Best Digital Gear 2011.

Frankly, I am a little surprised that after 2010, CAS based high end audio products some how, just stop coming on to the market place, instead all we got was disc based players which showcased CDs at their very best! What happened?

To me it's a bit of a dejavu feeling we got during the twilight days of vinyl, when the best advancing turn table designs only started to surface when dooms day was already pronounced, back then in the late 80's. Twenty years or so later vinyl is enjoying it's second spring, while the CD is now in it's last legs, How times have changed. Ultimately, should CAS make further in roads in to the audiophile world, or just slowly fade away like SACD and DVD-A is any one's guest today. One thing is for sure, with 32/384 music files on the horizon, it's only a matter of time when new hardware will be required to keep up.

In the mean time let the CD bask in glory of it's best play back equipment yet!



TAD D-600 CD/SACD player is a master stroke.

TAD D-600 CD/SACD player.

This is likely to be the Yamato battleship of CD players. The common storyline includes being the last pride of it's kind, where the Imperial Japanese Navy built the Yamato to be the end of all battleships, while realizing naval war fare was already shifting towards more agile and aggresive carrier based strategy. TAD also adopted this view when designing the D-600 CD/SACD player. However, unlike the Imperial Japanese Navy, they did not allow the disc spinner to be redundant in the advent of CAS digital source. Instead the TAD D-600 proved to be a perfect match for the Bryston BDP-1 playing hi-rez files to form an un-matched sonic synergy that's out of this world! Playing CDs and SACDs proved to be just as spectacular an event of musical enjoyment. Digital playback don't come much better than this, as it should, fully justifying it's asking price.




Playback Designs MPS-5 CD/SACD player is unique because it's designed to be fully up grade able which will ensure that it won't be obsolete in the near future.


Playback Designs MPS-5 CD/SACD player.

This is an interesting player because of it's modular structure and software based up grade able design. It would be a shame if it didn't sound good too. However, with it's latest power supply and firmware up grades, it does live up to expectations. Like the TAD mentioned above, it also allows connection to a digital media player like my Bryston BDP-1 to play hi rez music files. In this mode, the MPS-5 actually has the pizazz to rival the TAD master class, with it's phenomenally propulsive bass quality, low noise floor and transparency. There's a tendency to lose the last bit of "air" in a given recording compared to the TAD, but in the end, I guess one should choose it's own poison here.  However, it's when playing CDs and SACDs that the D-600 proved mostly superior, perhaps due to it's sturdier built in all aluminium transport mechanism. Having said that, I must put things in context that the fact the MPS-5 is mentioned here in this distinguished list means that it's playing at the very top level of digital playback.




Ayre DX-5 AV Engine is a do it all player, but excels particularly with CDs.

Ayre DX-5 AV Engine.

This Ayre reigned supreme, if only briefly, until the arrival of the two players mentioned above. Some have said that I was perhaps, a little harsh on the Ayre DX-5 AV Engine in my original review. Again in perspective, I found the DX-5 to show it's best with CD and Blu-ray replay. It sounded just as good too, when playing hi rez music files, via it's USB input, with signal fed by a purpose built for CAS windows OS based computer. The only reservation I had with this player is SACD playback, which is a little soft, not in volume, but rather a slight lack of drive and sense of drama, which it's otherwise a rather fine and natural sounding player. I am also not being fair to the Ayre perhaps, because ultimately, it's a whole more affordable than the other two stratospheric priced players mentioned above. Actually come to think of it, which other sub RM$40k player does it all(Audio & Video) with such high levels of competency?

Krell S-350a CD player sonically out performs it's price range by a mile. At one point, it had me wondering, why bother to spend more?

Krell S-350a CD player.

If one is contemplating on buying his last CD only player, my personal advise is why spend more? This sub RM$10k CD player can sound nearly as good as CDs are ever gonna get! It's well built and operates faultlessly too. It's sonic performance is clearly in the league of players costing 3-5 times more, if bench marked just a few years ago.  My digital source bargain of the year!

