Tbonephile, I have thought this way as well. After selling Krell in the late 80's into the early 90's I could not understand the stigma that they received.No one has a complete line-up that is great all the way through,and can honestly say that I've never heard a horrible Krell.They do need a lot more attention to "match" than some companies,but when matched and used with thier devlopement brand of speakers most of them sound very musical and dynamic.I do enjoy my current set up of KSP-7B and KSA-150 and as a trumpet player,they sound very ,very good tonally.
Why Is Krell Not Considered Hifi?
No one seems to think that Krell sounds hifi, but just hifi price. They say it sounds hifi in that context that it doesn't sound real. I have to admit their products do have a metallic like cast to their tone, but aside from that I think that they are very smooth and detailed, far from the best in detail, like a CJ Premier preamp but they do make decent stuff. And just from looking at their products it makes you believe they sound as they look. Obviously its not true, but Krell makes decent stuff that has a good rep and is easy to resell (as long as its a current model, which is hard cuz they have so many new models) but its no way the sound of a Rotel or NAD that many people say.