A change of Pre-amp

[AJSki2fly]

As I had got a lovely Marantz Pearl CDP last year and I was taking a different route streaming I decided to sell my Audiolab 8300CDQ as pre and DAC, this had done very well in my system, but I felt I could do better.

After some investigation it became clear a good choice could be a Krell pre-amp if I could find one I could afford. Luckily a Krell KSP B7 came on the scene and after several weeks contemplation I decided I had to go ahead and scratch the itch. The Krell KSP 7B I have purchased has been fully recapped in the last 2 years and the PSU also been tested and re-capped, the PSU is the later version which is supposedly more reliable, it runs warm, not hot as some other owners have reported in the past. It will be feeding my Krell KSA 80 power amp, which I have had for a couple of years now and never regretted buying it.

So my new toy arrived yesterday afternoon by UPS and I carefully unpacked it. I then opened the pre-amp up, and it is pristine inside, I set the dip switches to 800ohms and set it to MC. I already own a very nice Audiovalve Sunilda phono stage and want to compare them.

After carefully setting up, using the Sunilda initially, I put on one of my favourite test listening tracks ‘Tala Rasa Ranga’ by Ravi Shankar on the ‘Portrait of Genius’ album, this is a fantastically dynamic recording, with great depth and variation in the Tablas, sitar, hand percussion and flute. All I can say is that it was an instant wow moment, detail, depth and clarity had just opened up, soundstage felt larger and separation between instruments is more defined.

I continued my listening session with Supertramp - ‘School’, Alan Parsons Project - ‘I Robot’, Charlie Byrd - ‘Taboo’, Peter Gabriel- ‘Rhythm of the Heat’, Hugh Masekela - ‘Stimela’, Eva Cassidy - ‘Fields of Gold’, 10cc - ‘The Wall Street Shuffle’, Shpongle - ‘ Botanical Dimensions’ and St Germain -‘Rose Rouge’. A nice mix of styles and all tracks have some great dynamics and can challenge a system. The Krell KSP 7B did not disappoint on any of these tracks, I noticed I was hearing some details and dynamics for the first time, it gives a lovely well balance presentation and enables a high sense of realism, I think attack and decay also seem improved giving improved timing.

I also listened to the tracks using the on board phono stage, once again this was a surprise, as expected a slightly different presentation from the Sunilda but a very, very good one. Slightly warmer in the mids and low end, with very good and defined low end bass, giving a very relaxing and enjoyable listening experience.

I also listened to some of the tracks on CD using my Marantz Pearl CDP, and also streamed with my inexpensive Raspberry Pi(2)/HiFiBerry Digi+ using Volumio, with a linear PSU, going to the DAC of the Marantz Pearl, nothing exotic but for streaming but it does a reasonable job. I am going to do some minor mods and am waiting for a Digi+ Pro card to arrive that I picked up for £19 on Ebay.

Once again for both CD and streaming I was pleasantly surprised by the Krells performance, no harshness just clarity, and enjoyable listening. So an all round success IMHO, I'm happy anyway.


For those that may consider one of these:-

Pros:

A great all round pre-amplifier with a very acceptable phono stage that will easily satisfy most people.

You could easily spend £5-10k or more to better sounding pre-amp IMO, partner it with a good Class A power amp that can do it justice and you will be set up for a long time.

Cons:
None from a sound quality point of view, as far as my ears are concerned.

Supposedly designed to be left switched on all the time, I would not necessarily do so, it takes around 30-60 mins to come on song in my opinion, so just power up before you sit down to listen.

The PSU, especially the earlier version, can run hot from what I have read, I believe this usually indicates the capacitors need to be replaced, if you buy one get them replaced it will save the transformer(s) from failing.

These pre-amps are built like tanks but are getting around 25-30 years old, try and buy one that has had all the capacitors replaced or build that into the price, there are 36 of them, but it will be worth it.

[Macca]

good looking pre-amp, looks proper.

[Jimbo]

Most Krell gear that have heard sounded good-very good. Their power amps are particular good and I did consider one back in the 1980s but they were always out of my price league.

