Will my Krell drive a 2 ohm load?


Apologies for posting the question twice.  I realize the title of my first post was maybe too limiting.  The forum software won’t let me edit it.

i’ll be using my Krell KAV-250a to drive my Magnepan 3.3r bass panels in an active biamp setup along with a pair of DWM bass panels.  Together they’ll present a 2 ohm impedance load to the Krell.  Can the Krell handle that?
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Showing 5 responses by jji666

thanks for your opinions!  I have 2 REL subs in this system already. The DWMs are supposed to augment higher frequencies than the subs.
Thanks to all for the input.  I'm looking for a second one to drive the DWMs.  
Yes I’m interested in seeing what improvements might occur with the bass panels from the 20 series technology supplementing my 3 series Magnepans. I am not presently starved for bass. I love the sound of the bi-amped maggies and REL subs. But I am wondering if there is additional mid-high bass detail I could add without bloating the system. What I’d really like to do is run all 4 channels of the 2 DWM bass panels (probably at a very low volume per each panel), which causes me to consider doing this through a multi-channel amp rather than in parallel.

But of course that begs the question about how to get each bass signal from the active crossover multiplied by 3 to each amp input, and to be able to manage the gain for each input. It’s gonna look like someone’s pro-audio desk.

I didn’t realize the rabbit hole I’d jumped into when I bought those DWMs...

I also have a Classe CA-200.  I think that will handle a 2 ohm load but again not sure how well.  That would put the Krell running the mid/tweeter with the Classe on the woofers.  
I did hook it up.  

Well, actually, I swapped out the bass and mid/treble in the biamping setup first, so that my Classe CA-200 was on the bass and the Krell KAV 250a was on mid/treble duty. The Classe is rated down to 2 ohms although it doesn't double into it. 

Without the DWM's resistors, it sounded horrible.  The Classe lost all control of the bass and it was just one big boom, no matter the level set on the crossover.  

Add the resistors and it is an entirely different story.  Much of the clarity of the bass is restored and the speakers just sound a little "thicker" and weightier.  The bass panels are not screaming, just adding a little oomph. Still needs work, some tweaking, perhaps separate amplification and full range input (bypass the active crossover) for the DWMs, but I can see that this has some potential for an improvement in the Maggie experience.

The Classe has been playing for an hour now and isn't hot...
Update:  been playing at low volumes for many hours now. Classe is still not hot (cooler than the Krell, actually) and my ears are adjusting to the slightly stronger bass.  

This needs to be better integrated and dialed in.  There's work to do.  But it appears that adding the DWMs is a worthy endeavor.  At least as a fun test.