Krell amplifier with Hales speakers?

I've got a Krell Ksa-250 driving Apogee Duetta Signatures, If you are thinking of the Ksa-150 then this is a better amp for a few hundred more. The Ksa-250's sound is a hair towards the softer side of neutral ( I've not listened to your speakers ) but do know that they drop below 4ohms at around 50hz-200hz region.

The Ksa-250 is a monster amp, this brings to the table a few problems for some people.

1. 145lb.
2. Needs 20amp circut
3. Class A to around 50 watts so runs on the warm side
4. you need one that has been serviced in the last few years, shipping on this amp is big $$$..I know because I had mine serviced about 1.5 years ago.

That said, this is a very good sounding amp and IMO sounds as good as the small FPB's..the main reason I still have mine. These can be found at around $2,200 with resent service if you take your time looking.

Dave

Congrats on the new (old) amp. I have a Ksa-250 on the bottom half of my Apogee Duetta Signatures. If you have not installed dedicated 20amp circut for this amp..I would do so as it's current draw can exceed 15amp circut with some speaker systems, this can effect it's sound quality. I've tried balanced and single ended connections on mine, balanced sounds better.

One of the nice things about this amp is the ability to stear it's sound in any direction you want with upstream components.."roll your own" flavor. I would play around with speaker placement for a good bit before buying a pre-amp, once you've formed an opinion (take notes even) of what direction you would like your system to take, find a pre-amp or other upstream component that will lead you there.

The best pre I have had in my system up to this point was a passive (Bent Audio TVC). The problem with that setup was volume level could have been to low for some people with very hard to drive speakers. The Krell needs more than 2v output from cdp to reach full output. The very easy to drive VMPS supertowers I had as mains at that time were not a problem at all, not sure my bi-amped Duetta Sig's would work as well with the Bent TVC but I may give it a try in the future.

Dave

Well, it' a long story but I'll try to keep it short.

If you click on my system you can see some pictures of my present system turmoil. I am at this time forced to use the digital-out from my Technics Dvd A-10 into the DAC of my Sunfire theatergrand pre-pro. When I had the Bent passive pre in the system I had the Sony XA-777 sacd player in the system also. I sold the Bent and the Sony to help pay for a complete speaker system change-over: Going from all VMPS multichannel system>all Apogee multichannel speaker system.

The new room should be done soon and I will be adding back into the system another higher quality cdp and another higher quality two channel pre.

As far as the kav-300i, I have never listened to that unit. I do have a kav-500 amp that I use on the top of my bi-amped Duetta Sig's..it's a great sounding amp for that use but does not have near enough power for difficult to drive loads. The Kav series of components are very good..but are built to a much lower standard than other Krell gear, for instance: the Krell Kav-250 is a great sounding amp with plenty of power for most use, except difficult to drive loads. This is the amp that causes the word bright to be used in context with Krell, it's not a bright amp at all. People see the name Krell on it and assume it will do what the other Krell's will do..that is: drive any speaker system with-out strain. It won't, it can't and it does not, it clips and sounds bright.

I've found that pre-amp have a greater effect on sound quality than amps (unless the amp is of poor design or not up to the task of the job given it). The Ksa-250 is said to sound great with tubes (I have not tried them). It's a great match with passive in most systems (it was in mine) and should be a great match with Krell pre-amp of your choice. How does the pre-amp section of the Kav-300i sound to you? Is there something you want more of..or less of? Is the soundstage to forward or to far-back? I know it's large enough so I won't ask that. Are you using balanced outs?

I told you I'd make a long story short?? Sometimes I can't shut-up.

Dave

Yep, keep us posted. The turn on click is good..it's the protection circuit. The click means..good to go. When the time comes to send the amp for service, you will not hear the click. The forward soundstage is the pre-amp IMO.

Dave