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Thread: 175,000 Hour Service - Definitely Overdue !

  1. #1
    Join Date: Dec 2013

    Location: Lincoln UK

    Posts: 566
    I'm Mark.

    Default 175,000 Hour Service - Definitely Overdue !

    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.

  2. #2
    Alex_UK's Avatar
    Alex_UK is offline Spotify + Facebook Moderator / Chilled-Out Wino and only here for the shilling
    Join Date: Aug 2009

    Location: Sunny Suffolk, UK

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    I'm WrappingALilacCurtainAroundMyBobby.

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    Great write up there Mark, enjoyed reading it and food for thought! Nice looking system too.
    Alex

    Main System: Digital: HP Laptop/M2Tech Hiface/Logitech Media Server/FLAC; Marantz SA7001 KI Signature SACD Player and other digital stuff into Gatorised Beresford Caiman DAC Vinyl: Garrard 401/SME 3009 SII Improved/Sumiko HS/Nagaoka MP-30
    Amplifier: Rega Brio R. Speakers: Spendor SP1. Cables: Various, mainly Mark Grant.
    Please see "about me" for the rest of my cr@p! Gallery


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  3. #3
    Join Date: Dec 2013

    Location: Lincoln UK

    Posts: 566
    I'm Mark.

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    Thanks Alex, appreciated.

    Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
    Life long music lover and Hi-Fi enthusiast for over 40 years, avid live music supporter, dismayed by the current dynamic ticket pricing applied to so many events !!



  4. #4
    Join Date: Oct 2012

    Location: Hull - East Yorkshire

    Posts: 194
    I'm Chris.

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    Sorry to resurrect and old thread, but can I ask what unit that is that you have your TV on? Really like it! Where did you get it?

    Thanks
    Adios for Now,

    Chris.

  5. #5
    Join Date: Dec 2013

    Location: Lincoln UK

    Posts: 566
    I'm Mark.

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    Hi, custom built by Robes and Rails a local manufacturer of fitted bedroom, office etc furniture. So any decent company locally to you should be able to do the job.

    Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
    Life long music lover and Hi-Fi enthusiast for over 40 years, avid live music supporter, dismayed by the current dynamic ticket pricing applied to so many events !!



  6. #6
    Join Date: Nov 2011

    Location: Seaton, Devon, UK

    Posts: 13,240
    I'm Adrian.

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    Hi Mark,
    I enjoyed reading your post, I recently purchased a a Krell KSP-7B pre to go with the KSA-80 power amp, as you say the pre-amps from Krell certainly do deliver on "wide deep open soundstage, dynamics and bass extension which are jaw dropping, with an ability to groove", I was lucky the one I purchase has been fully re-capped in the last 2 years, and the PSU as well.

    Your system looks great.

    Cheers
    Listening is the act of aural discrimination and dissemination of sound, and accepting you get it wrong sometimes.

    Analog Inputs: Pro-Ject Signature 10 TT & arm, Benz Micro LP-S, Michel Cusis MC, Goldring 2500 and Ortofon Rondo Blue cartridges, Hitachi FT5500 mk2 Tuner

    Digital:- Marantz SA-KI Pearl CD player, RaspberryPi/HifiBerry Digi+ Pro, Buffalo NAS Drive

    Amplification:- AudioValve Sunilda phono stage, Krell KSP-7B pre-amp, Krell KSA-80 power amp

    Output: Wilson Benesch Vector speakers, KLH Ultimate One Headphones

    Cables: Tellurium Q Ultra Black II RCA & Chord Epic 2 RCA, various speaker leads, & links


    I think I am nearing audio nirvana, but don’t tell anyone.

  7. #7
    Join Date: Dec 2013

    Location: Lincoln UK

    Posts: 566
    I'm Mark.

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    Hi Adrian,

    Thanks for the reply, I would say that the Krell combo's are still some of the best I've heard. I know to equal them sonically with new current models from any decent manufacturer would be well in excess of £20,000. I heard the Rotel Michi combo at £11,000 recently and that isn't in the same league!

    Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
    Life long music lover and Hi-Fi enthusiast for over 40 years, avid live music supporter, dismayed by the current dynamic ticket pricing applied to so many events !!



  8. #8
    Join Date: Dec 2013

    Location: Lincoln UK

    Posts: 566
    I'm Mark.

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    Quote Originally Posted by AJSki2fly View Post
    Hi Mark,
    I enjoyed reading your post, I recently purchased a a Krell KSP-7B pre to go with the KSA-80 power amp, as you say the pre-amps from Krell certainly do deliver on "wide deep open soundstage, dynamics and bass extension which are jaw dropping, with an ability to groove", I was lucky the one I purchase has been fully re-capped in the last 2 years, and the PSU as well.

    Your system looks great.

    Cheers
    Hi Adrian, any pics of your system?

    Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
    Life long music lover and Hi-Fi enthusiast for over 40 years, avid live music supporter, dismayed by the current dynamic ticket pricing applied to so many events !!



