My KSA-250 arrived back at Krell on 3 May 2012 at their shipping expense in order to chase down the evil hum demon that still possesses it. And I say still possessing it because Krell has been unable to solve the problem so far.
The first story they told me was that they could hear a very low-level hum with no inputs connected but as soon as they plugged in a preamp to it the hum went away. The next story I was told was that the tech had found a problem with one of the inputs that was causing both inputs to hum and he fixed that problem. The latest story I was told was that they can now hear a low-level hum from both channels even with a preamp connected which is what I heard all along and the reason why I sent it back.
I had sold this amp on Audiogon with the understanding the amp was at Krell to be gone over and issued a clean bill of health and it would be shipped from Krell to the new owner. The guy who bought it had paid me in full. I talked the guy out of buying the amp from me because of how long this was taking and I refunded his money. I don’t feel comfortable that Krell is ever going to solve this problem and I didn’t feel comfortable hanging on to this guy’s money any longer.
I’m also hoping that Krell will fix this amp because I would love to hear it again. Even though the hum drove me nuts (no SS amp should be setting the noise floor for your system), I know this amp is something special. As good as the ARC VS115 is (and it is without a doubt the finest sounding ARC amp I have ever owned), it doesn’t have the power and majesty of the Krell. Although I think the VS115/KT-120 combo sets new standards for tube bass, it can’t come close to projecting the power of the bass and mid-bass that the Krell energizes your room with.
The other thing I find a bit odd given the commonly accepted wisdom of how tubes somehow make voices sound more realistic than SS is that I don’t find it to be so when comparing the VS115 against the KSA-250. Now I have to rely on my aural memory which some people feel can’t be trusted because some of these people can’t trust their ears in real-time. But I can tell you this, I absolutely trust my memory of how the Krell made voices sound and I can still conjure up the sound in my mind quite easily. I will give you an example. Kurt Elling when singing “Joe’s Bar” sounds like he is standing in the room with you through the Krell. His voice is fully fleshed out and it just sounds real. Fast forward to the same song through the VS115 and now it sounds like Kurt caught a cold and a large part of the bottom register of his voice is now MIA. And that part that is missing is the part that really helped make him sound like he was standing in the room with you. For me, I would prefer to hear voices sound like you can hear the singing coming from the diaphragm and not someone singing through their nose.
The bottom line is that I’m rooting for Krell to fix this amp. It has now been six weeks and counting since they have had the amp. In all fairness, they didn’t even start on the amp until a couple of weeks ago due to their backlog of work. But still…
The first story they told me was that they could hear a very low-level hum with no inputs connected but as soon as they plugged in a preamp to it the hum went away. The next story I was told was that the tech had found a problem with one of the inputs that was causing both inputs to hum and he fixed that problem. The latest story I was told was that they can now hear a low-level hum from both channels even with a preamp connected which is what I heard all along and the reason why I sent it back.
I had sold this amp on Audiogon with the understanding the amp was at Krell to be gone over and issued a clean bill of health and it would be shipped from Krell to the new owner. The guy who bought it had paid me in full. I talked the guy out of buying the amp from me because of how long this was taking and I refunded his money. I don’t feel comfortable that Krell is ever going to solve this problem and I didn’t feel comfortable hanging on to this guy’s money any longer.
I’m also hoping that Krell will fix this amp because I would love to hear it again. Even though the hum drove me nuts (no SS amp should be setting the noise floor for your system), I know this amp is something special. As good as the ARC VS115 is (and it is without a doubt the finest sounding ARC amp I have ever owned), it doesn’t have the power and majesty of the Krell. Although I think the VS115/KT-120 combo sets new standards for tube bass, it can’t come close to projecting the power of the bass and mid-bass that the Krell energizes your room with.
The other thing I find a bit odd given the commonly accepted wisdom of how tubes somehow make voices sound more realistic than SS is that I don’t find it to be so when comparing the VS115 against the KSA-250. Now I have to rely on my aural memory which some people feel can’t be trusted because some of these people can’t trust their ears in real-time. But I can tell you this, I absolutely trust my memory of how the Krell made voices sound and I can still conjure up the sound in my mind quite easily. I will give you an example. Kurt Elling when singing “Joe’s Bar” sounds like he is standing in the room with you through the Krell. His voice is fully fleshed out and it just sounds real. Fast forward to the same song through the VS115 and now it sounds like Kurt caught a cold and a large part of the bottom register of his voice is now MIA. And that part that is missing is the part that really helped make him sound like he was standing in the room with you. For me, I would prefer to hear voices sound like you can hear the singing coming from the diaphragm and not someone singing through their nose.
The bottom line is that I’m rooting for Krell to fix this amp. It has now been six weeks and counting since they have had the amp. In all fairness, they didn’t even start on the amp until a couple of weeks ago due to their backlog of work. But still…
