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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
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.
sunset_ranch
17 posts
 
I would pass on the KAV-280cd based on age (too old now), plus the Showcase DVD sounds nearly identical on CD and you pick-up DVD. The SACD Standard (any version) is the best CD Player of the bunch, with the DVD Standard as a close second. Both are built like Tanks, and Krell fully supports both in or out of warranty. The decision between these 2 machines will come down to: do you own more DVDs than SACDs? I've owned them all in combination with the KAV-400xi. XLR ICs are a must with this group.
gherrera1 OP
88 posts
 
I came to the same conclusion as Sunset_ranch and out of the four I eliminated the 280CD and Showcase DVD. I was debating between the SACD and DVD standard and it's more of an availability thing now. I understand the SACD sounds wonderful on CD's, but I don't own any SACD's. I guess it's a matter of how close the DVD standard comes to the sound of the SACD standard. I have a couple leads on both an SACD and DVD standard so the one that comes thru first is the one I'll use and go from there.

My setup uses a balanced power transformer with Nordost Shiva power cords for the 400xi and DAC1 (soon to be DVD or SACD standard). Nordost Quattro Fil XLR interconnects and Red Dawn shotgun speaker cable.
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