Well, if you were looking for longevity and reliability, I suspect the Rotel is the way to go. It is new technology (still a current product). It support HDMI and all the current BluRay audio formats. However, it is op amp based and does not have the warmth or soul that Class A circuit have. The Krell S1000 is basically the same thing as the old Krell Showcase but with very simple HDMI inputs that support video only. Audio still requires normal COAX or toslink inputs to be used. It only support the old style Dolby Digital or DTS compressed audio formats. However, the Krell does have decent Class A audio circuits. If you were really looking at Krell, I would suggest to look at the S1200 model, which uses superior audio stages and also supports BluRay audio formats, though I suspect that the S1200 is over your budget.
