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Krell Krell SACD Standard SACD Player Review by Audioquest4life


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Model: Krell SACD Standard
Category: SACD Player
Suggested Retail Price: $4000
Description: Multi-channel SACD and CD Playback
Manufacturer URL: Krell
Model Picture: View

Review by Audioquest4life (A) on December 19, 2004 at 11:58:01
IP Address: 80.140.52.121
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This is a review of the Krell SACD Standard in all aspects of the unit’s playback capabilities, multi-channel SACD, 2-channel SACD and CD. The length of the review is a year in a home environment, enough to quantify my opinions.

All connections from the source were via the L/R multi-channel analog outputs of the Krell SACD into the analog disc inputs of the Octave HP 500 SE tube preamp http://www.octave.de/english/products/PreAmplifiers/info_hp500se.htm, a separate review will be written for that device in the future. Amplification duties were handled by dual Bryston 4B-SST’s http://www.bryston.ca/4bsst_m.html bi-amped each to a pair of B&W Nautilus 800’s, providing 300 watts to the woofers, and 300 watts to the midrange and tweeters. Each of those components were thoroughly burned in as well, over 15 months playing time. Sun Audio power cords with polarity indicators, Sun Audio power strips with polarity indicators http://www.sunaudio.de Each component was therefore in proper phase, the Octave pre-amp includes its own polarity and phase checker in the separate power supply, just rotate plug until it is right . Furutech gold plated copper power receptacles. Neotech silver and copper speaker cables for the bi-amping, silver spliced to tweeters and copper spliced to the woofers. These cables are made by Neotech, an OEM manufacturer of cables for many other cable companies, from my research they look close to the extremely high-end Acoustic Zen cables. All surround sound chores for rear , B&W Nautilus 802’s, center B&W Nautilus HTM1 and powered subwoofer B&W Nautilus ASW850 were handled through the Sunfire Ultimate Receiver with the surround outputs from the Krell going into the analog inputs of the receiver.

Overall I would state that this system is highly neutral yet very capable of bringing out many of the finer details and nuances of music when asked to. SACD in 2-channel and CD sound very much alike, with SACD exhibiting slightly more ambience and detail that are worth noting. Also any 2 -channel mode was direct analog from source to speaker whereas surround was the same with the exception of the rears going through a processor, albeit in direct analog mode.

Slabs of 2cm granite are under every component with rubber feet added underneath. Spectral racks are a combination of glass and acrylic. To help maintain damping they are also placed on padded carpet. Room treatments are carpeting in main listening room with added area rug in front of main loudspeakers to damp excessive bass resonance, if any. Double lined curtains on rear wall with extra thick reinforcement, no reflections whatsoever. No treatment on side walls. Room is 24 x 18’ with a ceiling height of 12”. Listening position on couch is about 14’ from front speakers. Room passes the clap and yelling tests, one cannot hear any echoes.

All components are left in standby mode during non listening times. They are turned on for at least 30 minutes prior to use.

This is a small sample of the music that I used to help me come to my conclusions, however I seemed to have been drawn to these most of the time if not for critical listening but listening pleasure as well. As you can see my tastes are varied.
Jane Monheit (Taking a Chance on Love, Sony Classical SK 92495), Concord Jazz Sampler (Volume 2 SACD1035-6), The Eagles (The Very Best of, Warner R2 73971), Frank Sinatra (The Christmas Collection, Reprise Records R276542), Miles Davis (Kind of Blue Speigel Edition Vinyl Classics, super bitmapping, Columbia Legacy CK64935), John Coltrane (Blue Note SACD 41757), Sara K. (Waterfalls, Stockfish Records SFR 357.6025.2), B&W Bowers & Wilkins (Very Audiophile New Recordings Volume 2) The police (Every Breath you Take SACD, A&M Records 069 493 607-2), Michael McDonald (Motown SACD B0001194-36), Ray Charles (Genius Loves Company, Concord Records CCD-2248-2), ORFF Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ORFF Carmina Burana, TELARC SACD 60575), Mozart The English Concert (Night Music, Harmonia mundi SACD HMU 807280), Miles Davis (In a silent way, Columbia/Legacy SACD 506116 6), Diana Krall (The Look of Love, Verve SACD 314589 597-2), Ambra (Child of the Universe, Ambra Music SACD 40308 161 202-8). Mike Oldfield (The Songs of Distant Earth, WEA 4509 98542-2).

