[George Prentice]

First off, really sorry to hear about your result. It is really frustrating to have a good result undercut with a bad one. Good old systems, change one thing and you get a cascade of changes. I can easily see myself telling someone, “yeah, I bought a new speaker cable, and it cost me $100K.”

I will say from a high level, the change you heard was what happens with greater transparency. I find an amplifier about ten years newer is typically a “wow” that sounds better and typically by being more natural with more lower midrange and bass. About fifteen years ago I replaced my 20 year old Threahold T2 and it sounded tinny and gutless in comparison with the Pass amp I replaced it with. I guess this points to a likely problem, replacement of any old piece of equipment is likely to result in a significant improvement in performance of that piece resulting in exposing a weakness elsewhere. I will say I agree with Kevin, ‘wack a mole’ is a very really likely outcome.

On the other hand, tremendous opportunity for a component upgrade cycle.

If you really liked the Krell, a newer Krell might be a good choice. I am partial to Pass designed solid state amps. But in my mind tube amps recently became a possibility with Audio Research adding microprocessor control for auto biasing and extending tube life.

After decades of reading reviews I can pretty much make a component decision without going to a dealer. But maybe read lots of reviews form your opinion. Then call up a dealer and have him set up a demo with defined equipment so you can hear 2 or 3 choices. When I fly across the country I’ll call a dealer a week before and explain my preferences and what I might want to hear. Then I show up at the appointed time.