I never had the Krell KSA-50
My first Krell was a KSA 80 It ran REAL HOT, or at least I thought it did, little did I know how hot my future Krells would run. But that didn't stop me from buying a second KSA 80 and having Dan turn them into 160 Mono blocks. The 160 were nice but the KSA-80 by itself was something special. I really enjoyed that KSA-80 more than any other amp I owned. I should have stopped right there and never moved on.
The KSA -80 was a jewel of an amp but look at those fins. Everything on the earlier Krells was frightening. All the edges were sharp and hard just like the personality of the designer. This thing could cut you up in a second and burn your skin. No audiophiles with children would put it in thier home.
My next krell after the KSA 160's was the KSA 250.
Same thing massive slice and dice fins that would catch your ankles and slice them if you were not careful. Ran VERY HOT and could dim the lights in your home when you turned it on. I ran dedicated lines for all my amps. It was a beast. Took two people to move it. Look at the ridiculous handles. Impossible to handle this massive amp. One time I turned it on and it exploded inside. Later I was to find out that this model had this same problem from other owners I knew. Lucky for me I lived 30 minutes from the Krell factory. When I picked it up after the warranty repair the tech asked me what I did to it. Nothing I told him I just turned it on. The tech guy then asked me to come into the factory with him to get the amp. while I was back there Dan came in and starting screaming at the tech. "Get this guy out of here! I don't want these people back in here!" I didn't know what to say. There I was having just spent $6K on an amp that blew up in my home and was picking it up myself doing all the leg work getting reamed by the designer for helping the tech load it into my car. For some time after that I met Dan at various listening invitations here and there and when we meant I would just tilt my head and raise one eyebrow and grin.
Finally I sold that 250 because I was always afraid of it after it blew up and could never turn it on without using some long stick on the power switch from a good distance. The explosive event started to creep into my dreams at night and finally the amp had to go.
Hooked on the Krells I went for the KSA- 150. Not as big as the 250. Was a very nice sounding amp. As with the previous Krells it ran class A and of course ran HOT also. Same brutal fins with the sharp edges and ridiculous handles. Also weighed a ton.
If I could do it all over again I would have stopped with the KSA 80. The Krells that came after where better for sure but the KSA 80 had a certain sound to it I really liked. Unfortunately I didn't know at the time to realize how important something like that is in the overall scheme of things. While I owned these Krells I also had many tube power amps (and tube preamps) but I always returned to the Krells because I don't have the temperament to own tube gear though I love the sound for sure The KSA- 80 was in many ways a solid state amp that had SS qualities and also somehow some tube like qualities. I was a fool to sell it.
Edited by WarriorAnt - 9/28/11 at 5:05pm
