2. digital
  3. 1218091841

Krell SACD, DVD Standard, Showcase, KAV 280CD

I recently purchased a Krell 400xi and some Focal Be Micro's. I really like the sound of the amp and speakers, but I need to replace my current source. (I'm using a Sony DVD to feed my Benchmark DAC 1, but that leaves me without a headphone system for my desk.)

I usually do about 75% music and 25% video. Ideally I would like a DVD unit, but I'm not sure how well they will reproduce audio. I have read about every review out there and am still undecided.

Since I want to stick with Krell, I'm looking at the SACD, DVD Standard, Showcase DVD, and KAV280cd. Obviously the SACD and 280 won't play DVD's, but are they worth the money to only play CD's as I don't have any SACD's? The DVD standard and showcase prices are decent, but can they play CD's as well as a dedicated cd player? Another thing is the Showcase can be upgraded to HDMI with upsampling and to the best of my knowledge, the DVD standard can't.

Any insight will be appreciated.
gherrera1

Showing 3 responses by ckoffend

ckoffend
684 posts
 
Krell makes great products! But I am not so sold on their disc players in terms of both best performance and reliability. Several of the products you have listed have known reliability issues. Additionally, there are numerous versions of several of these products as well, mostly updates due to problems with the prior release. So buying used takes a good understanding of which units are at risk for what failures. I am not a Krell basher, I own a FPB 300-C amp and the latest model HTS 7.1.
ckoffend
684 posts
 
The DVD standards have transport failure issues and you should be cautious as to which version you purchase. You should perform additional searches for forums on Krell disc players, there are a couple of forums that very clearly outline which units have which specific failures.

As to Krell supporting these disc drives, sure they will support them, but spending $2800 - $4500 to be forced to update it because they are no longer using the previous transport mechanism or laser assembly, is that really supporting a past product? I guess, because you end up with a "more current" version of the product.

Look, I love Krell amps, but proceed with caution and much research on their drives. I was at a friends house on Saturday and his $25,000 Krell CD player broke. Nothing major, just a very small little metal pin. Estimated repair cost by Krell: $500 + two way shipping. Local machine shop repair cost to drill out the broken off end of the pin and replace it with a new pin (machined from scratch) = $100.

Just be careful and do your research. Soundwise, the SACD standard (3 versions now I believe) and DVD standard (4 versions now I believe) both sound very good, not the best, but very good nonetheless. You can get better reliability and sound with either an Esoteric or evena Wadia (just to name 2).
ckoffend
684 posts
 
Jussy, not being much of a video guy myself, I have refused to spend the big bucks on the "high-end" DVD players. I have gone the Oppo route and feel that they are quite good - certainly good enough for my viewing needs. I am such an un-video guy, I actually got rid of my cable earlier this year. I have three 40-50" plasmas in my house and don't even have cable. Sorry to hear about your Krell.
More to discover