TESTED: Krell S-300i Integrated Amplifier

Powerhouse

Few components strike fear in an audiophile’s lumbar region like the heavyweight electronics from Krell. Its current lineup includes the Evolution series of electronics and LAT speakers. And no one will forget the Master Reference subwoofer, an overwhelming 400-pound homage to on-demand seismic energy. But there’s another side to Krell, as exemplified in the S-300i. This integrated amplifier is little more than four inches high, but this powerhouse is pure Krell through and through.

It may be modest in profile but sciatica sufferers should cautiously bend those knees when trying to hoist it. At 43 pounds, it outputs 150Wpc and doubles that rating into 4 ohms thus likely making the S-300i the most powerful amp in this price range. Whereas many integrated amp have trouble driving loudspeakers that drop below a nominal 8-ohm impedance, the S-300i merely yawns at such challenges.

In sonic personality the S-300i could very well be the Lance Armstrong of integrated amplification. Like the physique of the Tour de France champ, the S-300i’s sonics are conveyed with muscular definition and not a single ounce of flab. Its sound is built for speed and for the critical analysis of a recording—not a rough translation. The result is a drier tonality that’s not exactly sweet but rather sweetly exacting. If your biases tend toward the lush, florid, romantic, or, goodness knows, euphonic, the S-300i may not entirely win your heart. However, if it’s precision-cut images and transient acceleration you’re seeking, you’ve found your ride.

To that end the Krell really shines on a solo acoustic guitar recording like Laurence Juber’s LJ Plays The Beatles [Solid Air Records]. From the instant Juber began playing his transcription of “Yesterday,” I could hear the sound of his fingertips and nails striking the strings. From this slightly softened transient it was apparent that Juber wasn’t using fingerpicks which typically create an annoying clatter. The S-300i reproduced the full body and bloom of this close-miked recording in a way that was comparable to some of the best amps I’ve had on hand recently. Don’t look for it to flatter an edgy recording with a peaky hard vocal or the aggressive winds and strings in an orchestra. However, a highly naturalistic one like cellist Pieter Wispelwey’s version of Bloch’s Kol Nidre [Channel Classics] produced rewarding string tone and a full-bodied representation of acoustic space. I could hear a velvety midrange smoothness slipstreaming alongside the speed and immediacy of this marvelous recording. And the imaging on this track was wonderfully precise—as good as I’ve ever heard it and that’s saying something. The S-300i seemed to relish diving into the middle of the orchestra plucking out low-level details and timbres with ease.

In bass response, the S-300i doesn’t have the bone-chilling footprint of Krell’s colossal flagships—it won’t dredge the bottom of the low-frequency lake and it lacks the bass bloom and decay that define the most elite amps in this segment. But dynamically it’s no shrinking violet either. Its strength is its excellent low-frequency control; for example, during Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al” it produced those popping electric bass lines with the kind of pitch and texture that might even redefine the integrated amplifier in this price range.

It loses just a little steam and finesse at the margins. Thus harmonic information in the upper treble seems a little more earthbound, more finite. There’s a slight rigidity during the Paul Simon/Linda Ronstadt duet of “Under African Skies” [Graceland, Columbia] that I didn’t hear with mondo-integrated amps like the Pass INT-150 and ATC SIA2-150—both priced north of $6500, I should add. It also won’t plow through percussive dynamics with quite the energy of these well-regarded amps or duplicate the scale or weight they impart to a symphony orchestra. Finally, there’s a modest reduction of depth and soundstage width—an example would be the background voices on Simon’s Graceland album, which should be located at the furthest extremes of the speakers’ side panels.