Using 2 Krell multi-channel amps as monoblocks?

[ShadowZA]

I just thought of something regarding 2 channel critical music-listening only. Don't know why I didn't think of it before.

I have 2 Krell KAV amps. One 3 channel & one 2 channel. Each amp has a 2000VA power supply. At the mo' I have LF, centre & RF on one amp & SL & SR on the other. In other words, at present, both LF & RF share ONE power supply. Seeing as I listen to mostly 2 channel sound, don't you think that it would be better to have the LF connected to one amp & the RF to the other? In this way each channel will have SEPARATE and INDEPENDENT access to a 2000VA power supply. I'll also run these two amps from different electrical household sockets. This would, imho, mimic monoblocks.

To elaborate on how my 2-channel music listening is setup: Sound passes from my CD player source (via balanced analogue signal) through the pre-amp section of the Krell Showcase processor to the power amps (also via balanced analogue signal).

Is my thinking correct or am I missing something important?

[ThomasW]

Given the build standard of Krell amps I doubt you hear any significant improvement unless the speakers you're driving are very inefficient and you're running the current amp close to clipping.

My experience with so called "dual mono" setups is the improvements are primarily marketing driven as opposed to providing real world improvements.

That said, since you have the amps there's little to stop you from experimenting.

[ShadowZA]

I guess there's no harm in trying it out. I'm certain that I'll not notice any sonic benefit as I listen mostly to smooth jazz which is not too taxing on the amps anyway. The benefit would probably be 99,85% psychological, knowing that there will be a surplus of power reserves available. :T

[Briz vegas]

But then we are told that it is surprising how certain program material can be more taxing on a system than you might think.

Do you have any uncompressed recordings. A friend demoed a CD he was putting together which featured just an acoustic bass and clarinet. Boy was that recording demanding as the peaks were huge compared to commercial recordings. It made almost.......no actually it made every other CD I own sound undynamic in comparison - mind you just a little compression would have been good. My system did seem to struggle a little at the extremes. 185w is not endless power and 804s are not a PA system - which is effectively what we were asking of it. The guy doing the recording said it was sublime on his system but he was using efficient Atlec theatre speakers - basically a PA system. On my system it sounded awesome until the volume spiked and it got a bit harsh to my ears. But I digress.

Give it a go Shadow and let us know how you go!

[ShadowZA]

Point taken Briz. That's the call that I needed to get me to spring into action.

Made the change and glad that I did it. On the negative side I suppose that you could call me a power hog. But hey, we have 2 hot water cylinders in the house & I keep one turned off. Seriously though, I feel quite chuffed. :T

Briz, for critical listening, I listen to well recorded redbook CD's virtually exclusively. This is what the Meridian 808 CD player does (taken from a 2006 article by Sue Kraft):

The 808 starts with a specially selected triplebeam, multi-speed DVD-ROM drive. The drive makes multiple passes over sections of the disc where errors are detected, reportedly reducing the need for error correction by a hundredfold. The datastream from the disc is then buffered by the first of four FIFO (first-in, first-out) buffers. Data enter the buffer with imprecise timing and are clocked out with a low-jitter clock. These FIFO buffers are employed at various stages in the digital processing chain. The output clock that controls the DACs is located on the analog-output card right next to the DACs. Because of these anti-jitter measures, Meridian claims the 808 has the lowest clock jitter of any CD player they’ve measured—less than 90 picoseconds, with the jitter frequency held below 0.1Hz. In most CD players and digital processors, the jitter is highly correlated with the audio signal, increasing the audibility of jitter-induced sonic artifacts. The 808 is also special in its application of proprietary digital signal processing (DSP) to upsample the 44.1kHz, 16-bit data to 176.4kHz, 24-bit for conversion to analog. The DSPs also run Meridian’s “Resolution Enhancement” algorithm. The player employs more powerful DSPs (three devices with a combined computing power of 150MIPS) than any previous player, which allows Meridian to run more sophisticated upsampling and resolution-enhancement algorithms. More powerful DSPs also provide greater precision in the intermediate calculations (in the 808’s case, 72-bit), resulting in less requantizing error in the final 24-bit output signal. The analog output stage is an all-new design, as is the power supply. The balanced output signal is created in the analog domain after the DACs.This means there’s an additional active stage in the analog signal path for the balanced outputs compared with the unbalanced jacks. The 808 is available with an optional built-in preamplifier (808i) for those who require the flexibility of additional analog and digital inputs. Both versions come with analog balanced and unbalanced outputs, which can be either fixed for connection to an outboard preamplifier or variable to connect directly to an amplifier. Either the 808 or 808i will output high resolution upsampled digital audio for connection directly to Meridian’s digital loudspeakers.

I have the 808 V1. A V2 has recently been released by Meridian. I'll say one thing about the sound: Bliss!