Got my Krell KSA300s amp - she's a BIG beauty!

[gordonmenninger]

I drove to Erie, PA yesterday and met the seller of the Krell amp (KSA 300s). This amp has been completely recapped and serviced by a Krell Technician less than 8 months ago so it basically is as new!
Luckily he had it packaged in a flightcase and it took 2 of us strong guys to lift it out of his trunk and into my mercedes SUV. Man that beast is one heavy s.o.b.! It took up most of my trunkspace.
Getting it into my house in torrential rain was another experience. Of course I did not have my dolly at my house and my listening room is in my walk out basement. Long story short - I ended up pulling up my golf cart and driving the amp on the golf cart to the door of my basement and drug it about 30 feet to its final resting place!
This amp will be replacing my Sunfire Cinema Grand that I have been using these past years with good results. (I am selling it now so if anyone is interested, let me know!)
After hooking everything up and turning on some tunes on my squeezebox I marveled at the amout of bass my SL3's now put out (as I changed them to full range to test them out) without both of my JL Fathom subs on! It was pretty astonishing - they always say that the Krell amps are supposed to have very nice bass and this was certainly true! Something was lacking though - the high frequency was about 80% missing and I was getting a bit worried... After about 10 minutes I realized that I had my SL3's unplugged while I was changing around speaker cables, etc! What a relief!

The KSA300s sounds absolutely stunning on my Martin Logans - I had been using a Behringer DEQ24/96 eq on my 2 front speakers but decided I would not hook it up with the Krell... After all levels were calibrated there was not need for the EQ at all. The sound is crystal clear with an amazing soundstage that envelops the whole listening room, and I ended up staying up until 230 am listening to my music collection. One thing I noticed was the absence of listener fatigue - previously after about 45 minutes I would get a bit of a headache - not so with the Krell! This upgrade was definitely worth it, and I am also glad that I ran a dedicated 20 amp line last week just for the Krell amp. This thing gets very hot for sure when you are listening at moderate levels! Now I will just have to find something cool to sit this beast on so it is off the carpet.
Sorry for the bad quality pics but you get the idea!:rocker:

 

[gordonmenninger]

one more pic. BTW what is the max filesize i can upload? My nikon's images will not load for some reason...

 

[Gordon Gray]

Hi Gordon,

Second putting amp on something versus the carpet. You might want to consider an amp stand. Glad you like the Krell.

Lack of listening fatigue is definitely a positive.

GG

 

[TomDac]

Congrats on the new amp. Enjoy discovering your music collection again!!

 

[tsv_1]

Congrats Gordon... a labor of love getting that monster home, aye? Enjoy the awesomeness!

BTW, when uploading pics, this site will auto-downscale... but if your jpegs are big (e.g. MB range), it will take a good long time for the processing - at least in my experience. If you shrink your pics to 50K to 100K before hand, they will upload pretty quickly.

 

[timm]

Congrats!! Always nicE to hear when people get the results you got. Can you discuss a direct comparison with the sunfire? I presume you do not have the signature version. Also- did you have the sunfire in a bi-amp configuration? Just curious of the diffs since I own a sunfire signature and am using 4 channels to push my odysseys.

 

[Krazikiwi]

V8 Muscle

Hi Gordon,

This should keep your house heated in winter! The bass delivery of Krells was always a respected aspect of their design, pure control with current delivery to boot.

Which make of cables do you use going in and out of the Krell? Balanced on the signal side?

Enquiring minds want to know

Jeff

 

[Dan Osib]

i drove to erie, pa yesterday and met the seller of the krell amp (ksa 300s). This amp has been completely recapped and serviced by a krell technician less than 8 months ago so it basically is as new!
Luckily he had it packaged in a flightcase and it took 2 of us strong guys to lift it out of his trunk and into my mercedes suv. Man that beast is one heavy s.o.b.! It took up most of my trunkspace.
Getting it into my house in torrential rain was another experience. Of course i did not have my dolly at my house and my listening room is in my walk out basement. Long story short - i ended up pulling up my golf cart and driving the amp on the golf cart to the door of my basement and drug it about 30 feet to its final resting place!
This amp will be replacing my sunfire cinema grand that i have been using these past years with good results. (i am selling it now so if anyone is interested, let me know!)
after hooking everything up and turning on some tunes on my squeezebox i marveled at the amout of bass my sl3's now put out (as i changed them to full range to test them out) without both of my jl fathom subs on! It was pretty astonishing - they always say that the krell amps are supposed to have very nice bass and this was certainly true! Something was lacking though - the high frequency was about 80% missing and i was getting a bit worried... After about 10 minutes i realized that i had my sl3's unplugged while i was changing around speaker cables, etc! What a relief!

