gets hotter faster.
Please forgive me if this is obvious but, when you say that when you reverse the speaker cables, it's still the left channel that rustles, you do mean the left channel from the amp, not the left channel speaker, right?
My pleasure Amuseb. I'm glad you found Steve's email address. If he doesn't know the answer, nobody does.
Thanks Unsound.
The only thing I haven't tried was to reverse the left/right interconnects from the pre to the amp.
Other than that I've tried everything: reversing the HP cables, different amps, different sources, different preamp inputs from the sources, etc. the problem always stays at the left channel and only with this amp (tried it with another ML and another Krell, no problems of such whatsoever).
Do not do anything until you speak with Steve - He is the ultimate Krell expert repairman with extremely fair prices. Ask him anything even if you can't ship it to the US. He will know.

The Service Department Steven Leckrone 30 Unquowa Hill St,
Bridgeport, CT 06604 USA 203-331-0671