So a chance conversation with an old friend and former Hi-Fi retailer made me suddenly aware of how long my Krell KRC 3 preamp had been running, which, as it has no standby or on/off switch, is about 175,000 hours or 20 years !
A overhaul was certainly due and fortunately we were just in time before we had leaking capacitors and circuit board damage to contend with.
My long time go to person for such things is someone who has an enviable background in professional and domestic audio engineering and despite being snowed under with his professional audio work, post lifting of the Covid restrictions, he agreed to take a look !
What followed was a complete overhaul, the aim to be as true to the original design as possible replacing components with like for like or the most suitable currently available alternatives. This most certainly was not a "Hot Rodding" exercise!
The end result was nothing short of outstanding the degradation over the years, probably the last five particularly, was significant and what I now have is an outstanding preamp, extremely quiet with wide deep open soundstage, dynamics and bass extension which are jaw dropping, with an ability to groove in a way that had certainly been missing !
Better than new ? Well I can't remember it being quite this good but other things in the system have changed so its hard to be definitive, what I can say is if you have gear 15 years old or more, that has had been running for much of that time, then start thinking of having someone give it a thorough inspection before it is perhaps too late !!
I've also had a lesser but no less essential overhaul to the active part of my Sonus Faber Gravis subwoofer and my Krell FPB 200c is next up.
System pictures posted and when the FPB is done some internal pictures of both preamp and power amp will posted.