The ksa300s sounds absolutely stunning on my martin logans - i had been using a behringer deq24/96 eq on my 2 front speakers but decided i would not hook it up with the krell... After all levels were calibrated there was not need for the eq at all. The sound is crystal clear with an amazing soundstage that envelops the whole listening room, and i ended up staying up until 230 am listening to my music collection. One thing i noticed was the absence of listener fatigue - previously after about 45 minutes i would get a bit of a headache - not so with the krell! This upgrade was definitely worth it, and i am also glad that i ran a dedicated 20 amp line last week just for the krell amp. This thing gets very hot for sure when you are listening at moderate levels! Now i will just have to find something cool to sit this beast on so it is off the carpet.
Sorry for the bad quality pics but you get the idea!:rocker:

that's one serious looking piece of kit for sure. Now it's just a case of partnering it with a worthy preamp that's up at the same level that it is.

 

[repman]

Hi Gordon , congrats on the new amp it looks like a serious piece.

I had a sunfire cinema grand bi-amped on my sequel II I now have them paired with a CJ tube amp and I know what you mean by a startling difference .

Enjoy re listening to all of your music with the new amp.

 

[User211]

What are you using as a pre wth it? Just curious...

Enjoy. You seem pleased and that's what counts.

 

[churchill]

Congrats on the new beast Gordon!

 

[gordonmenninger]

Congrats!! Always nicE to hear when people get the results you got. Can you discuss a direct comparison with the sunfire? I presume you do not have the signature version. Also- did you have the sunfire in a bi-amp configuration? Just curious of the diffs since I own a sunfire signature and am using 4 channels to push my odysseys.

I did not have the Signature version - I just had the normal 5x200w cinema grand. Yes, i used 2 amp channels for each speaker to bi-amp the SL3's and used the 5th channel for the center channel. I have to say that the Sunfire really held it's own as well and got me there about 75%. At loud volumes the Sunfire would just sort of blend all the higher frequencies together whereas the Krell keeps everything in better focus and vocals and highs stay crystal clear and spot on... My SL3's also really had no bass at all when I switched over to full range, whereas the Krell had very good bass and I literally had to check my JL subs to make sure I really turned them off! No it did play loud into the lowest octaves, but it was alot better than I had ever experienced with the Sunfire.

Also one of the biggest differences I noticed was the lack of listener fatigue. The music with the Krell semms to have alot less distortion at higher listening levels, and with the Sunfire I used to get a bit of a headache and my ears hurt after about 30 minutes... not so with the KSA 300s. I can listen for couple of hours and everything is totally fine.

Another interesting thing to note was that with the sunfire amp, the SL3's sounded pretty flat and rolled off severely in the treble region... after alot of research i had decided to buy the Behringer DEQ 24/96 eq which re-equalized the 2 front speakers and boosted some and reduced other frequencies. Before the Behringer there was a sort of lack of "Sparkle" to the music. Afterward it was better but now I realize that it may have also added alot of other things detrimental to the sound. When I hooked up the Krell I decided not to use this $300 piece of equipment. I absolutey do not need it now - the Krells had a very nice sound in the higher frequencies and I feel nothing is missing there now! Also note that the front of my 18x38' listenign room (basement) is treted with 2 x 6' thick floor to ceiling Bass Traps in the corners behind the LR speakers, and absorbtive panel behind the center channel (Theater i) and various other absorptive panels to the side and other spots in the room. I would not say the room sounds "dead" but it is well treated.
I am still trying to figure out the whole "Bias level" thing with this amp, and it does run VERY hot. I used my laser thermometer after playing it at loud volumes for a while, and the temps of the heatsinks were between 140 and 155 degrees! It gets so hot that you cannot touch the heatsinks.

