Kudos to Krell's Kustomer Kare

[Karma]

HI All,
Two weeks ago I dropped my TV remote on the remote for my Krell KAV280P preamp from a height of about 2 feet. Disaster!! The Krell remote was dead, dead, dead and it was my fault. No warrany issue here.

After determining that it's death was final, and with nothing to loose, I disassembled it to see if it could be fixed. Under magnification I found a hairline cracked printed circuit board. There were 5 circuit traces passing over the crack and they were cracked too. Very carefully, I repaired the fine traces.

Success!! The remote had been resurected at least long enough to get its IR codes learned by my new, nifty Pronto TST-7000, do everything, remote. The Krell remote is still working but I no longer trusted it in the event I ever decide to sell the preamp.

So I Kalled Krell's Kustomer Kare. I explained my situation and asked if they had a more robust remote I could buy. They did. It Kost a Kool $500 and it is Kast from Kryptonite. I declined in favor of $75 for a new original. Jim offered to send me a replacement. FOR FREE. It arrived 3 days ago.

The price being right, I accepted his Kindly offer. Understand, I did not Klaim a warranty situation and freely admitted that all of this was my fault. Krell did this out of the Kindness of their heart. Good for them. I thought you all would like to hear this story about "above the Kall of duty" Kustomer service.

Sparky

[Gump]

I have been considering Krell as an amp option. Customer service sounds good, but I'm wondering about the quality of that remote now. I've got a 3yr old and an 11 month old and, no matter how cautious I am they seem to be able to some how get their hands on my Marantz remote. It's been dropped numerous times on all types of surfaces, kicked around, spit up on---the works (picture that old luggage commercial with the gorilla beating up the suitcase). It's a pretty elaborate remote too, with a touch screen front LCD display. Never had a problem with it.

Seems like as expensive as Krell products are they should be providing a more durable remote without having to peel off another 5 Benjamins.

Either that or your tv remote must be pretty darn heavy!!

[Karma]

HI gump,
I was disappointed with the durability of the remote. I did challange Krell about the inconsistency between the rugged build quality of their boxes verses this remote. They really had no answer except to send me a free replacement.

The TV remote (for an Hitachi plasma) is not unusually heavy. In looking at the damage, I think the TV remote hit the Krell remote with a corner. There was no external indication of the problems inside. There were no dings, scratches, or dents. If it had landed flat I don't think the damage would have occured. Still, I will be more careful in the future. But, as you know, sh*t happens. Fortunately, I will be using the Pronto remote which replaces the Krell and all (8 of them) of my other growing collection of remotes. So, this will be a non-issue for me.

Do I think this should convince you to not buy the lower priced Krell products? Maybe. I think one solution is to use an inexpensive learning remote to replace the Krell remote. Then you could put it in a drawer and forget about it. I think it might be an over reaction to deprive ourselves of this fine equipment because of this issue when inexpensive solutions are available. Maybe you could call Krell and see how they react to this question.

Sparky

[Gump]

Sparky,

I certainly haven't eliminated Krell as an option for a new amp based on your incident. The quality of the sound is my primary concern, not the remote control. I just thought it was odd that they would ask you to pay that much extra for a more durable remote.
The Kav-3250 is still right up there in my top 3 or 4 considerations. I was leaning towards the Classe 3200, then back towards the Krell, then I listened to the new 1092 Rotel which I liked alot, then I was thinking of demo-ing the Nuforce 9's, then my stereo guru wanted me to go with the Linn Chakra 3200, etc, etc, etc----!

I'm starting to feel like I'm standing on roller-skates on the deck of a ship in stormy sea's.

I don't know what I'm worried about....it's only money. Lots of money.

[ShadowZA]

Sparky, thanks for sharing your story. Glad that it has a happy ending. :T

Gump ... I've been where you are now. It's tough. I wish I could be of more support. I truly belive that there is no "right or wrong" in this. My wish is that whatever you get ... it brings happiness and contentment. I emerged ... from that veritable ocean of uncertainty ... with ... a Krell. Good luck!

[Gump]

Sparky, thanks for sharing your story. Glad that it has a happy ending. :T

Gump ... I've been where you are now. It's tough. I wish I could be of more support. I truly belive that there is no "right or wrong" in this. My wish is that whatever you get ... it brings happiness and contentment. I emerged ... from that veritable ocean of uncertainty ... with ... a Krell. Good luck!

Thanks, Shadow.

By the way I have the 803D's too, and I've been waiting to hear how your set-up sounds... Any observations you want to share yet?

(Sparky, sorry for taking your thread off track a little bit) ops: