You can send the losing Krell to me Jerry, I'll give it a good home.
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You can send the losing Krell to me Jerry, I'll give it a good home.
Noooo, both are staying for a while. :D
I've only had them a couple of weeks, so still learning what they both can do.
It only takes a minute or so to swap between them - although the warm up period of the Crayon is a pain. The best thing is probably to swap the cables to the Crayon last thing at night and have it ready for action for the following day.
Okay, when you are ready to move it on you know where I am.
The Crayon amp seems to be an interestingly different technical design, way beyond my humble ability to understand!
Details in the 6moons review here - https://6moons.com/audioreviews/crayon/crayon.html
and the Crayoin website http://www.crayon-audio.com/en-cfa-1-2-black/
Wow, some write up.
Basically it has a switch mode power supply, bridge mode outputs and no coupling caps. Plus very effective RFI filtering and pc board layout.
What's the idea behind the live input sockets?
I've been warned never to swap cables unless the amp is turned off.
It's not the input sockets that are 'live' as you say, but they do have RFI filtering on signal and ground connections.
It is the speaker terminals that are both 'live' as it is a bridge output, so don't earth either output connection.
Always a good ides to switch off before changing any connections, I have blown fuses by not doinfg so in the past (oops).
Ah, OK - thanks, Alan.
Nah the Crayon is obviously coloured (did you see what I did there?).
IMHO quite a few amps go 'all nice' when they have been on a long, long time. Annoying to say the least. But sometimes they go 'all nice' too far. And you crave for a bit of bite back.
It's hi-fi. Can't and never will win. None of us.;)
Don't think I mentioned it getting nicer, just betterer. ;)
Absolutely. Funnily enough I thought of you as soon as I heard it.
Interestingly I’m missing the crayon far more than I thought I would. Agree re the warm up period, and I simply wasn’t getting enough use out of it to get to the good stuff for long enough, but I’d have it back in a heartbeat. It doesn’t sound like any other amp I’ve heard.
So no need for eBay when it’s eventually time to move it on Jerry, I’ll definitely be evoking the buy back clause! :-)
Cables are funny things with the way they interact with kit.
I like the Krell with the RS Audio Duet silver/palladium hybrid interconnects, and the Crayon with the Black Cat Neo Morpheus copper cables. I seem to have settled on these for the moment.
Speaker cables chez-Jerry are in a bit of a state of turmoil, with various options being trialled.
More on this anon when the frenzy eases up a bit.
Jerry,
Macca has been hoping I flog my Krell for weeks lol, Sell him this one and help him out, poor chap
Ok
Gosh, I hadn't realised yours was still on the sick list.
I need to find a box for it, it didn't come with one. I had to go collect it.
And it's an 18 inch square, or something like that, so not easy!
.... Assuming I do part with it. It's been on my Want List for many years.
No worries Jerry. Hopefully mine won't be in bits for much longer. But I still intend to get another Krell as a spare so if you do decide to sell at some point give us a shout.
I remember waiting for you to move on the Parasound as I fancied that but when it didn't look like you were going to ever part with it I bought summat else. Then about 3 days later you put it up for sale.
Ah, that Parasound was nice. 18 months stay chez-Jerry, so it must have been doing something right.
Yes, I'm OK to move the Krell on, the Crayon is sounding stunning.
Just been up into the loft and I don't have a box big enough - amp size is 17x19 inches, so you want a few inches spare around that.
Suggestions for a source for a suitable box?
I could post you an empty box but that sounds crazy.
Okay I'll look and see what I've got.
Current setup with Luxman now making it to the table. Preamp had to go on the floor.
Note Lampi hi-tech damping device. It doesn't make much difference TBH so got moved.
Should probably sell some amps.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...efe7e8d545.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...ef643d88da.jpg
Those panels are huge. No wonder u need a humungus amp
Was just reading communications from the chap that sold me the Luxman. We were talking about the 9 months it took to sell it on eBay and me trying to get another to run bridged.
'Ha, if you get another at that price you have the luck of the Devil. Hard to come by. A fella from England sent me a message asking why it hadn’t sold, he had the M-600a. I don’t know how half the country hears that’s into audio, seems to me they haven’t a clue.'
:)
Big amp so guess it was overkill for most folk.
Hm only one chassis though. Plenty on eBay now that I know full well cannot compete with it as a Duetta driver that take up far more space and cost far more.
Back to the Krell 400xi integrated amp last night.
No, it doesn't have the soundstage and imaging precision and believability of the Crayon amp, no amp that I have heard can challenge that. But the Krell isn't bad in that regard and it does have a truly magnificent dynamic sweep; Berlioz' Requiem was stunning, classical music doesn't get bigger and bolder than that ime. The 28wpc Crayon simply can't match that with my medium sensitivity speakers.
Hmm, what I want is a 290wpc Crayon amp.
... or maybe bi-amp, with the Krell driving the MBLs' bass units [xover 160hz] and the Crayon on the rest? The amps are very similar tonally, so that might work. Although on the very rare occasions I have tried bi-amping in the past with different amps it hasn't been convincing.
Anyway, the Crayon is convincing for most of my music choices, which tend to be on a small or moderate scale. Swapping a few cables for the big music is a bit of a pain but doable.
I'll stay with the Krell for a few days and see how I get on with it. Immediate comparisons can highlight differences that in the longer term become less important; the Krell is a very fine amp in its own right.
I thought the Krell had gone to Macca.
I sense another crossover mod coming along.
Some parametric EQ applied over the last few weeks at various levels in various places indicates the Luxman sounds even better on average with a cut between 4 to 8 KHz of about 2DB.
It just sounds more balanced that way. I'll be getting the test mic out to see what is really going on this week sometime.
The words 'on average' are really important. There are no standards for EQ on recorded music, and in high performance systems that can be really obvious.
No frequency response is optimal for all recordings. And much of why a track sounds great on one system as opposed to another is simply down to this annoying fact.
Well the amp and source will have a flat frequency response and the room and loudspeakers won't. But I don't see how having a standard for EQ on recordings would help that? or am I misinterpreting what you are saying?
Standard EQ for recordings would be ridiculous. That would mean that reggae couldn't be recorded without excess bass. Who would want that?:) Do you get what I am saying now?
Anyway, the Lampi isn't flat as the frequency response changes with valve rolls. It's easily measurable.
Currently PX4 is sounding the best with the Luxman but it does have a bit of a mid to upper end hype in it.
I might leave it as it is TBH. A couple of DB digital EQ doesn't hurt much in the way of SQ, and some of that is purely due to PX4 usage.
Was it made after Dan left the company?
Not kept up with Krell models at all.
I'd be amazed if my evaluation didn't come down firmly in favour of the Krell in your system. Your speakers do need a fair amount of power.
That said until heard...
I say so - it just sounds more balanced i.e. not overly bright.
That said change valves in the Lampi and a lot changes. So setting the crossover optimally for PX4 is a little over the top which is probably why I won't bother.
Equaliser APO and the Peace GUI. It's free and excellent apart from a dated looking GUI.
Google it and try it. Brilliant. Especially since it is free.