I purchased a KSA-150 many years ago new.
I just recently sold it on ebay for well over $1,000.
A few months before I sold it, I called Krell to see if they still serviced the 15ish year old amps. "of course" was the answer.
I really expected them to laugh at me and suggest I buy a new Krell.
The unit went to Krell, got a refurb job...and it came back good as new.
Over the years I've seen dozens of opinions of the old Krell Amps...pretty much love/hate. The KSA-150 was a brute, built like a tank. Pure transistor sound... Very little if any character to the sound in my opinion. I fed it with a tube preamp and was extremely happy. If you're looking for a bit of mellow to be part of the power amps character, you'll probably not like the old KSA's.
If I were to state a few words on it's sound:
dead solid bass
fast
on the dry side
probably zero.zero 2nd harmonic distortion
UPS managed to drop the KSA during shipping and all 4 feet got sheared off! I dismantled the thing for repair. Krell amps are built extremely solid. My new $5,000 amp from another manufacturer, while being well built, is not in the same class as my old KSA.
If you locate an old KSA in good working shape, I can't imagine how you'd be disappointed, unless of course you are looking for it to exhibit a specific sound character.
My KSA got plenty warm, but it drove my Maggie 3.6s fine. On a hot summer day with little air-conditioning I used to worry about it, but it never exhibited anything other than good solid performance.
Good luck
I just recently sold it on ebay for well over $1,000.
A few months before I sold it, I called Krell to see if they still serviced the 15ish year old amps. "of course" was the answer.
I really expected them to laugh at me and suggest I buy a new Krell.
The unit went to Krell, got a refurb job...and it came back good as new.
Over the years I've seen dozens of opinions of the old Krell Amps...pretty much love/hate. The KSA-150 was a brute, built like a tank. Pure transistor sound... Very little if any character to the sound in my opinion. I fed it with a tube preamp and was extremely happy. If you're looking for a bit of mellow to be part of the power amps character, you'll probably not like the old KSA's.
If I were to state a few words on it's sound:
dead solid bass
fast
on the dry side
probably zero.zero 2nd harmonic distortion
UPS managed to drop the KSA during shipping and all 4 feet got sheared off! I dismantled the thing for repair. Krell amps are built extremely solid. My new $5,000 amp from another manufacturer, while being well built, is not in the same class as my old KSA.
If you locate an old KSA in good working shape, I can't imagine how you'd be disappointed, unless of course you are looking for it to exhibit a specific sound character.
My KSA got plenty warm, but it drove my Maggie 3.6s fine. On a hot summer day with little air-conditioning I used to worry about it, but it never exhibited anything other than good solid performance.
Good luck