So why was the Krell KPS 28c discontinued?

I owned the KPS 28 c for two years. What a piece of junk. It sounded bright(like most of Krell) and it was built like a Sony player. What a rip off. These people should get their hearing check and get a receptionist to answer the phone!

You sound like you work for Krell. When I said built like a Sony, I meant a cheap Sony mid-fi player. The unit only weighed 17 lbs. The top never fit right. Unlike the kps 20i which was built like a tank, this unit had a plastic cd tray, a thin top which sounded like a tin can when you tapped it, and I would say that Krell had a hell of a nerve charging so much for a couple of circuit boards, a teac drive, a power supply and some outputs. Even with a 25% discount I paid $5600. This was a special order sight unseen situation which I will never do again. I kept it for 2 years because no one would pay a fair price for it because it was so overpriced to begin with. Krell is not known for their digital and this unit was better than previous Krells, but still somewhat grainy sounding. If you never owned one, how can you comment. Personally, with the exception of some of their amplifiers, I think Krell is some of the most overpriced junk on the market and components like the KRC series Pre-amps did nothing but distort the music. There is no reason why these products should be so expensive. The KPS 20i was built well but it had a grainy upper mid-range and that piece listed for 9K back in 1995. Give me a break!

The only Krell dealer was not going to stock the product 28c, so I took a chance. And yes, I was mad at myself for making such an expensive purchase without an audition. I only learned after I owned the product about Krell's history with digital and particularly in the upper mid-range, their products tend to accentuate the worst characteristics of digital(at least the models I mentioned above including the KAV 300 which I used for 3 weeks). If you have never owned or had an extensive home audition, you are not in a position to evaluate a product. You know as well as I that the magazine reviews are designed to sell products for the advertisers. I have no motive here except to help. I am mostlty into analog with a VPI ext aires/JMW 12.5/dynavector/EAR 834 P phono stage. As well, I am using a SONY scd 777 es SACD player which works great for SACDs and isn't much worse than the Krell on redbook. But it does lack HDCD. For the record, I am using a Rowland Concentra 2 with Luxor power cord #11 and B&W 802 speakers

I had to get 3 units until I got one that worked right, so the last unit came straight from Krell; maybe it was 18 lbs. The workmanship on this cast series pre-amp and 28c is NOT as good as some of their other products were. The fit and finish was just ok. Like a bigger gap on one side of the cover than the other; a new top didn't fix. A plastic drawer(ON A $7500 list player??, are they insane??)The player tended to accentuate grain on vocals more than it should. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't worth the $5625 I paid for it. For that kind of money, it should be as solid as a rock and sound very refined and it did not except with some HDCDs and some Telarc jazz. If you could find a used one and it was no more than 2K, it would be worth it, but no more. If this product was so great and sold so well, why is it gone without a replacement? Its because standard cd players don't sell well at that price point anymore

Well guess what, the 28c is exactly what I had. It didn’t play SACD and it sounded average on redbook cd. I hated the plastic drawer. Highly recommended for what? For a junk sale in someone’s garage? I am still using my Sony scd 777esd which sounds great on Sacd and ok on redbook. It’s built 1000 times better than the krell but it’s slow to load. It weighs 60 lbs. I also have the original Rega Planet and a Krell receiver in another system. Both work fine since 1999

For electronics in the main system I am using a McIntosh c2200 pre and an MC402 amp with Martin Logan SL3