LATEST ADDITIONS

Latest and largest in Krell's current range of power amplifiers, the 600Wpc, $12,500 Full Power Balanced 600 joins the 300Wpc FPB 300 ($9000) and the 200Wpc (originally 150Wpc) FPB 200 ($5900). All are single-box stereo chassis and are specified as "Full Power Balanced"&mdash;I think to distinguish the essence of these designs from ordinary stereo amplifiers operated in balanced-bridged mode, usually with impaired performance. The FPB 600's speaker output is balanced; <I>ie</I>, neither "positive" or negative" terminals are connected to ground or the amplifier chassis. (Note that no speaker switches or headphone adaptors, which often have joined channel grounds, may be used, as they will short the outputs.) The output terminals are electrically at 0V, but float above the chassis ground.

While I was working on my review of the K-1 preamplifier, I telephonically corralled Ayre's Research Director Charlie Hansen for a midwinter afternoon's gabfest. I started by asking Charlie how he became an audiophile.

The Glimmer Twins were right: If you can't always get what you want, sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need. Take Ayre's K-1 preamplifier, for instance. I'd been trying to get Ayre to send me their $3750 V-3 power amplifier since the moment I started writing for <I>Stereophile</I>; after approximately a year and a half, I finally got a phone call from then Marketing Director Bruce Van Allen.

In the summer of 1996, <I>SGHT</I> editor Lawrence Ullman made me an offer I couldn't refuse: "Wes," he asked, "how would you like to review M&K's new THX speaker package?"

There has been much argument in audiophile circles about whether an LP or a CD is a more faithful representation of a master tape. Although we recorded Robert Silverman's thrilling performance of the Liszt B-Minor Piano Sonata for <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//features/131/">CD release</A>, we also had in mind to issue an LP. As the source for both would be the same, the question we can answer is: Will an LP cut straight from a 20-bit master tape via a Class A 20-bit DAC sound closer than a CD noise-shaped to 16 bits from the same 20-bit original?

My name is Wes and I enjoy listening to music on headphones.

<B>THEATER OF VOICES: <I>The Age of Cathedrals</I></B><BR> Paul Elliott, Alan Bennet; Theater of Voices: Neal Rogers, Mark Daniel, Hugh Davies, Tom Hart, Boyd Jarrell; Paul Hillier, dir.<BR> Harmonia Mundi France HMC 907157 (CD only). Robina G. Young, prod.; Craig Silvey, eng. AAD? 1996. TT: 77:18<BR> Performance <B>******</B><BR> Sonics <B>*****</B>