2. amps-preamps
  3. 1041451190

Should I Upgrade My Krells

Here are the details. I have a Krell 150A Amplifier, Krell 250P Pre-Amplifier, Cary 303/200 CD Player, Vienna Acoustic Bachs, AudioQuest Viper XLRs throughout. Some Very Thick Monster Cable speaker wire (M100 series I think). I bought the Krells off of E-Bay in ABSOLUTE pristine condition 1 1/2 years ago. I will say that my Bachs are HERE TO STAY as I'm a silk dome tweeter fan as well as a Vienna fan! IMHO, nothing sounds better than Vienna. . . again MY personal opinion. Also, the Cary is quite phenominal!!!

When I purchased the Krells on E-Bay, I paid $2,150.00. When new, both units went for $4,800.00.

It has been said that sometimes Krell can be a bit too agressive and that may be true (I don't know with authority). If this is in fact the case, I believe that since the Bachs and Cary are very much laid back, this offsets the brashness of the Krells. I think the Krells do well in producing bass on my Bachs especially since they have no bass driver, but rather are ported on the back. IMHO, I feel as thought the midrage is positively intoxication and the high end can be likened to mercury. If I had one complaint, it would be imaging. I wished that my system was able to do this more effectively!!!

I went to audition the Mozarts side by side to the Bachs at my local Tweeter store. To my amazement, I truly believe the Bachs sounded better! Further, the set up I heard at the store which included B&K electronics and a no name cd player sounded better than my home system???? In short, I experienced far better imaging than my home system???? Can B&K be on the same level as Krell in this aspect?? I know my Cary is not in question as it's about as good as it gets at the price point I paid.

This all being said, should I replace the Krells? I don't want to sacrifice what I already have in Bass, Midrange, and Treble. I want to improve the imaging as I know that can be done and have heard it demonstrated!!

Any advice would be welcomed!

Itch
itch

Showing 1 response by plato

plato
1,543 posts
 
Three things mainly affect imaging: room acoustics, location and position of speakers in the room, and maintaining correct polarity between the respective left and right channels. On the last point, I have seen speaker pairs where one speaker is wired incorrectly and the polarity is reversed. As you might imagine, that scenario totally destroys imaging and needs to be corrected by reversing the positive and negative speaker wires (or rewiring one speaker correctly). If I were you, I'd get a hold of a test CD that has channel phasing tests and put the system through its paces. You could also check to see that you have not inadvertantly reversed the polarity of one channel somewhere in your playback chain (most likely at the speaker or amp).

If you find that everything is functioning as intended then it would be time to experiment with speaker placement and fine tuning their position in the room. Look at what furniture (if any) you have between your speakers; and the symmetry and similarity of the acoustic environment between the respective left and right speakers.

If your CD player has tubes, maybe it's time to install new tubes. Possibly, a decent equipment rack might help, as well.

I wouldn't start swapping equipment until you figure out exactly why your system doesn't image properly. Even cheap gear can image well and your gear is not what I'd call cheap...
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