Here are a few other digital source components which I believe are worthy of my mention here in no particular order or ranking, though not formally reviewed by me personally, but heard else where.

1) Wadia 571 CD Transport, 931 Digital Controller and 922 Mono Decoding Computers combo.
2) DCS Pucini CD/SACD player and U-Clock combo.
3) Linn Klimax DS with Dinamik power supply upgrade.
4) Vitus Audio SCD-010 CD player.

That rounds up my Best Digital Gear 2011. Stay tuned for Best Amplifiers 2011, next!

Hot Indeed - Krell S-350a CD Player

Big E is enamoured with this Krell. You can be pretty sure of that. He calls it ‘Hot’ and ‘A Giant Killer’. Go read his review from June 3, 2011.

With endorsement like that I couldn't resist to hear it for myself in my own system, could I? Who does not like an underdog winning the day?

So, the Krell S-350a CD player duly arrived at my place. Straight out of the box, the construction quality impressed already. It is a very sturdily built box, the proverbial built like a tank quality seen in all Krell gears. The player is also deeper than usual, and it just barely fit on my rack. The remote control is a metal one, chunky and heavy, one that can inflict serious damage if dropped on your toe. If I had not known and were to guess its price, I’d come up with a figure circa RM20k. However, it goes for RM10,500. Boy, was I impressed again.

The Krell S-350a has a deeper than usual body

When the Krell S-350a started to play, I was impressed a third time. This did not sound like anything I knew or was expecting at this price level. I bought a CD player 7-8 years ago at the same price range, and I can vouch that the sound quality was not even close to this. It shows how much we have advanced in terms of price/performance ratio for digital players now.

The rear of the Krell S-350a

The only comparison I could do was to compare the Krell to my own Ayre C-5xeMP player. Ok, the Ayre costs 2.5 times more, so some may say this is not fair. Still, the Krell stood up to the challenge and its performance was nothing to be ashamed of. Well, I understated. In fact, in many performance areas, the Krell stood toe to toe with the Ayre. In contrast, my old player at the same price as the Krell could not hold a candle to the Ayre.

The Ayre player did pull ahead of the Krell S-350a in a few areas. It retrieved a bit more details from the silver discs, especially the micro details (little flexes in an artist’s singing and playing, ambiance and air); it also sounded somewhat more dynamic; the sound stage was marginally bigger. However, I could conclude all this only after a couple of A-B swaps. I think if I were to walk into a room blind and was asked which player was playing I would have a tough time giving you a correct answer.

The Krell S-350a comes with both balanced and single ended outputs. One strange feature is that the balanced output's left-right channels are reversed

I like the Krell S-350a’s sound. It is not the highly analytical, matter of fact and cool type. It sounded robust, hearty, yet smooth, very organic and natural. This is one that will allow you to enjoy your music for long hours. It is the same set of characteristics that I recognise from the Ayre C-5xeMP, thus this Krell really struck a chord with me.

The Krell S-350a comes with both digital inputs and outputs. Handy if you have an external digital source

The Krell S-350a is absolutely a worthy upgrade from any midrange CD player. In fact, I would go out on a limb and suggest that anyone who is looking for a high end CD player to include this Krell in your audition. You may find few reasons to spend more.

As Big E said, this one is hot, indeed.

Krell is available from Hi-Way Laser, contact Kenny at 019-2813399 or 03-78738325.

Hot Stuff! Krell S-350a CD Player.

Krell S-350a CD player, with a slot loaded DVD ROM transport, supplied by TEAC.

The end is near for CD players, I proclaimed not too long ago! Ladies and gentleman, like all dooms day nay sayers, the rush of new great sounding players lately is making me choke in my own words. The arrival of the Ayre DX-5 Universal AV Engine is just the beginning, then now, this brand new Krell S-350a CD player. Next, I am holding on to the promise of a TAD D600 CD player to be delivered to my man cave(with bated breath).

The focus today though, falls squarely on this China built Krell S-350a CD player. Krell's past CD players have being highly sought after in the used market, often transacted with good second hand resale value. The S-350a is a modular design disc player approach, with the option to add a DVD video board should one desire, at extra cost. Today, we are only interested in it's performance as a stereo source.