My only worry with any of those older amps and preamps is their age + heat they generated and effect on internal components? Very sweet sounding though when they are in good condition.

I have that Ravi Shanker album Adrian, I think mine is the mono version but a stunning recording and the music is sublime especially side 1.

[Barry]

Well done Adrian.

Krell make some great gear; a friend of mine uses a Krell CDP and integrated amplifier (sorry I can't remember the model numbers) and is delighted with them.

Certainly, the KSP 7B looks the business and the option of balanced outputs makes it an attractive product (as well as looking good!):

[AJSki2fly]

good looking pre-amp, looks proper.

Cheers Martin, it was you that put me onto the Krell road, and a big thank you to you. They were formidable in their day and and still have a great deal to offer IMHO, yes they may need a little fettling to bring them back onto song, but from my understanding its usually just a few caps and then they are good for another 20- 30 years producing beautiful sounds.

When I look at "good" or "recommended" modern equivalents, amps and pre-amps, then I find the prices just frightening and OTT, starting at £10K and often a lot more to get the same level of SQ, just madness. As an example a friend has a very nice integrated Vitus R101 MII, I think £15-17.6K new, he picked his up from a trade in but was still £11K. It sounds great and is built beautifully, but not any better than my set up IMO, and I would be honest and say if it was. If you go to separate Vitus pre and power then you are into over £45K, its much the same with current Dan Agostino offerings and many other makes, you need to think well over £20K. Interestingly Meridian have not priced themselves into silly land in comparison.

It would be interesting to know just how many people spend £50-100K on their hifi system. If you are wealthy it probably does not matter, but it does seems extreme when you could buy two or more perfectly good new cars for £50-100K, or 1/2 a house in some parts.

[AJSki2fly]

Most Krell gear that have heard sounded good-very good. Their power amps are particular good and I did consider one back in the 1980s but they were always out of my price league.

My only worry with any of those older amps and preamps is their age + heat they generated and effect on internal components? Very sweet sounding though when they are in good condition.

I have that Ravi Shanker album Adrian, I think mine is the mono version but a stunning recording and the music is sublime especially side 1.

I James, my pockets are limited and kept in control by my dear long suffering wife Sue, she just does not get HiFi and is not and avid music listener, although she does say how nice our system sounds when she goes somewhere else and hears an average one.

I have tried several integrated, pre and power amps. Audio Innovations S500 - lovely valve amp and great VFM for its price(needs carefully matching with speakers), Meridian 557 with simple passive pre (this was very good), Vincent SV-234 - a lovely Class A/B integrated and excellent VFM, Allnic T1500 (300b valves) sweet mids/upper, bass control sometimes weak, not cheap and a mistake as far as I am concerned. As I said in my reply to Martin above the Krell does it for me, yes the power amps do run warm, in fact any true good Class A will I believe so not just a Krell, the KSA range of amps I have been told are all pretty good, and can be picked up today for reasonable prices £1.5K to £3K depending on model and condition, and you do get a lot of amp for that, the pre-amps can be hard to come by, not sure why, perhaps people hang onto them, they seem to be in the £1K to £2.5K range. So an outlay of around £3.5K could get you a very good set up, I appreciate that is a lot for many but when compared with modern prices it's very acceptable, even if you spend uo to £1K getting them fettled by an electronics engineer it is still very good value I think. I am sure there are other makes which offer similar VFM in older pre-owned, possibly Conrad Johnson, Mark Levinson, Sugden, and others, but I am not that familiar with.


The Ravi Shankar LP I picked up for £1 on a whim in a Hospice, one of my better purchases, not a perfect copy with a little lead in noise but completely listenable. It is a great album for listening to set up and how the system performs, the tablas, and percussion have lots of overtones and can sound bland if the system is not right, get it right and they can appear in the room as if real. If you are not familiar with some of the tracks I mentioned, it might be worth a listen, especially Zhao Cong - "Sound of China" album which I forgot to mention, then first track has a 10 foot ceremonial temple drum in it.

Sounds of China Qobuz

Sounds of China Spotify