Halo C1 and Krell 2250 + 3250 with New BW 800s

[misterdoggy]

Well I've put together a dream system hopefully, C1 Halo, with 2 Krell Amps 3250 and 2250, with B&W ASW825, Htm3s, 804s (fronts) 805s surrounds, all with Nordost Solar wind. I'm switching out of Rotel 1098 with rb1090 to make a step up hopefully. I am new to be a member and live in France, but look forward to sharing my new experience with you all.
I was going ot go with the Halo Amps, but I think Krell Amps are tops. I'll let you know.

[nicholtl]

Wow, that IS quite a system! Might I suggest one thing though, if time/budget permits? Try swapping your Nordost Solarwinds with Kimber Kable's Silverstreaks (a little more expensive, but if you already own a C1 and Krell amps...). I own both of them, and find the Solarwinds to be a bit tinny and thin compared to the Silverstreaks. But...that's just me. The Solarwinds are fantastic interconnects/speaker cables, regardless of price.

[misterdoggy]

Solar Wind

I recently switched from flatline to Solarwind and was very impressed as the sound stage grew and became warmer. Since I just bought everything (haven't received any of it) I can't comment. Its so hard to know what is going to sound good when you don't have a good dealer near you and you have to depend on reviews. How expensive are those Silverstreaks ? Also In the change of Amps I ordered the Solar Wind in XLR's. So everything is Solar wind across the board, all Rca connects, Speaker Cables and XLR so that was a pretty hefty investment. I can't imagine bailing out at this point.

Which Krell Amps are you running ?

[nicholtl]

I don't have Krell amps, actually. You're the only lucky duck I know of that has! I have a Halo A51 and A21, and I use PS Audio balanced XLR's to connect them to my C2. The Silverstreaks run about $300 per 1-meter pair of interconnects. I don't believe Kimber makes Silverstreak speaker cables. They have different names for those garden hoses.

[misterdoggy]

Silver Streaks

Yeah, The silver streaks exist in XLR interconnects, I looked them up after reading your post. They look interesting although no protection. Sound is all that counts though. I thought about your setup, going all Halo. It looks more cohesive, same look, but went with the Krell. I was going to go for the Krell hts 7.1, but had read so many reviews about 2 second pause when switching between channels on the same satellite. Since we watch a lot of Satellite TV (in English) that would be a real bummer to have a pause between every station. I could understand between different sources ie satellite and Dvd etc, but felt Krell hadn't reached the goal yet. Whats your experience with the Halo. Do you have Satellite TV and any problems there.

Another question: If you have different video sources coming in as I had one satelite as Composite, one as digital, Dvd component, will the Halo automatically go to the different source for the mode thats chosen. And will it all go up to the plasma screen via Component or do I need several connections for the video going up to the Screen ie: component and S-video.

[Chris D]

Hey, misterdoggy, congrats on the new toys, and welcome to Club Parasound and the Guide! :banana: Hope you like the new stuff.

You're our first owner from France, too!

[misterdoggy]

Glad to be aboard !!! I'm counting on you guys for some answers and promise to give useful feedback.

[nicholtl]

That is pretty cool, huh? People out of the blue buying Halo products and joining the fold.

[goldear]

"Another question: If you have different video sources coming in as I had one satelite as Composite, one as digital, Dvd component, will the Halo automatically go to the different source for the mode thats chosen. And will it all go up to the plasma screen via Component or do I need several connections for the video going up to the Screen ie: component and S-video."
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Unfotunately, the Halo's do not have video transcoding (yet), but you can assign any video input (CVBS, SVID or COMP) to any source and it will automatically switch to that...just as you can for any of the digital audio inputs.

Since the component outputs do not have OSD, you may want to run an Svid or Composite to a second small monitor (as I did)...or to a different video input on your main monitor. In fact, if I recall, the main composite video outputs (OSD) will convert the svid inputs to output so you don't have to run both sets or interconnects into the Halo.

You'll have to check this and maybe make an adjustment in the menu, but I think I remember doing this because I bought one of those little $15, 5" TVs that only had composite-in that I used for OSD control when using component material. Than again, the C1s front panel display may be all you need

[kurtholz]

your gonna love your system, i recently added the 803's to my fronts, using the HTM1 center, with the Krell3250 driving those, using Rotels 1095 amp for the rear CDM9nt's and 601 as rear center

i use the Krell showcase to do all the thinking :-)

i use cable as a tv source, it does click and switch between channels, but since my other processor did that also, i'm used to it, doesnt really bother me at all

speaker cable is my next tweak, i'm using monster z's , just need to recover before i go to some kind of silver speaker cable, please give us some input after you get your system up and running

[misterdoggy]

Thanks for those tips goldear. That answers my question about whether it stays inthe memory when going back to a different source. Thats perfect.