 

[gordonmenninger]

Hi Gordon,

This should keep your house heated in winter! The bass delivery of Krells was always a respected aspect of their design, pure control with current delivery to boot.

Which make of cables do you use going in and out of the Krell? Balanced on the signal side?

Enquiring minds want to know

Jeff

Yes you are correct - my basement is usually on the cooler sided in winter so this new "heater" should make a nice addition! Yes the bass is amazing with this amp for sure! Yes I am using Balanced XLR cables that I bought at my local guitar center because I did not want to wait to order any online! I am using Monster Prolink Performance 500 interconnects, a Shunyata Venom power cable that I bought for $40 at a dealer in Columbus on closeout, and an entry level Straight Wire speaker cable that I am bi wiring the SL3's with now. I will eventually buy a nicer set of speaker cables now that my amp is very close to my speakers and I really only need a 12' pair with spades (any suggestions??)
For some reason the Shunyata power cable does not fit that well in the back of this amp - the connection does not seem that solid and if i wilggle the cord it will become unplugged or turn off the amp... Still trying to figure that one out ...

 

[gordonmenninger]

What are you using as a pre wth it? Just curious...

Enjoy. You seem pleased and that's what counts.

I am using my Krell S1200 u processor as my preamp and it works great! I usually listen in Stereo mode when listening to music and sometimes also the Pro Logic Music mode with the center in phantom mode. I am streaming my music through my Squeezebox music server and using the ipeng app on my ipad2 as the user interface for selecting my music - this works great and I highly recommend anyone that has an iphone or better yet an ipad to get this app with Squeezebox!

 

[gordonmenninger]

amp stand

One thing I have to address is the amp placement. Right now it is sitting directly on the berber carpet over concrete (on top of 4 plastic disks that i used to slide the amp into position). There is really hardly any space between the carpet and the bottom of the amp. I don't know if there are any holes on the bottom of the amp to aid in cooling or not... I am not sure if this is important for cooling issues or not but as I have noted, the amp does run very hot and it has even shut down a couple of time after an extended listening session. What are your recommendations to use for an amp stand or something to get this amp on a somewhat level surface?

 

[gordonmenninger]

"matching" 3 channel amp??

I am selling my Sunfire Cinema Grand and would like to buy a used 3 channel amp for center and rear speakers that matches somewhat sonically with the Krell amp. Does anyone have any suggestions? Was looking at KAV 250 / A3 amp.

thanks!

 

[Gordon Gray]

Gordon,

Lots of amp stand choices. Check out the usual websites for information.

Having a Pass Labs 250.5, which also runs quite warm (I assume the Krell is running in Class A mode), providing adequate space on all sides is key to ensuring that the amp doesn't overheat. It will also help with the long term operation / life of the beast.

GG

 

[Krazikiwi]

One thing I have to address is the amp placement. Right now it is sitting directly on the berber carpet over concrete (on top of 4 plastic disks that i used to slide the amp into position). There is really hardly any space between the carpet and the bottom of the amp. I don't know if there are any holes on the bottom of the amp to aid in cooling or not... I am not sure if this is important for cooling issues or not but as I have noted, the amp does run very hot and it has even shut down a couple of time after an extended listening session. What are your recommendations to use for an amp stand or something to get this amp on a somewhat level surface?

I use the same granite that custom kitchen installers use for bench tops. Black suits me and you stand a good chance of getting an off cut cheaply. I use it under speakers as well but with spikes you should be able to get through the carpet to the concrete.

My 5c worth

 

[Statman]

Whatever you do please get the amp off of the floor immediately! It needs circulating air and I'd bet if there are vents on the top of the amp there are vents on the bottom also. Trust me when I say this and that is you're flirting with disaster getting your carpet heated and possibly starting a fire.I would hate to see the look on your face when it cooks something from overheating it's circuits. Good luck, the granite works well as suggested.Try google and amp stands with your model designation.

 

[User211]

Over here you can buy granite chopping boards from kitchen tool suppliers very cheaply indeed. That's what I have under my amps. Works well, looks good.