All of my listening moments with the Krell turned into listening marathons. I simply could not pull myself away from this wonderful device, it seemed to capture me. What I mean is that I felt like I was emotionally tied to the listening session. Voices appeared in space and time numerous times that if I closed my eyes I could actually pretend to be in the recording session with the musicians. The Eagles, one of my favorite classic easy listening groups, had me tracing the singers to each microphone, not just to each speaker. I was experiencing the width, depth and dimensionality of the performers in the recording session, I knew when and where a singer would lead in and whisper in to the microphone or do backup or sing in unison, it was always a great effect, especially with songs such as “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” “Lying Eyes,” “Desparado” and “Witchy Women.” “Easy Feeling” was such a great performance that I played that track several times just to relish in the fact I could actually be sitting in the room with the band live. I can hear when the other band members que into that song, that they are on their own microphone or were in their own space next to the lead vocal. It was pure enjoyment at the least. With female voices such as Jane Monheit’s newest album, I was so taken back by the pure emotion that she poured into the “Over The Rainbow” title from the Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow soundtrack, you could hear the slight wisps of her voice as she paused and then began singing, you could here her breath into the microphone, and not just on that song, but on a lot of her songs on that CD. I actually felt once again that I was in the soundstage of the recording studio, not listening to music coming from the speakers, but simply being in the music with Jane standing in front of me singing away into the microphone. The full spectrum of acoustic space was present and the ambience of the music involved me in the room and added to the reality. Needless to say one could start to dry their eyes listening to this one song if you fall in too deep. On the Ambra SACD surround mix, I am sure to keep using that one as my surround sound sampler, there are over 70 channels used to make the surround mix, of which then are mixed into the 5.1 surround mix. What you end up with is some of the best surround effects to be played in SACD multi-channel. The Ambra music collection can be described as mood music, more earthy with some sort of story to tell. Listening to the “Child of the Universe” I was taken on a journey from one end to the next, so mesmerizing and relaxing, you need to listen to the words to hear the story, the music is a mix of electronic music, flutes, water, birds, drums and surround effects that I can only describe as amazing. All said, this story told me I was once again in the middle of the recording, however this time I was surrounded by music to my front and rear with it panning throughout different speakers, sometimes left, or right rear, or left rear, or in sequence from the right rear to the front right all the way around until it gets to the center and stops. The Ambra crew made use of pan effects throughout this story, I would just sit back and close my eyes once again and enjoy. The voice of Salvador Dali is used in some of the mixes, giving some of the greatest voice effects I have heard integrated with the rest of the music. The voice of Dali just pops out of the rear speaker all of a sudden and you are startled, then pans all the way around the room, what an amazing effect. The Police “Wrapped around your Finger” was another song that I could play and play. The SACD surround version of this song sounds better than either of the 2 channel-options. I heard the singer’s key up to the microphones in the rears during the keyboard transition that pans from the front left to the right rear giving an outstanding effect that can send chills down your back. Sting’s voice resonates clearly in the microphone with the right amount of ambience. The song “King of Pain” is another great title that was recorded perfectly in surround. When Sting gets done with his vocal leads the rest of the band chimes in with the phrase “That’s my soul out there” in the rears you can hear the depth of the singers and the ambience and reverberation are perfect. I was once again listening in the center soundstage, and despite an older recording the remix was superb for multi-channel. There were enough ambiences in these recordings that the Krell absolutely just relished in, smooth reverberation, open and clear vocals and outstanding staging. I closed my eyes, sat back and then listened and once again I was transported to the live singing session, a fact that I must get used to when listening to this player. On the B&W Audiophile CD I was so amazed by the presence and room acoustics, that you could hear the singers grasp the microphone and the wisps of air as they breathe, again and again in each of the songs on that CD. Mike Silver’s “Old Fashioned Saturday Night” was just beautiful, airy and very vocal with excellent guitar rhythm effects. The Krell proved once again that high-end audio such as this could be enjoyable and leave you grinning with pleasure.

With some jazz selections such as The Real Blues from the Ray Brown Trio on Concorde Jazz SACD, I felt that every layer was recorded extremely well. Depending how I felt and how I wanted to hear the artist’s presentation, I found myself switching between the multi-channel SACD and the 2-channel CD layers. In the SACD multi-channel version of the “The Real Blues” song it had me tapping my toes and snapping my fingers in rhythm to each instrument, the walking of the cymbals could be heard so clearly and the bass snapped into place whenever it was called upon. The piano in the opening sequence was very profound and the sound of the sticks tapping the ridges of the snare were heard with no problem, you knew that it was a stick and you knew when and how hard they were tapped. The cymbals were enjoying a tap in ¼ time along the way just adding to the excitement, the shimmer was so crisp and defined. The piano resounding to the left rear and one of the players yelling “Walk that dog” added to the excitement. I was in the nightclub sitting about 6-8 feet in the middle of this live session, the audience clapping and even talking in the background resonating just as live as the group itself, there was so much presence and openness with the music selection that I pictured the people in the audience sitting in front and to the left and right sides of me, with the occasional shout from the rear. On the track “Goodbye Mr. Evans” by Scott Hamilton the opening sequence starts with a lovely violin ballad that resonates everywhere and then transitions to a smooth saxophone lead with cymbals and a piano accompaniment. I was surrounded by the resonance of the saxophone and the smooth raspiness associated with saxophone playback. I could here the reed on the saxophone resonate with such clarity that I just knew it was live. I felt like I was being transported into another journey but somewhere in a storybook that belonged in a movie. Pete Escovedo’s “Whatcha Gonna Do” had me standing up and doing the tango and salsa. I felt once again, yes again, Pete was in the room playing live, the trumpet blaring and making this song sound so realistic, and being an old trumpet player, I was quite amazed. The blare of the trumpet erupts into a violent and startling pace and then there is a silence, with the ambient acoustics and transients left hanging and fading into the background, so much detail was heard I could place myself in space and time in relationship to all of the instruments. The Songs from Distant Earth CD proved to be another musical voyage that had uncanny way of transplanting me where Mike wanted me to. Track after track, I could hear the effects of the instruments and keyboards while voices would erupt form silence and catapult you even further into the music. Track 14 of this CD has great dynamics and sound effects. The guitar playing out in the right side and reverberating to the left is an awesome experience, however when the voice jumps out of the song and says “Crystal Clear” it is at that point you ask yourself to see who is in the house, the voice is so articulate, clean and pronounced. The countdown of the numbers is just as great as the voice just ebbs down a notch every number spoken as it is counted down. The finality of this song is the electric guitar, so clear and pronounced, I could hear the pick of the strings on the guitar, I had the sensation of it being picked right there and each time it was picked, it was pronounced, not just a background sound entering the music field, there were deliberate strings being picked and you heard the resonance of this as it started out for each strum. What a great song. Other sings exhibited that caught my attention, the background recordings of crosstalk, such as what I would say sounded like a NASA engineer talking in the background in one of the songs and panning left to right and right to left.