The rear panel of the Krell S-350a. I only used the XLR outputs for this review.

This Krell is rather heavy in built, and cosmetically styled to match the S-300i integrated amplifier of the same series. This means a decent front aluminium armour plate and 2U epoxy coated, steel casing of clamp shell design, which results in a very rigid box. The front panel buttons are clearly marked and has excellent finger/action feel. There's a contemporary blue back lite display for CD status, input bit/sampling rates and other functions, when in use. The hand held remote is rather heavy duty, with clearly marked buttons and offer excellent handling ergonomics. I only wish it was back lited too!(Big E always asking for more, more, and more!)

Round the back panel RCA and XLR outputs are provided, along with coaxial and toslink digital inputs and outputs. An IEC power socket and 12V remote trigger jacks completes the back panel features.

The handy all aluminium remote, which is clearly marked and very ergonomically sorted out is use. However, the remote refused to work in the first two days after putting in the batteries(supplied by Krell). On the fateful third day, a good whack of the remote on my thigh woke it up. it never failed again since! Hmmm......

The slot loading transport takes a bit of getting used to. There's a few hesitant notches one could feel when pushing the CD in to the slot, but with some practice, disc loading is quite effortless.

The sound of this CD player is so very complete, that I find it hard to pin point any faults. In my years of reviewing CD players, I've admired players like the Esoteric X-03, Wadia 381i and perhaps even the Metronome Technologies CD One T. What does all these great players have in common with the Krell, you asked? Let's see, how about the way the S-350a digs out information from the CD pits remind me of the Esoteric? The robustness in sound that was reflected in the Wadia? And perhaps, half the measure of the way music is portrayed with such humility, much like the Metronome?

Yes! The S-350a is tonally neutral, with just a hint of warmth thrown is for comfy measure, but the way it presents music is pure Krell, in terms of dynamic power and transient response. This is one player with balls of steel, are you man enough to handle the way the bass is kicked right in to the room from the sound stage? Listening to well performed orchestral music, such as those in the Arabesque, selections by Crystal Cable, is pure joy, with roller coaster thrill ride type exhilaration! Even the more subtle solo piano tracks brims with energy and realism, only because of the way this player handles music transients with confidence that is a Krell hallmark. Even the choir tracks, especially track 5 Rutter Requiem Pie Jesu, is rendered with such detailed measure, along with the hall ambiance fully reproduced, turning my man cave into an old European styled church, acoustics wise. The choir section contrasting with the female Soprano voice is rendered so realistically, I get goose bumps feeling of the un real kind! Now that's eerie.

With performances rendered this believe able and life like, need I further describe it's staging and imaging qualities?

This Krell certainly deserves to be on the top shelve of any decent high end audio system.

This is a player that will faithfully reward the listener with every genre of music thrown in, be it, pop, rock, jazz, classical, even world music. Every CD I played thru the Krell, I enjoyed tremendously. I sometimes question, how can a player this revealing of recordings, warts and all, always manage to sound enjoyable too?

For all the kind words and high praises I heaped on this player, are there any negative areas that I should highlight? Well...... if I've to nit pick, it would be the noise floor, which is subjectively not as quiet(back ground noise) as the RM$30k+ heavy weight examples mentioned above, but that's just me being audiophool anal about such things. I bet most people would not even be bothered about it.

Another area that I had trouble with was the digital input. I used the Bryston BDP-1 to stream CD ripps at 16/44.1 FLAC and AIFF music files and it played beautifully, just like the CD playback. However when I tried to stream at higher bit rates, such as 24/96 or even 24/192 FLAC files, then the Krell would replay them with an accompanying irritating high frequency distortion. The higher the sampling rate, the louder the distortion. I find this rather puzzling, given the latest Burr Brown DAC spec,equipped inside this player, should be able to handle hi-rez files up to 24/192.  Perhaps a firmware upgrade is in the pipeline to fix it?

