Krell's forthcoming KSA-i400 Power Amplifier

Mansour Mamaghani, founder and managing director of Audio Reference Munich (above), quietly commandeered one of the largest showrooms in the MOC's Atrium to present an impressive living color array of components that extended far beyond Wilson, D'Agostino, Perlisten, VTL, Nordost, VPI, and Krell. Although sonics were far from ideal during the press conference—VTL's pairing with Wilson and Nordost fared best—I finally got the lowdown on Krell's forthcoming 160lb. KSA-i400 power amplifier (below; $35,000 in stereo, or $70,000/monoblock pair) from Krell's COO, Walter Schofield. A matching preamp ($TBD) is in the works.

The KSA-i400 utilizes the company's proprietary iBias system to remain in class-A without gobbling up excessive amounts of current. The amp promises 400Wpc into 8 ohms, doubling all the way down to 2 ohms. "It will actually double down to 1 ohm if you can find a way to pull enough power from the wall," Schofield said.

Krell claims that its new XD technology lowers impedance and enhances the damping factor to better control loudspeaker drivers by enabling them to react 30–35% faster. Another technology, not yet named, claims to eliminate 2nd order harmonic distortion and match output devises "out several points" for more realistic soundstaging and presentation.

"Krell is moving back to huge power and industrial design," Schofield said. "This is a brand new design, completely rethought from what we have now. I've never heard an amplifier do what this amplifier does. David Goodman, our Chief Product Designer, has outdone himself."

Krell also showed the K-300p phono preamplifier ($6500). Equipped with MC and MM inputs, the k-300p's input capacitance, impedance, and gain are all controllable via switches on its rear panel. You can also switch between MM and MC on the front panel.

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