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

[Brucedgoose]

Like muscle cars.

 

[Gervais Cote]

And wood stoves.

 

[sq225917]

Ksa 50 or 100, or 200 mk1 the rest are all imposters.

 

[Ali T]

Where from, Ali? I've seen a 100 and 200 on sale in the past few weeks.

As I've been considering a class A s/s amp to either replace my EAR mono's or have as a stand-by, lots of suggestions and possibilities have come up, incl. the Quad 405/2, which, although not class A, is cheap used and would suit my big ESLs. Jez is a Krell aficionado, but so are others, and reading comments about these (and having them come up locally on occasion), my appetite is whetted.

Which Krells (of 100 w.p.c. or under) are the recommended ones (for Quad 2905 ESLs, which could cope with 50+ w.p.c., I guess). I have the 912 active EAR pre, which shunts out 5V to a power amp.

Another contender I've found would be the Mark Levison (Madrigal era) nineties models; not dissimilar to Krells in many ways, I read

It’s in Aylesbury Mike. Haven’t heard any, but from my readings I’d agree with Simon on the best ones.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

KSA50 or 100 MkI. Not the 200. It's very good but not quite as good as the smaller ones.

 

[heihei]

Do it by all means, but just don't sell the Bernings - his amps are v special

 

[ducatiman]

Having owned a nice KSA50 paired with an Arc SP9 and a pair of strapped Berning Zh270’s used with Tannoy Glenairs I personally preferred a single Berning.
Imho there is no way the Berning is clipping unless your listening at ridiculously high spl in a barn sized building, you need to get your Berning checked out before blowing 4.5k chasing the rainbow

 

[wow&flutter]

You will enjoy turning it on. Mine feels a bit like you’re turning on a nuclear power station, and yours is twice as big.

I’d imagine it to be like turning on an old electric welder I used forty years ago. I suspect they had similar amounts of copper in them as well! Mind you it was only 40 odd kilos from memory!

 

[sq225917]

Every time I switched the ksa 200 It felt like dicing with death, even with its big ole soft start board.

 

[ducatiman]

Every time I switched the ksa 200 It felt like dicing with death, even with its big ole soft start board.

With the quality of your refurbishment I bet it’ll still working fine for another decade or so I wish I’d bought When you sold it on.

 

[sq225917]

Cheers, Jez did his bit for it as well.

 

[narabdela]

Hi All

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

Is this a rhetorical question?

 

[George47]

KPS 25SC

Yes. I had the KPS 25SC with a FPB300 and then a 400CX and what a combination. The KPS 25SCs were incredibly expensive and the CD lasers were 'not available' but I found a source where I bought three. When the laser went they were all working and each only cost about £60. It was a superb combination and the sound quality was exceptional. The engineering was excellent and the cost nowadays would be prohibitive, but the sound quality was excellent then and now. Krell power amps drive even awkward speakers superbly and had sufficient power for even the really bad ones. There never was any strain or loss of headroom even with the various speakers I used including those that got down to a few ohms in bass. The combination could play subtly but on big orchestral pieces or rock bands, the temptation to turn up the volume was irresistible, so I did not. You know you want to, go for it.

 

[Bob Edwards]

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..

No. It's a very good amp. And if it is priced reasonably, why not? You can almost certainly sell it on for little or no loss.

 

[Alvarado]

Yes.

80kg? Do yourself a favour and find a plan B.

 

[Subito]

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