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Had the opportunity to demo Krell and Classe HT gear in the last three days, specifically the Krell S-1200 and two S-275s, along with the SSP-800 and CT-5300. I had planned to do a big write up but lost interest and will just provide a few comments.
Speakers are all B&W: 803s L and R, HTM3S, and three DS7s. JL F113 sub, Cardas interconnects and a mix mosh of speaker cables, but nothing above average. All speakers were crossed over at 80Hz.
In my room, it was almost impossible to distinguish differences in sound quality between the two manufactures. Both are dynamic, expressive, and likely will not disappoint. With a gun to my head, I'd probably pick the Classe setup as it seemed minutely more smooth, but the differences if any were so infinitesimally small that one shoudn't sweat it. I didn't.
Oddly, when I put my six channel Showcase amp back in things sounded the same. Strange considering it has less than half the power per channel than the other amps.
Visually, it's tough to beat the design of the Delta series. The radiused front corners play with light beautifully. I do quite like the silver on the S-1200 though, as well as the large dial and display.
I found the menu structure on the Classe to be horrid, as well as the number of remote keypresses necessary to navigate and make changes. I'll attribute some of this to the fact that the 1200 has the same structure as my Showcase processor, and familiarity breeds some content, but changes were far more staightforward and intuitive IMO on the Krell. I also prefer the display on the Krell b/c I can read it from my seating position, and don't want the OSD display to come on everytime I make a volume adjustment. I couldn't easily make out the display on the 800 from my position.
So where does this leave me? I want my processor and amp to be from the same company and while earlier I said I'd pick the Classe with a gun to my head, the cash outlay to switch over for very little to almost no performace increase isn't justifiable. If I was just starting to assemble a system I'd probably go with Classe from a sound standpoint, gnashing my teeth the whole time I was setting up the 800. But when the time comes I'll be purchasing the S-1200.
Speakers are all B&W: 803s L and R, HTM3S, and three DS7s. JL F113 sub, Cardas interconnects and a mix mosh of speaker cables, but nothing above average. All speakers were crossed over at 80Hz.
In my room, it was almost impossible to distinguish differences in sound quality between the two manufactures. Both are dynamic, expressive, and likely will not disappoint. With a gun to my head, I'd probably pick the Classe setup as it seemed minutely more smooth, but the differences if any were so infinitesimally small that one shoudn't sweat it. I didn't.
Oddly, when I put my six channel Showcase amp back in things sounded the same. Strange considering it has less than half the power per channel than the other amps.
Visually, it's tough to beat the design of the Delta series. The radiused front corners play with light beautifully. I do quite like the silver on the S-1200 though, as well as the large dial and display.
I found the menu structure on the Classe to be horrid, as well as the number of remote keypresses necessary to navigate and make changes. I'll attribute some of this to the fact that the 1200 has the same structure as my Showcase processor, and familiarity breeds some content, but changes were far more staightforward and intuitive IMO on the Krell. I also prefer the display on the Krell b/c I can read it from my seating position, and don't want the OSD display to come on everytime I make a volume adjustment. I couldn't easily make out the display on the 800 from my position.
So where does this leave me? I want my processor and amp to be from the same company and while earlier I said I'd pick the Classe with a gun to my head, the cash outlay to switch over for very little to almost no performace increase isn't justifiable. If I was just starting to assemble a system I'd probably go with Classe from a sound standpoint, gnashing my teeth the whole time I was setting up the 800. But when the time comes I'll be purchasing the S-1200.
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