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Am I mad to be considering a 80kg Krell monster (fbp600)?

E

eartoday

New Member
Hi All

I have a pair of Tannoy D700's that are currently mated to a Berning ZH270. Its a 70 watt tube hybrid amp. Very occasionally I get the some crackling from the speakers which could be clipping?

Anyway Ive always hankered after a Krell muscle amp and there is a lovely FBP600 power ampfor sale on Ebay at the moment. However it weighs 80kg which is quite frankly bloody ridiculous and totally impractical as it would need to be shuffled around a bit. Compare it to the latest class D power amps from the likes of Nord and the krell seems like an absurd retrograde step.

Am I mad to be considering buying this monster? I dont even play my music particularly loudly..
 
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No, no NO! your are not mad...... You are very, very fortunate. Everyone should own a big Krell once in their audiophile lives..... In my opinion and (very limited) experience, class D has some way to go before it equals the glorious sound you will get from a Krell FPB amp. Good luck, mind your back and enjoy.
 
Go for it, only one innings, leave it too long and shuffling it might be off the menu.

Check service history cos it might need a service?
 
I don’t know that model, but I do know the KSA100 and be warned it spins the electric meter real fast! Like running a really big bar fire or oven, so expect your bills to be a lot higher if using it for long periods! Personally I’d only ever consider such an amp if I liked really obnoxious inefficient speakers. If you want a taste of class A I’d go for a far smaller Sugden or whatever given you have efficient easy to drive speakers. It seems pointless paying for 600 Watts and likely only using 3 of them!
 
The only downside of buying such an amplifier is that it will make you addicted to music.
A friend of mine repairs a lot of very high quality amps of all brands and each and every time I ask him what would be your ultimate one he always mention the big Krell’s and the vintage Redford STA 25.
 
eartoday said:
Anyway Ive always hankered after a Krell muscle amp and there is a lovely FBP600 power ampfor sale on Ebay at the moment. However it weighs 80kg which is quite frankly bloody ridiculous and totally impractical as it would need to be shuffled around a bit.

Am I mad to be considering buying this monster? I dont even play my music particularly loudly..
Click to expand...

If you pick to chase your dreams, no you are not mad. As some have suggested, you only live once. You don't need to play your music particularly loud to appreciate the big power amps. They actually bring more benefit with low to moderate volume listening. Generally, music will sound more at ease and full at lower volumes as you will find it unnecessary to turn the volume up to hear all the detail. In other words, your will find low level listening more enjoyable.

A word of caution with the big Krell amps. I am not sure if this is applicable to all the amps though. A friend who used to own a Krell FPB 400 encountered an issue with caps leakage and that destroyed some other parts when it happened. Long-term reliability remains a question mark. As the repair is quite costly, he upgraded the Krell to a German amp to avoid the hassle of another bout of misfortune. He cited improvement in sound quality when he upgraded the FPB 400.
 
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I used to own a KSA150 and a KSA-200S. Both sounded very good (the 150 better than the 200), but both were too much hassle to keep due to the excessive heat, high electric bills, and the inconvenience of a big, heavy, hot thing in the middle of the room.
Nowadays, I’m very happy with a Peachtree amp500, which has better transients than the Krell, an equally good midrange and high end, and is competitive in the bass (I do give Krell the nod as far as the bass goes.). It runs much cooler and is a reasonable weight (and cost). In the bedroom I don’t need high power and I use a Sony TA-A1ES, which is quasi-class A and actually sounds better than the Krells in every respect (in a bedroom).
So I think there are better alternatives than Krell which are much easier to buy and own. The Krells also are an unacceptable environmental problem as well, due to their unnecessarily high electric utilization and excess shipping weight.
 
Brucedgoose made some valid points and I'd agree. It is a matter of preference and similarly I avoid big and heavy amps which I am unable to single-handedly carry. The heaviest amp I've owned is 37kg and that's about the limit for me. The amp which I currently own weighs 28.5kg and it's a lot more desirable in both practicality and sound quality.

Although the weight of the amp may not be an issue, putting potential reliability issues aside the excessive heat and high electricity bills are other valid considerations. Sometimes it is prudent to take all aspects into consideration although one may be chasing the dream. After attaining the dream, there is possibility of an opt out due to the aforementioned reasons. Lol
 
eartoday said:
Hi All

I have a pair of Tannoy D700's that are currently mated to a Berning ZH270. Its a 70 watt tube hybrid amp. Very occasionally I get the some crackling from the speakers which could be clipping?

Anyway Ive always hankered after a Krell muscle amp and there is a lovely FBP600 power ampfor sale on Ebay at the moment. However it weighs 80kg which is quite frankly bloody ridiculous and totally impractical as it would need to be shuffled around a bit. Compare it to the latest class D power amps from the likes of Nord and the krell seems like an absurd retrograde step.

Am I mad to be considering buying this monster? I dont even play my music particularly loudly..
Click to expand...

It sounds to me that you’ve got some sort of electrical problem with your present amp setup, and I’d look at this first.

The weight of the Krell is not really an issue, you will learn to live with it, you won’t move it often.

Krell’s reputation was built on Class A amps. Is this a class A/B amp? If I were you I would not buy it on the basis of Krell’s reputation, even the Class A models weren’t all received with enthusiasm, only some. I would listen first in your system.

The amp sounds like it’s full of unusual technical ideas, and so may be hard to service. I would investigate this before buying.

Details here


https://www.krellhifi.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Krell_FPB_CAST_SERIES_Owners_Reference.pdf
 
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Tony L said:
I don’t know that model, but I do know the KSA100 and be warned it spins the electric meter real fast! Like running a really big bar fire or oven, so expect your bills to be a lot higher if using it for long periods! Personally I’d only ever consider such an amp if I liked really obnoxious inefficient speakers. If you want a taste of class A I’d go for a far smaller Sugden or whatever given you have efficient easy to drive speakers. It seems pointless paying for 600 Watts and likely only using 3 of them!
Click to expand...

What did you think of the 100? I have an agreed purchase on one to be picked up after lockdown. Looks in great original condition and innards look untouched.
 
ryder said:
A word of caution with the big Krell amps. I am not sure if this is applicable to all the amps though. A friend who used to own a Krell FPB 400 encountered an issue with caps leakage and that destroyed some other parts when it happened. Long-term reliability remains a question mark. As the repair is quite costly, he upgraded the Krell to a German amp to avoid the hassle of another bout of misfortune. He cited improvement in sound quality when he upgraded the FPB 400.
Click to expand...

This.
I had a pair of FPB250M’s a few years ago. They belonged to a friend of mine who was a HiFi engineer and he wouldn’t have any other amp. They were superb, better sounding and not power hungry like the old fully Class A amps.
They will be 25-30 years old so it must have been serviced or factor in £500 to get it right. Apparently they’re very time consuming to service. I’m not sure if the details but he used to service it every 10 years or so as if you don’t it leads to much bigger problems.
But you would need to spend an awful lot of money to better it with a modern amp....
 
If you not a head banger, there is no way that you are clipping your current amp when using Tannoys. 70W is a lot less than the Tannoys can handle and getting anywhere near that in a real room would aircraft takeoff levels of noise.

I would investigate the crackling. Borrow an amp for while and see if it is amp or speakers?
 
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