Preamp for Krell 750mcx


Hi all,

Recent changes to my system have seen me acquiring some beautiful Krell 750mcx's - these are just wonderful amps driving my Maestro Utopias perfectly. The slightly dark tone and room filling ability is captivating and non fatiguing. The rest of my kit is a VPI classic 2 with various mods (sds power, stillpoints feet and clamp, PAB SE isolation platform) with a Benz Micro LP-S cartridge - this feeds BMC MCCI phono - I am getting a new cartridge as i know the high internal impedence is not good with the BMC. Digital is via jriver (DAC yet to be decided).

I am using a Rotel RC1570 preamp (the recent one) from my second system at the moment to tie me over and boy does it punch above its weight. Jriver via ifi ilink/iusb and BMC USB cable to stereolab reference spdif into the Rotel as the Rotel has onboard dac. Mains filtration is Isotek sigmas for phono and pre. Krells straight into wall. Speaker cabling from Tellurium q Ultra Black.

Now - I am wanting to acquire my final destination preamp as I feel like i am nearly there now. I am wanting increased depth of soundstage - it is already good in terms of width, but would like more depth. The Rotel is obviously also not allowing all the resolution through as proven when i borrowed a Mark Levinson the other day.

I want to keep the system fully balanced so fully balanced designs are only in consideration here. I am thinking of the following to audition:

1. Audio Research ref5se
2. Krell KCT or more recent
3. BMC DAC1 Pre

I would really appreciate any suggestions. I like resolution, speed, timbral accuracy, and deep/wide soundstaging. Not interested in overly rolled off / over warm stuff nor dry and clinical stuff either. For example, my old mcintosh c2300 was too syropy for me and Bryston bp26 was too clincal.

Many thanks,

Bill
c2300mc275
C2300mc275, Hi, congrats on a very fine set of mono Blocks, I own a newly remodded Krell 700cx, meaning krell completly renewed my amp, inside and out, with caps that was not available in 2005, I love the cosmetics and sound of these amps, I really do not believe they will become absolete sounding with in the next ten years, most solid state amps today are difficult to listen to over a couple of hours, fatigue settles in for sure, give me a reply here when you get a chance, not every day I talk to a fellow cx owner, cheers.
No, as I said, I have a real experience (owner) with the Evo-222 and the Phantom only.

Yes, I said also that the latest Krell top pre called Illusion is essentially the same design, lingering almost a decade, streching from the Evo-202 via Phantom to nowadays Illusion. I cannot give, of course, any technical elaboration overhere, however it is easy to check basic appearance, white papers, internal pictures, specifications etc. It is clearly visible that this is in fact the same preamplifier. Only palpable difference should be optional active crossover in both Phantom and Illusion only, not available at a time for the Evo-202.

It might be important, Illusion MSRP is a bit lower than Phantom, at 15000 vs 17500USD, respectively (due to clearly better casework in Phantom, I guess). Optional crossover was additional 2500 ie total 20000USD for Phantom, I would guess approx. the same extra money for Illusion x-over.
Hi Audiolabyrinth,

Nice to also meet a fellow monster Krell owner :)

I am in love with 750mcx's tbh - there are not many products out there that produce such an addictive yet potent sound using ss - most current uber ss state designs IMHO seem to lack a musicality that these fpbs have - they are truly special. I will be having mine recapped in due course but they were recently serviced by krell here in UK and have fine bill of health.

Not sure how and what Krell did drug this era but I personally don't like the 402e and 600e ranges - seemed too brittle for my tastes.

Anyway - enjoy.
Given the Kell has

-Input Impedance 100 kohms
-Input Sensitivity 3.71 Vrms

Hi Bill

Any preamp you like the sound of will run happily into this 100kohm load

Unfortunately passive pre are not on the list, while they would love the 100kohm input as well, the low sensitvity of 3.71v (normal is lower than 2v)is not as good and will only work if the source has 3.5v or higher output.

Cheers George