This is a fine CD if one loves well recorded and performed classical music. It is an excellent introduction for newbies venturing in to this genre. I just loved the music selection here! Ms Gabi van der Kley of Crystal Cable has such wonderful taste in music.  

In honour of joining ranks with the elite company of Esoteric, Wadia and Metronome, one would wonder if this Krell s-350a is truly afford able, despite it's China made origins? I now tell you, this Krell S-350a CD player cost only RM$10,500.00!

It's one CD player anyone shopping for a disc based digital source should not ignore, at any price!

Krell is sold by Hi-Way Laser, contact Kenny at 019-2813399 or 03-78738325.

Hot Stuff! Krell S-350a CD Player.

I've been running in this new Krell S-350a CD player for almost a week now. No, I've not listened to it just yet. Something tells me I am gonna like it a lot!

During it's week of running in on repeated play mode, the ventilation slots on the top plate of Krell became not just warm, but hot to touch as only possible coming from something like a class A device.

I've just placed it on my dedicated hifi rack, took this picture you see here and shall start some serious listening tomorrow. I can't wait in anticipation.

Stay tuned for it's review to come.

Steppin' Up! Krell S-300i Integrated Amp.

The new Krell S-300i integrated amp. Kinddy stuff? Think again!

Kenny of Hi-Way Laser took out a Krell box, identified by the shipping label on the top right hand side of the box. Oh Wow! I thought I'd be in for a treat, it must be the Krell Evolution pre amp. Kenny then asked, "would you like to review the new S-300i integrated amp from Krell?". I thought to my self, "Oh no, I don't wanna do integrated amp, that's kinddy stuff" Odiosleuth gave me that "don't look at me look". I then said to Kenny, O.K. lah! , which I later found out how foolish it was, of me to think about the latest batch of integrated amps that way.
The chunky all aluminium remote hand set. No back lighting though.

But then,I did it out of curiosity, that many in the online forums that I read are in the opinion that the latest entry level Krell cannot sonically match the older KAV-400xi integrated amp, which was made in the USA. The new Krell S-300i proudly wears it's made in China tag but does say design by Krell USA at the back panel. Apparently this is the first of possibly of many to come from Krell that would be made in China.
Country of manufacture clearly stated here on this back panel, you'll have to squint your eyes to spot it. He!He!......

I opened the double layered shipping box, and was immediately impressed with the weighty feel, nearly 20kgs of aluminium and metal. I did not like the plain Jane grey powder coated top plate finishing, but that does nothing to affect the sound, or functionality.The front panel is beautifully finished in luxurious satin, thank fully. Built quality seems to be pretty substantial and have that made to last feel. A peek inside the ventilation slots reveal a big, big transformer up front, just behind the fascia plate. This is followed by the pre-amp section directly behind the rear panel for the shortest signal path and two power amp modules at both sides. All board parts are surface mounted and seeming of high quality. Important point, country of manufacture aside, Krell maintained very high standards of quality in the parts that matters most. The sound!
The excellently built internals, larger heat sinks would be better for punishing music.

The remote is also built to the same quality standards as the rest of the amp. This Krell also accepts an Apple I-pod as input, a quality interface cable is provided, but why is the socket located in the back panel? I would rather it be in front for easy plugging and unplugging of the I-pod. I did not have an I-pod to test the input or interface unfortunately. There's also a single pair of XLR input, followed by other RCA inputs. A pair of WBT style speaker cable binding post is offered, which is easy and convenient to use.

The remote can program many functions which are displayed on a blue lighted panel, which is dim able by various programmable steps. There are just too many functions to list here, but I am sure if you readers are interested, a visit to Hi-Way Laser will have Kenny showing you all the nitty gritties.
The back panel action.

