Krell Evolution Preamp and Amplifier

Continuing in the Krell tradition, Dan D’Agostino’s very best gear

There is a level of excellence at which conventional words about quality and cost-effectiveness become meaningless. Like the very best cars, watches, and wines, and every other assault on the consumer state of the art that you can actually buy, price ceases to be an object. You choose because it is a personal passion—if not an obsession—and because you are lucky enough to be one of the handful of people who really can afford the very best.

The Krell Evolution preamp and amplifier are cases in point. If all you wanted was very good, or even excellent amplification, you could buy a Krell 400Xi integrated amplifier at a tiny fraction of the price. The Krell Evolution Two monaural preamp costs $40,000 for a stereo pair, and the Evolution One 450-watt monaural amplifier costs $50,000 a pair. At their prices, you reach a point of diminishing returns in dollars-for-sound-quality that borders on madness.

It is, however, a fine madness. In fact, it is glorious excess! The Krell Evolution series is some of the finest audio equipment ever made—as it virtually must be at the price. It is almost faultless in terms of performance, appearance, and the sheer joy of listening.

In saying this, I am not trying to imply that the Krell Evolution preamp and amplifier will suit everyone’s taste. Anyone who is truly familiar with the high end knows that the real issue is not whether all preamplifiers and amplifiers sound alike, or even which sounds “best.” It is rather how different their nuances can be, and how important it is to find the precise mix that suits your ear and taste.

We talk a lot about musical accuracy and absolutes in The Absolute Sound. We place an almost ritual emphasis on listening to live music as a standard. The truth is, however, that no two reviewers share the same taste or define absolutes the same way. We all do share a common joy in music, but no one who reads the magazine with any frequency can believe we share the same musical taste.

Moreover, as someone who travels to some twenty to thirty countries a year, I have heard live music sound so different in so many places, and the sonic nuances of a given performance shift so much in character as I move through the performance area, that I am not about to designate one mix of sound characteristics as a standard. Anyone who believes that there is one such standard for the sound of live music has led an amazing sheltered and musically narrow life. Even if the illusion of electronic reproduction could be perfect—and it can’t— the issue of which musical reality a given audiophile prefers would still be a matter of personal experience and taste.

In short, if you have heard the sound of Krell electronics before, and have preferred the sound from a different type of electronics, or the sound character and “voicing” of a different designer or manufacturer, listening to the Krell Evolution series may not change your mind. I would, however, still look on the review that follows as little more than a petty appetizer—the audio equivalent of an amuse bouche—and make a real effort to listen to this set of Krell gear.

This does not mean that the Krell Evolution Two preamplifier and Krell Evolution One amplifier are some kind of radical sonic breakthrough; the Krell Evolution series lives up to its name. I have always found Krell to produce some of the most musically realistic electronics available, and I have heard Krell equipment evolve since the first Krell amplifier was put on the market. With only one or two exceptions, each new design has been a step forward on a continuing journey.

The best aspects of the original Krell sound-character and “voicing” have always been preserved, but the original virtues of deep-bass power and rich natural timbre have been steadily enhanced, while air, life, microdynamics, soundstage depth and detail, and the upper octaves have improved to contenders for the state-of-the-art. The Krell Evolution Two and Krell Evolution One do push the envelope significantly further than any previous advances in the Krell line, but they still are evolutions not revolutions. As HP pointed out long ago in the early issues of TAS, the high end is about nuance not absolutes. This is even truer today. If it isn’t at least very goodand very reliable over time, a product is at most worth about a three-sentence dismissal. Any manufacturer who can’t meet those tests should be driven out of business. The standards of the rest of the industry are simply too high.

At the very top, however, nuances get harder and harder to describe without ending with a long chain of superlatives, nitpicking the product for reasons based on the reviewer’s personal taste, or simply trying to force an artificial degree of balance and “objectivity” into the review. Words are not sounds, and the issue is sounds and not words. Moreover, the problem of separating the nuances of the electronics from factors like source material, front end, speakers, and room also get to be more difficult.