If this review is sounding more like a music review, you’re absolutely right. In fact the Krell SACD Standard allowed me to listen to each music selection critically while forgetting that I even had electronics in the loop. I feel safe in stating that the Krell SACD Standard could be considered a reference playback system for both SACD and CD software. I was able to weed out the bad recordings I had accumulated over the years and found some recordings on SACD to absolutely drop my jaw in amazement. The Redbook performance of this device allowed me to continue to have faith that Redbook has potential and will live on. If you had a bad recording, the Krell SACD will let you know it right away. I played some of my dime store CD classics, and found them to be cheap recordings of great music. The adage “you get what you pay for” holds true with software here. The Krell SACD let me hear every detail in all of the recordings that I could throw at it and if the music content was lacking in performance, I knew it right away. I was impressed by the amount of rear information that was available on multi-channel SACD, instruments in their entire space and smooth transitions from front to rear were the norm. It seemed that the Krell involved me in the music at all times and I have only heard a few source devices that can accomplish that. Is it vinyl? No. Is it something that I could easily live with as a replacement for vinyl if vinyl were to expire altogether? Yes. Is it close to the dynamic range of vinyl? Yes. As this was a Krell SACD Standard only review and not a comparison, I did not offer to make comparisons to other sources that passed through my system, from every price point imaginable. As much as I wanted to, I would love to compare the sound to my reference turntable, the Transrotor Apollon with SME V and Merlot HO MC, but that is another story. As I mentioned above, it is not vinyl, whereas the dynamics of vinyl are completely different. The Krell SACD Standard sets a new standard in quality playback of SACD and CD, and I would consider this the “Holy Grail” of all combined SACD/CD players in the market. The atmosphere is so thin in this league of players that one could argue that any other player would be better suited at this or that, but again this is my review and I reserve judgment that the Krell SACD will bring back life into your CD’s and that SACD’s will astound you even more. I truly believe that the Krell SACD Standard sets the bar to which other SACD/CD players need to be compared. A minor analogy is that when the SoundBlaster sound card hit the markets in the late 80’s and early 90’s, all other soundcard manufactures strived to recreate their own version of a soundcard that met the SoundBlaster standard. That is an honor to a product, and as time and technology move on, I expect others to strive to emulate the highlights of what I have written about the Krell SACD Standard. I never thought once that it over accentuated or had a lack of ambience, and it was able to bring out lower level resolution with a pleasing dynamic range. Tonal harmonics were accurate, which led to many of my comments above about being there, live and experiencing the trail of the music notes with superb reverb and acoustic space, nothing etched or grainy. There was no lack of this or that, just pure music heaven.

I tried to capture some of the exciting and happy moments that I have had with this device. I have had no bad experiences and I suspect I never will. Happy listening. As with everything else, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).


Product Weakness: None...but it may let you hear the bad recordings in your CD collection forcing you to get an updated version of that CD.
Product Strengths: Complete and involving source device. You always knew where the singers were playing in the recording session as far as depth and spaciousness is concerned. You always felt as if they were in the room with you, performing live in some cases.


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: 2 Bryston 4B-SSTs
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Ocatve HP 500 SE
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Krell SACD Standard/
Speakers: B&W Nautilus 800's, 802's, HTM1, and ASW 850 subwoofer
Cables/Interconnects: Neotech
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Jazz, Classical, Easy Listening, Journey Music, Mystic, Pop,
Room Size (LxWxH): 18 x 24 x 12
Room Comments/Treatments: carpets, 2cm granite slabs on all components
Time Period/Length of Audition: 13 Months
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner


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