Opinions on Krell KAV300i

geppy1

Has anybody owned a Krell KAV 300i? It seems many say they are a great integrated while others find them aggressive and bright. Obviously system dependent but but wondering Thanks

TroyD

I had one....I found a tad harsh in the treble for my tastes but that’s just me. Not a bad amp though....just not for me.

BDT

ZLTFUL

The Krell sound tends to be a bit "sterile" for my tastes. Certain speakers sound good with them but they are also inherently mellow sounding designs.
Some people like them...dare I say, those that do, love them. But my time with Krell was never really satisfying to me.

mantis

I never owned one but I have installed many of them way back in the day. We usually mated it with a nice pair of B&W CDM9nt's or you would find a design with a pair of Dynaudio Audience 72's. These where usually considered the budget entry level Krell model. Nonetheless they where great. I never noticed them being bright or shrill but clean or neutral. You could really run any pair of speakers off it and they usually all sounded good. We had 24 showrooms in our store and krell took a good part of the first 12 rooms. This little bad boy we would try different speakers on it to see how it would handle them. We where in the showroom one night and hand trucking in the stupid crazy Dunlavy's which where huge and hard to drive. The little Krell powered them to stupid volume levels and dynamic as hell.
It was a go to which we sold way more of then the Rotel RX which where even more affordable. I think the krell was around $2k when new or somewhere around there. The Rotel was around $1k and there was no competition the Krell out classed the Rotel in every way.
What are they going for these days? If you can get a good deal on one I say get it and give it a run. You might find it to be exactly what your after.

pkquat

As everyone else said, it is a very clean sounding amp. It could be considered a bit harsh. The bass is very strong and impactful. It has an HT Bypass option with internal jumpers. It also has balanced in and out which is a nice feature.

I found 2 semi negatives. There is crosstalk between unbalanced inputs, meaning if you leave a source on and switch to another source, you will still hear a little bit of the other source. This is as designed to limit added circuitry that would degrade the sound, so they say. It is rare two sources would be playing, so not really an issue in the end. I am not sure if this is true for the balanced inputs.

IMO the amp doesn't have much headroom when pushed. At higher volumes. The bass losses some impact and the highs loose clarity pretty fast, and then upper end distortion starts. My Hafler DH-220 (115W) and Parasound A23 (125W) do better when pushed, though the Hafler is not as clear to start, and the lack of clarity may blur its distortion point. At normal volumes it is on par with the A23.

geppy1

Picked one up locally for a decent price Comparing it to a MH A 70 The Krell sure has more of a live feel to it I also found using my VH audio flavor 4 power cord put it on the edge but using a flavor two with furetch ends sounds really good More to come

rooftop59

geppy1 wrote: »

Picked one up locally for a decent price Comparing it to a MH A 70 The Krell sure has more of a live feel to it I also found using my VH audio flavor 4 power cord put it on the edge but using a flavor two with furetch ends sounds really good More to come

What source and speakers are you using?

jbreezy5

I listened to a Krell 400xi (I think that was the model number; someone correct me if wrong) hooked up to Dynaudio Audience 82 floorstanders (dual 8” drivers) which I still own.

The Krell had the tightest most delineated bass I’ve ever heard, with real slam and drive; that, however, carried up to the midrange and treble resulting in a rather forward, dry and bleached sound to my ears.

Dyn’s are generally considered a warmer, darker sounding speaker, so a Krell is a logical match; still, this was too far in the other direction for my taste.

What I would love is Krell amplification on subs, though. Man, that bass!