Krell KSA-100 MK2

[DSJR]

Yes and he also reckoned putting beer mats under three of his table legs improved the sound!

I'm definitely never going down the Peter Belt route ever again but before he turned his Impulse speakers to face the centre of the wall behind them, he was getting a good sound in his odd room and I used to very much enjoy visiting him every few months...

[oceanobsession]

Maybe its time to buy some different speakers , seems to me you may have tried a variety of different amps looking for improvements in sound quality but although very good your speakers may be they are never going to hit the mark . phil.

[Bigman80]

Good luck with it Oliver , we'll know if you get it as there'll be reports of streetlighting blackouts in Wolverhampton when you switch it on by the sounds of it!!

The lights will dip in London with this thing !!!



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[Bigman80]

Maybe its time to buy some different speakers , seems to me you may have tried a variety of different amps looking for improvements in sound quality but although very good your speakers may be they are never going to hit the mark . phil.

Hi Phil,

I see where you are coming from but the speakers are certainly not the issue. Neither is the Monarchy Audio SM-70 I'm currently using.

Truth is there isn't any complaints about what I am currently listening to but the itch came to try a Krell after the Penkridge bakeoff. One has turned up locally for A price I'm happy to try one for, so here we are.

It's a curiousity piece rather than coming from a point of being unhappy.

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[Floyddroid]

Yes and he also reckoned putting beer mats under three of his table legs improved the sound!

Yes but the Krell beer mats were over a grand each ha ha.

[DSJR]

I'm going to say this and face the consequences...

If the speaker loading is reasonable and the amp design not quirky or cable fussy with wild measurement issues, I think I can suggest that many amps actually DO sound broadly similar as long as they're not clipping. The 45 year old thing I'm using in the main system currently sounds exactly like macca's Krell did here, with a kind of 'studio' presentation - slightly dry and lean but with good insight and clarity, possibly almost too lean and dry in a 'musical' sense. This suits the speakers I have here at the moment as they're too prone to letting it all hang out. The thing is, give this geriatric amp anything remotely like a difficult load at high powers (4 ohms and less) and it immediately current limits to protect itself, so would be utterly useless here, when the Krell would be romping away to over 160WPC - probably nearer 200WPC I remember from the reviews and hearting up to egg-frying levels with no issues at all!

Biggie, I do hope you like this old amp, but the only way I think it's going to improve anything is with the increased dynamic range on tap into any reasonable load you care to give it. This feeling is addictive if the amp does it right.

Big amps like this are usually set down in between the speakers with short speaker cables and longer interconnects, hence my recommendation for a line buffer to drive it rather than a passive or transformer coupled thing, which will add its own distortions anyway (even if you like them ) ARC preamps can be very coloured things, but the late 80's-early 90's krells seemed to match well, two wrongs kind of making a right at the time I remember.

[Bigman80]

I'm going to say this and face the consequences...

If the speaker loading is reasonable and the amp design not quirky or cable fussy with wild measurement issues, I think I can suggest that many amps actually DO sound broadly similar as long as they're not clipping. The 45 year old thing I'm using in the main system currently sounds exactly like macca's Krell did here, with a kind of 'studio' presentation - slightly dry and lean but with good insight and clarity, possibly almost too lean and dry in a 'musical' sense. This suits the speakers I have here at the moment as they're too prone to letting it all hang out. The thing is, give this geriatric amp anything remotely like a difficult load at high powers (4 ohms and less) and it immediately current limits to protect itself, so would be utterly useless here, when the Krell would be romping away to over 160WPC - probably nearer 200WPC I remember from the reviews and hearting up to egg-frying levels with no issues at all!

Biggie, I do hope you like this old amp, but the only way I think it's going to improve anything is with the increased dynamic range on tap into any reasonable load you care to give it. This feeling is addictive if the amp does it right.

Big amps like this are usually set down in between the speakers with short speaker cables and longer interconnects, hence my recommendation for a line buffer to drive it rather than a passive or transformer coupled thing, which will add its own distortions anyway (even if you like them ) ARC preamps can be very coloured things, but the late 80's-early 90's krells seemed to match well, two wrongs kind of making a right at the time I remember.

Thanks for that Dave,

I get exactly what you are saying. The DCB1 is a buffer without gain so that should be fine for the task?. The amp will sit between the speakers so the speaker cables will be much shorter and will be of better quality as it's cheaper to buy 2m of cable than the 7m I currently have to buy.

Luckily the SPOTFIRE ics are abundant here so longer ones aren't an issue

Macca made a point, many posts back, that I may not keep the pioneers forever and he's quite right. I do have plans to convert the Garage into the music room and that would allow for much larger speakers. It's a nice thought to know that whatever the new speakers would be, won't trouble that Krell. I also have first dibs on Macca's JMLABS which would be perfect in the new room, just need 10 years to get that done

A good amp shouldn't really be much different from other good amps and if they are of sufficient quality, the SS v Valve arguement becomes void too IME. We agree there too.

I hope I like the Krell too but if I don't, I still have a phenomenal amp on the Monarchy Audio SM-70 so it's not the end of the world.

It's a safe purchase as I won't lose money on it if I dont like it and if I do, it'll be a bargain (ish)



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[Bigman80]

Little update.

Fetching the Krell on 12/9.





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[Stryder5]

Knew you couldn't resist long

Gary

Little update.

Fetching the Krell on 12/9.





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[Bigman80]

Knew you couldn't resist long

Gary

It's calling me Gary

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