  9. #9
    Join Date: Nov 2011

    Location: Seaton, Devon, UK

    Posts: 13,240
    I'm Adrian.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rush2112 View Post
    Hi Adrian, any pics of your system?

    Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
    Hi Mark

    Pic is below, apologies its not great. My system is as in my signature below.

    The Krell power amp is on the top as SWMBO(Sue) will not let me move the sofa to do so, its fine sat on 10 mm of toughened glass that can take 60kg. The Po-Ject TT below I love, a good ex-demo buy, the arm is a type of constrained uni-pivot and works very well, its completely adjustable and gets the detail out the vinyl. I think I would need to spend at least £10-15K on TT and arm to better it and probably only for marginal gains. The Hitachi tuner is £45 eBay purchase and is great, it was a giant killer back in its day and sounds great still.

    Next down is the Krell pre-amp, added about 3 weeks ago, which has made a big difference to the overall SQ of the system, it has just opened the soundstage up and with more detail/depth and made it better overall. I have tried the on board phono stage but need to go back and try some other settings for MC, it sounded quite good but need another proper listen.

    The RaspberryPi/HifiBerry Digi+Pro for streaming is tucked away at the back and goes by optical into the Marantz SACDs DAC, and this sounds quite good, good enough for the amount of streaming I do at present. The RPI/Digi+ is slightly modded and is powered by a linear PSU direct to the Digi+ board, and I have some config changes to get the best from it.

    The Marantz SACD player is another bit of kit that sings IMO, it is quite rare I got it from a friend.

    Below is the SUNILDA Phono stage, a lovely piece of kit, several well known reviewers praised it highly, it made a big difference to listening to vinyl, everything came alive. I have had several phonos over 8 years of various price points from a Cambridge Audio 651P£120) to a LFD MMC(£3.5K) that was a disappointment with MC and was prone to noise pickup and sensitive to leads used. A Sonneteer Sedley I had for about 9 months was great VFM and for the costingt £450(used) it was excellent. I have found that phono stages can make or break good vinyl reproduction.

    The WB Vector speakers are the icing on top for me, I went through many speakers and amp combos until I got it right for me, the Krell power amp with them was a big step in the right direction, and adding the Krell pre has taken it to another level.

    So that is it as it stands for now, I am tinkering with improving the streaming SQ but trying to keep it on a very low budget, I may have found a great solution the other day for around £200, but we will see. If money did not matter I'd buy a Novafidelity X40 or X45 for streaming and be done with it, but £2-2.5K is out of the question at the moment.

    All the Best.

    Listening is the act of aural discrimination and dissemination of sound, and accepting you get it wrong sometimes.

    Analog Inputs: Pro-Ject Signature 10 TT & arm, Benz Micro LP-S, Michel Cusis MC, Goldring 2500 and Ortofon Rondo Blue cartridges, Hitachi FT5500 mk2 Tuner

    Digital:- Marantz SA-KI Pearl CD player, RaspberryPi/HifiBerry Digi+ Pro, Buffalo NAS Drive

    Amplification:- AudioValve Sunilda phono stage, Krell KSP-7B pre-amp, Krell KSA-80 power amp

    Output: Wilson Benesch Vector speakers, KLH Ultimate One Headphones

    Cables: Tellurium Q Ultra Black II RCA & Chord Epic 2 RCA, various speaker leads, & links


    I think I am nearing audio nirvana, but don’t tell anyone.

  10. #10
    Join Date: Dec 2013

    Location: Lincoln UK

    Posts: 566
    I'm Mark.

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    Hi Adrian,

    Well you know my system has evolved over some 40 years, I bought my first seperates at 16, a Technics SLB2 Turntable Grado FCE+ cartridge, Technics SUV2 Amplifier and a pair of the original Mission 70 speakers with the offset tweeter. Since then I've owned:

    6 Turntables
    4 Arms
    8 Cartridges
    3 Phono Stages
    5 Integrated Amps
    4 Pre-amps
    4 Power Amps
    2 CD Players
    3 Transports
    4 DAC's
    3 Cassette Decks
    2 Tuners
    7 Speakers
    2 Subwoofers
    And cables from Van den Hul, QED, Audioquest, DPA, Transparent, Silversounds, Siltech, Cogan Hall, Hi-Q Sound

    My standouts over the time were:

    Celestion SL6 loudspeakers,
    Celestion SL600 System Speaker,
    Sonus Faber Electa Amator mk1 speakers, Ortofon MC3000mk2 cartridge, Nakamichi RX505 cassette deck, Lumley Reference M120 monoblocks, Acoustic Research LS7 pre-amp, Pink Triangle Cardinal transport, DaCapo DAC, DC power supply.

    Then my current system is pretty much as far as I am going give or take possibly Tansport and DAC, plus a change of cartridge when the Koetsu is ready for replacement maybe upgrade to a Urushi, or Hana Umami or Jasmine Dragon.


    Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
    Life long music lover and Hi-Fi enthusiast for over 40 years, avid live music supporter, dismayed by the current dynamic ticket pricing applied to so many events !!



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