Thoughts on the Krell S-550i?
 

The S-550i Integrated Amp has been out for a bit
Krell S-550i

Any 'ears on' experiences?

Erik.......I have not listened to any Krell gear in years, but I will say the S-550i is a good looking integrated amplifier with plenty of power to drive nearly any speaker on the market. 550 w/p/c into 4 ohms makes it more powerful than many other top manufacturer's integrated amps.


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Dan - thanks for sharing.

The S-300i was on my short list when I was shopping for a good used deal on an integrated. I ended up getting a Musical Fidelity A5. I couldn't get any 'ears on' experience with either and had to make a blind buy based on scouring the web for reviews and posts on both.

There are some folks who didn't think too highly of the S-300i - so was wondering if the newer 550i was a step back 'up' for Krell as it did pop out at me when looking thru the latest mailing I got from Music Direct.

Erik.......Member MasterLuJr (Richard) is using the Krel S-1200U surround processor with the Krell S-1500 amplifier. Perhaps he will chime in and offer his impression of those components. As I recall, he is extremely pleased with their performance.


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The S-550i received a great review in the July 13 issue of Hi Fi News.

I use a S-300i to power my whole house system and other than the heat it generates it is very nice.

I think highly of S-550i since I use the S-300i at my office with very good results.



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Never heard S-550i jet thought. But I will.

Many people give the S300 a hard time, since it is made in china. I had both the 400xi (us made predecesor) and S300 in my listening room. I liked the S300 better. It sounded more natural, more fluid than the 400xi. I think it is a great amp.

I use a S300i to drive a pair of Dunlavy SCIVs. The amp sounds fairly relaxed, but not dark and detailed, but not bright. It really doesn't call a lot of attention to itself. Its presentation is mid-hall.

My dislikes are purely operational: I don't like the little clicks made my the volume control. They sound like mild surface noise generated by a badly washed album. The HT bypass doesn't act as a tape-out. Aside from having bigger binding posts that I care for, requiring a wider spade than normal, and a lack of more inputs that's about it.

Dan... You are spot on; I'll bring this thread to Rich's attention.

Sorry for the delayed response. I have both the above mentioned Krell components, the S-1200U surround processor and the Krell S-1500 amplifier. As for listening impressions I find the amp to be a absolute work horse as well as the processor. I play both of these units almost all day long, as they're in my bedroom. They're used for watching blu-ray's, satellite, football games, music, video gaming, and the list goes on.

The amp runs cool, as that seemed to be a general concern regarding Krell. Power wise it's absolutely solid, I've never said to myself I wish I had mono blocks or such. The S-1500 has never had any sort of issue, completely maintenance free. I've found it to be very difficult to judge a amp on "how it sounds" as my feeling is the speakers play a absolute critical role in this. For me to judge amps, particularly solid state, I would have to have the same speakers for a period of time then swap the amp out. This way I would be accustomed to the sound of the speaker, which would allow me to see/hear how the amplifier changes the sound. You can't go wrong with using the S-1500 as a multichannel amp.

Krell's S-1200 processor has been extremely easy to use. I'm using it to switch multiple HDMI sources as well as HDMI video along with analog audio from my Oppo. The processor really handles anything I throw at it. No HDMI "handshake" issues. About the only complaint I could give is when flipping channels quickly on satellite, it sometimes has to change audio from 5.1 to a matrix, so you maybe without audio for 2 to 3 seconds. For using this processor well over a year I've been throughly pleased with it.

If there is any questions or insight I can give you please let me know :music: