Krell S-1500 power amp and S-1200U AV receiver review

Oscar Wilde would have bought Krell amplification. In fact, any man whose mantra is 'I have the simplest tastes, I am always satisfied with the best' would do well to peruse the Krell catalogue for some high-end retail therapy.

I do, as a voyeur, of course, contemplate the aural merits of an Evolution 707 processor (£33,000) and seven Evolution 900 power amps (£140,000). Or, I could pay off the mortgage... Hmm choices, choices.

Krell is a brand that either needs no introduction, or lots. To those familiar with the US marque, they will respect the 30-year heritage at the high-end of audio engineering – particularly amplifiers. They will appreciate the superb build, the immaculate attention to detail and revel in the prestige of owning the brand.

To those who have not heard of Krell Industries, they may feel that £20K for the S-1200U processor and S-1500 power amp is a little rich. They might also think that anyone even contemplating spending that sort of money on an amp has a tenuous grip on reality.

You see, Krell is the Rolls Royce of the global audio industry. Like the flying lady herself, Krell simply doesn't play specification trumps with the competition. It's not pushing the boundaries of absolute power, it's not festooned with features and it won't go round corners as fast as a Lotus Elise.

Krell does its own thing in its own way and is responsible for a long and prestigious line of exquisite-sounding audiophile products stretching over three decades. It is a hi-fi brand that has status, kudos and a pride of ownership second to probably no other on the planet.

What we have here is Krell's entry into the top-end of the 'realistic' AV amplifier market, a little before the price tags move into cost-no-object territory.

The S-1200 is a fully-featured AV processor coming in at just over £10,000 in basic form and £13,000 as tested here with its 'U' suffix. This denotes the inclusion of the video upscaler grafted from the Evolution 707, offering full 1080p output and 48bit colour depth with any video input.

The processor is mated to the S-1500 power amplifier, as tested here in seven-channel guise at a smidge under £7,500.

Arthouse AV

The S-1200U is gorgeous. It works as a piece of art, its smooth lines and contrasting aluminium textures complementing the bonkers-mad volume knob with a fine sense of the surreal.

The build and finish is among the best of any amplifier to grace my listening room in 20 years of reviewing. The buttons have a firm weight, the indicator LED lights are just the right intensity and the display offers the largest and easiest-to-read text characters of any AV processor on the market.

Krell's heavyweight volume knob runs on slick bearings, meaning that a solid glancing blow will run it on for 10 or more turns. I was surprised that the knob isn't motorised so doesn't spin with volume input from the remote. While this would have been even more engineering eye-candy, perhaps Krell felt the resulting gyroscopic forces might have been a problem for your equipment rack.

Around the back is a unique selection of socketry that looks a little dated in comparison to the latest Japanese high-end receivers. Just four HDMI inputs and a solitary HDMI output doesn't impress me much, doubly so as they are only v1.3 spec rather than v1.4 – although Krell assures us that the HDMI videoboard is easily changed and designed with future upgrades in mind.

There is a positive cornucopia of analogue connections, though, including composite video, component video and even S-video sockets, totalling 11 analogue video inputs.

Nestled below these are no fewer than 10 analogue stereo audio inputs, which should cater for the most ardent audiophile. Fully-balanced XLR connections are provided as the output of choice to the S-1500, and there are enough 12V triggers and data ports to keep any system integrator happy.

Under the neatly-milled aluminium hood, the S-1200U is a little different from most processors and AVRs. Rather than use standard op-amps and integrated circuits, every channel runs on a discrete Class A circuit that Krell claims offers the greatest signal purity and the highest bandwidth.

The DSP engine is at the leading edge of the field (also grafted from the Evolution 707), based on a pair of 32bit Cirrus chipsets that feed very sexy 24bit ESS Sabre DACs. For those wishing to give the S-1200U a clean analogue audio signal and soak up some of the Krell audiophile magic, a 'preamp' mode bypasses all digital circuitry and routes analogue stereo to a balanced resistor ladder volume controller.