I was playing with the already impressive PMC OB1i speakers, powered by the 75W Pass Aleph 0 mono blocks. This time my Marantz CD7, not working, I used Odiosleuth's loaner Copland CDA-822 as CD source, by passing my regular Pass X2.5 pre amp with a pair of 4m long Cardas Golden Presence XLR interconnect, plugged direct in to the Krell's XLR input. Speaker cables are my very fine Siltech Classic Anniversary Series 330L. With the 150W @ 8 ohms rated Krell powering the PMCs, the sound took on a more dynamic character. I noticed the similarly smooth highs as with the Pass Aleph. The mids on the Krell seemed a little leaner somewhat, but I guess when compared to the Aleph, all else seems leaner by comparison. The bass took on a more powerful stance. The Krell kept the bass notes like a Rottweiler on a tight leash. Note to note up right bass transfers were clean and very articulate. Kick drums had a powerful "kick" to it. If you've heard the musical term "the bass propels the music forward", this Krell does it!This is one area where the Pass Aleph 0 is beaten by comparison.

The sound stage is as wide and as deep as the Pass Aleph, only shortfall being the layers within the sound field seems less distinct by comparison. Imaging properties is nearly as solid and dense as the Aleph 0. I would however, mark down hall/studio spatial and ambient cues just very slightly compared to the Aleph.

The Krell integrated amp will play all musical genre, be it pop/rock, jazz or classical with confidence, always sounding in control and up to task. When the Krell resided in my system, together with the PMC OB1i speakers, I've never heard the Musik Wie Von Einem Anderen Stern CD, by Manger sounding so powerful before, especially the killer last drum percussion track 15, called Jazz Variants. Many smaller systems just fail to reproduce the impact of those big dynamic drum beats. This is the forte' of bigger systems, yet in my room, and the context of the system in review, the Krell S-300i sails through the entire track effortlessly, powering the "big boy" PMCs with great control and authority.
This is an excellent test CD. I especially like track 2, which is a radio broadcast play, much like our Rediffusion, except the dialogues are in German! Track 15, is a well known system killer.

For two weeks, I played the most dynamically and transient challenging music in my collection, in order to try and find out the Krell's seemingly bottomless limits. I found that the amp runs very hot, but never shown any signs of distress by the way of playing music with distortion. I finally came across this track that tripped the Krell. The last track of The Greatest Hits of Arrested Development, an unplug "live" version of People Everyday finally showed up the Krell's limitations. This is one killer track, with it's low level but highly dynamic recording, will make one keep turning the volume up. I went all the way to near concert levels because I wanna feel the kick drums, and that attacking bass guitar notes pounding my chest! However, almost 4 minutes plus in to the song, I heard the bass guitar notes distorting and proceeded to turn the volume down. I then felt the frying hot heat sinks on the amp's top plate. I switched off the amp, for a few minutes, allowing it to cool down. I re-started to play music again soon after that. No problems at all.
This is a surprising difficult test. The last track show up the last of the Krell's bottomless power reserves.

The Krell's volume control operating range is from 1-150 steps and responds linearly. I was playing at 112 volume level with People Everyday when the amp started to protest. Trust me, that is mighty loud, and will probably damage your hearing.

Another look at the all powerful Krel S-300i.

I later proceeded to hook up my Audio Physic Spark speakers to the Krell. The more efficient and tonally neutral Spark seems always nervous and edgy by comparison to the PMC. I did used 3 pcs of the large Cardas Myrtle Wood Cuboids under the Krell and that seem to reduced some of the said leanness and made the partnership a better one. No fault of the Krell though, I just felt it better matched the PMCs than the Audio Physics.

Priced at RM$11,888.00, the Krell S-300i can be a very attractive proposition for those steppin' up in to high end from the Audiolabs, Creeks or Mission Cyrus, just to name a few. It gives them a big dosh of that high end taste to come, especially when partnered with warmer sounding speakers and sources. It's also suitable for those whom have done the high end up grade merry go round, and now just wanna settle down with some "basic" quality musical playback system. For me though, I could almost live with the Krell S-300i integrated. I said "almost" because for me at least, that would also mean buying a pair of PMCs to suit!

Lastly, I did not find out if the Krell S-300i was as good as the older KAV-400xi, as I did not have a sample of the later to compare. But I am very sure the newer S-300i is certainly no lesser of an amp, if probably not better, based on my experiences with it.

Krell sold by Hi-Way Laser, contact Kenny, tel no: 019-2813399.