What ever happened to Krell ?

Hi,

I'm not a dealer for Krell (but I am for Dan D'Agostino), but we did get one of the big iBias monoblocs in trade once, and they were indeed quite good, way, way better than I thought they'd be. For the price, hard to beat!

That pair actually went to a local gentleman who upgraded from Pass XA100 monoblocs. The Krell had more body, more refinement, more everything. 

We do have a 2nd traded-in pair of Krell 575 monos, in the boxes, that I'll eventually get around to advertising here on Audiogon :)


cheers,
alex

Plutos...so many!  Levinson 39, 390s, 360s and 37 transport(if memory doesn't fail), Wadia 860, Krell Evo505, SACD STD, Cipher, Sony SCD-1, 777ES, 9000ES AND XA5400ES STOCK AND MODWRIGHTED.  BAT VK-D5SE also plus other lesser players from NAD, Yamaha and Denon.

Alpha...funny, I sold my FPB-300 and preamp after demoing the Vanguard in my system.  Couldn't believe it myself but it just sounded better to my ears!

Forgot to mention preamp was phantom II.

Krell is alive and well. The company certainly survived  some dark and challenging days but has rebounded in a significant way. Yes, they'll likely not ever return to making the "muscle machines" on which their reputation rested for so many years. But as a current and original owner of the FPB 300cx, still in possession of the KPS CD player and having enjoyed for years the iconic KCT stereo preamp, I'm happy to say I traded that preamp and sold it in favor of the new Foundation 4K. Without a doubt, having heard many, this is an AMAZING and solidly built machine that delivers absolutely fantastic sound and video and switches like nobody's business. I would challenge anyone to offer up a BETTER sounding prepro at this [reasonsble] price. In fact, one might have to spend 20-25k to get a machine that sounds as good as this glorious machine for about 7.5K 

hk_fan said
"I personally will never purchase a Krell product after what the current ownership did to Dan."

Some months ago on PBS (Public Broadcasting System) television in the USA, there was a show about start up companies. As they grow they need capital and get it from Venture capitalists. Generally in around 4 years the founder(s) is kicked out. The show highlighted companies like Cisco, Apple, although they did bring Jobs back, and others I can’t remember. One of the founders of the clothing store Banana Republic wrote a book about the early days, the investors, and then literally showing up one day and her access card not opening the gate.
Many of the founders do leave with a bunch of money. The Banana Republic founders got $5 million for a company that at the time was making many many times that amount each year-ad a zero and multiply by something.
It is not always a clear cut situation. Many of the founders, Tycho for example, go public but the founders still think all the assets are in their own checking account, and many founders do not know how to run a large company, or even behave like an adult--I will not mention a certain ride sharing company. The Tycho founder went to jail.
The Venture capitalist strategy is to invest in a lot of companies, loose on most and hope to make a killing on a few. Sometimes this means another option: killing the company to cut the their losses. There have been more than a few audio companies that that has happened to.
It is also true that founders tend to have a lot more heart, soul and creativity than capitalists. I remember when the change occurred at Banana Republic. Before most of their clothing was military surplus from around the world, odd quirky wonderful things with odd quirky wonderful store layouts. After the change the stores looked like any other clothing store with the usual racks and new clothing that was undistinguished from any other other store. Within a few years they were moribund. A decade or more later they were resurrected as a sort of high-end Gap (same owner).
End of rant.