Kurtholz, actually I bought 3 Amps. first I bought the Showcase 5 Amp, then decided even before it was delivered, that I had read so many good things about the 3250 and 2250 Krell @ 250w a channel plus, that I bought the 2250 and the 3250 as well. Now I have the showcase coming anyday, the 2250 coming anyday and the 3250 needs to be changed over to 240v which will take a few weeks. So I'll run the show with the Halo C1 with the 2250 on the fronts and the Showcase amp on the center and surrounds. Everything is in the Post as we speak. Its like Christmas !!!! Even the Nordost Solar Wind XLRs haven't been delivered.

[kurtholz]

don't you just love xmas in May, hahaha, you sound as bad as me, i started with Rotel 1067,and 1060 dvd player, then added 1075, then traded it in for 1095, then traded 1067 in for showcase, added 3250, that's in less than a 3 month period, at the same time, started with B & W 603's, then did CDM9Nt's, added 601 as rear centers, and asw675, then punted it for asw800 and the 803's,

i think we might both have a problem

hahaha

enjoy

Kurt

[jericho]

Why the Krell ends, and not the A51 or the JC-1 in combination with the C1?

[nicholtl]

Because variety is the spice of life?

[misterdoggy]

Why the Krell ends, and not the A51 or the JC-1 in combination with the C1?

Well I've heard Krells before and I don't know Parasound, but would like to make the comparison some day. I chose Parasound as it had such good reviews for the Controller, and its a smart looking unit. I was already used to the small LCD on the RSP 1098 so it seemed like a step upward. Probably stereo sound would be slightly better with the Krell HTS 7.1, but other problems with satellite recognition of the digital signal between stations would be enough for a minor upsurgence in my household where we watch a lot of Satellite TV (2 satellites one digital in French and analog from Great Britain). So therefore the Parasound. I was also looking at the resale value of the Parasound and saw that Krell seems to hold its value pretty well so there must be a reason. You don't find discounted Krell's new, but do so in Parasound. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Parasound man now, I'm just calling it the way it is.

If I could have listened to both and made the decision based on other factors like what sounds better, I would have done so, but I know of no-one near selling Parasounds in the Geneva/Lyon area, so had to make an educated guess. I bet from what I read the JC-1's would be outstanding. I was also worried about having mono bloc's on all day like we do. Which brings me to another question:

When comparing Stereo mono bloc's to home-cinema Amps which are usually 3 channels and up, you would think that the home cinema amps are more suited to continued running (all day) than the power thats created from mono blocs and heat, that just left on to watch satellite TV might be shortening the life of the mono bloc's without good purpose.

Whats your take :

[Peter Nielsen]

When comparing Stereo mono bloc's to home-cinema Amps which are usually 3 channels and up, you would think that the home cinema amps are more suited to continued running (all day) than the power thats created from mono blocs and heat, that just left on to watch satellite TV might be shortening the life of the mono bloc's without good purpose.

Whats your take :

It's impossible to generalize. It all comes down to what idle bias current is used in the amp (i.e. at what wattage it switches from class A to class A/B operation).

However, what we can say is that a digital (class D) amplifier is extremely well suited to be running all the time thanks to the very high efficiency (very low heat output). Check out the PS Audio amps for a good example of 7x1000 watts in one small box without heatsinks and hardly any ventilation holes...

Peter

[misterdoggy]

wow, I checked out that psaudio. Very impressive statistics. I would like to hear how it sounds. Sound it everything and the combinations within only the amplifier, not talking about the rest of the chain and finally room conditions can so affect the final result.

In the 70's I had Macintosh and `Marantz tube amps, then went everything Macintosh Amp, c20 preamp, equalizer, with Klipsch Horns, then went to amps like the Hafler 500 which my nephew was using in the top studio in New York during the late 80's. I had Infinity RSIIIb's being driven by the Hafler 500 and thought that was the best sounding system I had ever heard. The "combination" of all the elements was perfect. I used a benign preamp which just acted as a bypass with nothing but volume controls and the music was incredible. It seemed all lost until I just hooked up this Krell with the C1 and Voila all the warmth was back again. And at low volumes, you can hear detail. I haven't gotten near tweaking it, but I think there's a lot of room for more improvement.