"Krell" is a buzzword

It is fair to say that there have been some reliability problems with Alfas, it all depends on how long your memory is - even in recent years, like a 164 I had where the switches needed to be cleaned or replaced every few years. But mechanically they have been marvellous from both a reliability and performance point of view for several years. Right now, with Alfa at last buying in from other parts of Europe, they are as reliable as anything out there. IMO their biggest problem has been the lack of good technical backup around the world, but even that is pretty good these days.

The way I see it is that Krell is well marketed and "expensive", and for any audiophile reading the ads and reviews, Krell is in your face to the extent that you are under pressure to aspire to own a Krell. A lot of the marketing is just about that - getting new audiophiles to aspire to a Krell so you catch them later when they are ready to buy. This is not dissimilar to branding of BMW, Rolex etc. The flipside is that the pressure to aspire to it can also cause people to prefer to "bag" it rather than aspire to it. This polarised reaction is typical of heavily marketed products. It is true that some of the motivation to "bag" Krell is to make people that cannot afford it feel better about this fact, but it is not the only reason. If Krell was merely rubbish, this would not result in the emotional negative feelings about it. If Krell was merely rubbish, it would engender the same feelings as audiophiles have for Bose. The fact that many audiophiles have clearly not only aspired to Krell but also like it means that Krells must sound OK too. If I was Krell, I would be pretty happy about the polarised response - far better that than a luke-warm one.

Thanks Cornfedboy. My impression is that people object to the "character" of Krells as opposed to their quality (the latter being more obviously the case with of Bose), but the distinction may be difficult to maintain. I am actually more a fan for Alfa than I am for BMW (again for character reasons, not for quality) - but it is hard to fault Rolexes on any level except perhaps their bulk (we are talking character again). But I do not have your level of experience with Krell and so bow to your superior knowledge on this point.

Hi Sedond and Jim. Three Alfas is truly impressive and am humbled with only two. My days of being my own mechanic in order to be able to afford commuting while indulging my eccentric taste in sports cars, are over. So I stick to the newer stuff, a 166 and a 156, between me and my wife - she was actually the one that led me towards Alfa and away from the 2-seaters that I used to have.

And I would like that Spyder. Sometimes I think the most thrilling auditory event is opening the throttle on the Alfa at about 90mph.