What ever happened to Krell ?

The reviews are pretty consistent (available online), that the new Krell is good by most standards - but not all & certainly not as good or as detailed as the old Krell. Also that it is clearly not a Class A sound in the way that has previously existed at Krell or with other top competitors. Sterophile for example in their review said, "I was also well aware that the Krells’ sound was less refined overall. What I expect from class-A amplification—textural richness, suppleness, delicacy of attack, generous sustain, and far-as-the-ear-can-hear decays—never materialized."

Krell isn’t trying to be SOA, have no vision or intention of pushing any envelopes, but if they can be perceived as competent enough products that ride on their founders legacy while disowning him (most importantly while remaining profitable to please the private equity firm that pushed Dan out) - they call that success.

The Stereophile review I quoted from was from later 2015 by Michael Fremer > http://www.stereophile.com/content/krell-solo-575-monoblock-power-amplifier-page-2

The reviews of Krell ibias amps mostly agree if you google them online. To most directly answer this forum topic, "Whatever happened to Krell", looking at Kell’s business & R&D history gives a pretty definitive answer. The first thing they did (after firing Dan D’agostino, removing all trace of him from their website while championing their history of quality he was responsible for) was scrapping their most prestigious & advanced line (the evolution series) in it’s entirety. The decontenting was then aggressively pursued everywhere else with no replacements even contemplated. All the speaker lines were consolidated into one model only designed by Dan & eventually that one was scrapped as well. All well reviewed digital sources then went, replaced by a DAC less then 1/2 the cost & indisputably a fraction of the quality. The ibias is the only new R&D invested in since Dan left & that has never received more then luke warm praise. It helps the amps draw less electricity which appeals to the overtly penny pinching (who are the customers they’re now aiming for & not quite the customer that made them successful). Tons of good for what it is comments but a certain kind of sound not for everyone kind of remarks. Their one well reviewed integrated, the S550 they discontinued & replaced with something less ambitious & respected - but cheaper. Unsurprisingly they’re a smaller co. with fewer dealers as a result of this kind of relentless cost cutting - so they had a brainstorm to salvage their reputation. Bring back Dan’s first wife who still has a D’Agosatino last name (& is technically a co-founder) & make her the titular, figurehead, last year. A marketing triumph. They’re mostly a home theater company now with a sprinkling of midfi components everywhere else. Their amps are goodish but as for the rest........

Basically a textbook recitation of what happens when an uncaring, private equity firm buys a prestige firm & cuts all costs relentlessly, invests as close to nothing as humanly possible, while draining the firm of all possible cash. A greater purity of cynicism displayed is hard to imagine.

Any defense of Krell is not what they've done with anything outside their amplifiers. That they can somehow degrade and/or get rid of everything else w/o it affecting the amps is an interesting point of view. D'agostino the company appears to be growing & introducing new products at the rate Krell is shrinking & refusing to introduce & improve anything. The irony definitely leads somewhere. Most here understand buying the best of what Dan designed, preowned & revivifying it is far better value & quality then buying what's currently sold under the Krell name.

Krell will continue to shrink, deepening its unblemished history over the last 8 years of improving & introducing nothing & having ever decreasing profits bled from it, until it is no longer viable. Then the name & what assets are left will be unsentimentally sold to the highest bidder. The only interesting question is whether Dan will be interested at that point.

Undisclosed? Technically maybe so. But cost considerations completely rule all policy at Krell for some time. Only less expensive versions of what came before (that hasn’t been deleted altogether), heavily discounted by their shrinking group of dealers, are their reality. The anchor will continue on it’s way downwards until selling it is more profitable then bleeding it for cash. A matter of when - not if. This is what happen when a particularly soulless & aggressively unimaginative firm takes over. Its time for it to be put out of its misery and/or let someone ease reincarnate it into something better (difficult to not do so). Perversely fascinating to see how the mighty have fallen, but beyond that......