Superfi or madness

[AJSki2fly]

Boom Boom!

I respect giraffe’s…
They’re an animal I can look up to.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Barry]

If you watch the way giraffes walk, you will appreciate their innate understanding of natural rhythm.

[AJSki2fly]

So here is the system now after a few bits arrived.


I succumbed to a Krell KSA-70 and also have replaced a few boxes with the Audiolab 8300CDQ, for all things digital.

I have listened properly to the amp for about 1 hour now, Peter Gabriel - “ The Rhythm Of The Heat”, Paul Simon - “Boy in a Bubble”, 1st side of Supertramp “Crime of the Century”, some Eva Cassidy - Nightbird - “Fields of Gold” & “Baby I Love You”, Ravi Shanka - “Tala Rasa Ranga” & “Dhun” for Protrait of Genius, Sinéad O’Connor - “ Feel So Different” from “I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, and Hugh Masekela - “Stimela” from Hope. These are all go to test listening tracks for me which have a good mix of bass, drums, voice, and natural instruments, and are great recordings. Well worth a listen if you don’t know them.

So my initial thoughts are OMG, there is massive control on the bottom end, the separation and soundstage is improved, attack of drums, cymbals and percussion is crisp and clear. Overall quite stunning. I need to have a longer listen to form a final opinion but pretty good so far. I am quite impressed with the Audiolab as a pre-amp, the listening above was to vinyl and it seems to be very neutral in my opinion.

I think the key improvement is a much better match with my Wilson Benesch Vectors, more control, detail and punch.

So having listened to quite a variety of albums and tracks I thought I would try and follow up on the above as I now have formed a more cohesive opinion of the Krell.

So far the majority of my listening with the Krell has been with vinyl although I am also rather pleased how it sound with the FM tuner.

I think that describing how it performs/sounds is best done while I listen to Patrick Moraz - ‘The Story of i’, for those of you who do not know this album it is a stunningly complex recording, with layers of keyboards, synth, drums, bass and guitar, there are also huge transients and some very deep extended bass notes in places. It can be a difficult album to listen to in my experience because it can sound jumbled on a poor system, and also sometimes edgy, so it is a challenge.

What immediately hits me when listening to it with the Krell is the separation of the layers in the recording, to the extent now that I can appreciate different aspects of the mix, the soundstage is wide and detailed, to the extent that it has made me sit up in certain passages as the 3D out of the box experience surprised me and made everything feel totally real. There is absolutely no distortion that I can hear, and the depth and control of the low registers is quite astounding. I can literally close my eyes and pick out the layout of the drum set and where the other percussion is, amazing. There is a piano section on side two, and the depth, detail and tonal extension gives the impression of the piano being played in the room, wonderful. Nothing so far sounds harsh or tonally wrong, it’s just sounds like I am actually getting very close to hearing what has been recorded. I guess on a poor recording this level of detail and control is likely to make them sound even worse.

To sum up what I am trying to say is that I am now hearing things in the recording and music I was not before, and to use that old cliche, it is as if a veil has been lifted from in front of the speakers. So I am rather pleased that I moved to the Krell.

As an aside the Audiolab 8300CDQ as a pre-amplifier is rather impressive, I am sure there are better pre-amps out there, but it certainly is fine for me at present. I will report more on it from a digital perspective when I get round to listening more to CDs and HiRes streaming.

[Macca]

You hear what I hear then. You'll get the same from digital although I warn you now stuff with serious bass can be scary if you listen to it at 'proper' levels! The level of control and resolution is just stupid good.

[AJSki2fly]

You hear what I hear then. You'll get the same from digital although I warn you now stuff with serious bass can be scary if you listen to it at 'proper' levels! The level of control and resolution is just stupid good.

I look forward to the experiencegenerally I listen around 80dB which gives a bit of punch

[Mikeandvan]

I thought this was gonna be a thread about what giant killer the Denon was. I've already bid on 10 on Ebay, the price now going crazy.

[AJSki2fly]

I thought this was gonna be a thread about what giant killer the Denon was. I've already bid on 10 on Ebay, the price now going crazy.

lol, I couldn’t see you ditching your amps for transistors and mosfets


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Filterlab]

I 'kin love Class A. Nothing comes close to it.

[AJSki2fly]

I 'kin love Class A. Nothing comes close to it.

The more I listen to the Krell the more I like it. I think it’s a combination of previously having an amp that was struggling to control my speakers when it was pushed harder and also that the Krell is a great amp, masses of punch, lots of detail and big soundstage.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jahsavage]

What I really want to know is how you got that damn thing on that rack in the corner of the room?