Old Krell vs new Krell amps...


Hello,
I actually have to choose between differents Krell amps, for roughly the same price :
a pair of Krell Audio Standard (KAS)
a Krell Evo 302
and for half the price a pair of KAS-2 amps

How do they compare, in terms of sound ?
The KAS is a legend, but is it actually still a good choice ? Its fiability is good ? The KAS is really better than the KAS-2 ?
And, what about the new Evo amps ? Are they better than the KAS or the FPB amps ?
My speakers are easy to drive : Tannoy GRF, but I may swap to big TAD or JBL...
I can't compare those amps directly because they are sold in different(and very far from each others) shops.
Thanks a lot for all informations and advices.
Best Regards,
nico_g

Showing 1 response by purcell_fr

Fjmcsu, just wondering what speakers you drive with your KAS.
I am considering buying a pair of them and would need some guidance:
They are meant to be really good at driving very low efficiency and/or very low impedance speakers.
At the same time, many people consider the KAS to be fundamentally more musical than many other (and more recent) Krell designs.
The question is whether it's worth going for KAS if you don't have such load issues. I have a pair of JM Lab Utopias. They are not as hard to drive as the famous Apogee speakers (which made the KAS very famous as they were hard to drive with anything else), and they have decent sensitivity. They just need top quality amplification because they are very transparent, to be thightly controlled and some current.
The KAS will most likely drive them across the first 2-3 steps of the 5 stage bias system (ie I will never need more than 125W I think, most of the time even below 50W (Level 2).
Does it make sense to go for the KAS with a pure musicality objective in mind if you don't need all that power?
Moreover, does the KAS perform as well at low power than at higher power? You could argue that on the first couple of bias levels it is so cold that you'd wonder if the various components operate at their nominal temperature...
I currently have a KSA-150 (for ages). It has way enough power for my system and it took me a looong time to consider switching. Do you think I am going to experience a significant sonic improvement by switching to KAS?

Thanks,