Krell XD gear in the House Initial Impressions


For those who were following a post we started a few weeks ago about considering bringing in Krell gear here is our follow up post after we just received the display gear.

We had 0 interest in adding Krell to our product portfolio before attending the Capitol Audio Fest we almost missed the room it was on the First floor in the back and it was VPI's room and we are not VPI dealers so it was almost a fluke that we even poked in. The huge Wilson Alex's were beckoning us in, so we decided to take a brief listen.

The sound in this room was mesmerizing, someone played Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side and there in three dimensions was Lou Reed and the three back up vocalisits, the sound was smooth, engaging, transparent, and has a sense of presence that made you take notice. 

So we started looking at the setup, VPI table $15k, Soundsmith cart $8k $110k Wilson speakers, lot of expensive Nordost Vallahalla or Odin but what was driving this insanely good sounding rig there in the bottom of the rack were two Krell 300XD amplifiers and a Krell preamp. 

Here was the best sound at this entire show, and the electronics were a fraction of the price of all of the other reference setups which were $80k monoblocs amplifers, $40k reference preamps and other such expensive gear. 

So we figured we would give the Krell a try part of the reason was logistics, powering our Paradigm Persona 9H is a $50k set of the phenominal T+A electronics from Germany, a $19.5K 300 Watt power amplifier, a $16.5 preamplifier and an optional outboard power supply at $13.5.

We have no issue with this gear it is incredible, however, we didn't have in this room a set or electronics which we thought would really give the T+A stuff a run for its money and yet be more affordable, so the Krell 300XD amp at $10,500 plus their Illusion 2 preamp/dac at $8k we thought would bring the price of doing a top notch system with the Personas down a bit in price and perhaps be a nice addition to our other electronics lines of T+A and Naim for top of the line solid state gear.

We hooked up the new Krell gear yesterday and even after only 24 hours of break in the sonic signature is very similar to what we heard at the Capital Audio Fest. 

The new Krell gear was liquid in the midrange, with nylon strings having the right type of roundness that makes acoustic guitar sound so right, tight well defined midbass, excellent rhythmic control, good top end extension with a slighly soft warm top end, and a big dimensional soundstage.

One of our questions is are there anyone on the boards who has this combo in particular the 300XD power amplifier and the illusion 2 preamp/dac we are currious to the affects of break in and how they improve. 

The sound after only 24 hours of initial plug in and break  in the gear is allready sounding ridiculous good how much better does it get and in what ways?

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ  new Krell dealers




128x128audiotroy
D2girls, I have no idea on wether of not you would consider Krell rebranding, the reason it seems that they are gaining new dealers and new sales is the new XD circuit improvements.

No one really loved the previous non XD versions the reviews we could find were good, but no body seemed to be blown away by the sound.

Dave Goodman Krell’s lead engineer for the last 23 years was designing a new integrated amplifier the K300i, and made a few parts changes or reworked the output circuit for some reason and noticed the revised version of the circuit sounded much better, and hence the new XD series.

https://www.stereo.net.au/news/krell-is-back-on-the-map-with-new-k300i-xd-integrated-amplifier


http://www.tonepublications.com/whats-new-homepage/krells-new-ibias-duo-175xd/

All we can say is this is not like any other Krell amplifier, yes there is still superb tight bass the amps seem more rhythmic and was sweeter sounding, tube like in fact, the tone of these amplifiers is really beautiful.

The new styling does take a bit to get used to, but man these new pieces are sounding really magical even with very little playing time.

Here is a picture from our reference room

https://www.facebook.com/audiodoctor1/photos/rpp.122499304489958/2414413985298467/?type=3&theate...

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ new Krell dealers

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Congrats on the Krell electronics.  I haven't heard a Krell amp in over20 years and back then I wasn't so impressed.  I guess they made a lot of improvements since then.  I hope you sell many units.  Best of luck.