Krell unveils its most affordable integrated amp yet
But this is Krell, after all, so you're looking at a starting point of £4698...
Krell, Conneticut high-end heroes for the past 30 years, has announced its most affordable integrated stereo amplifier: the K-300i.
The numbers attached to the K-300i are all impressive. 150 watts per channel of power at 8 ohms, doubling to 300 watts into 4 ohms. 18.2kg once it's out of its packaging. And a starting price of £4698.
That money buys the aforementioned power output, two balance XLR inputs, three pairs of stereo RCA inputs, outputs for two pairs of speakers and stereo RCA pre-amp outputs. It also buys you the benefi of Krell's iBais amplifier technology, designed to bring all of the benefits of Class A amplification without the attendant heat and power consumption downsides.
Up your spend to £5698 and the K-300i can be had with digital options. These amount to an ESS Sabre 24bit/192kHz DAC fed by an optical or RCA coxial input, compatible with every meaningful file format. Spotify, Tidal, Deezer and vTuner internet radio are provided for, and the Krell is Roon Ready and decodes MQA files too.
The digital option also delivers a pair of HDMI 2.0 sockets (in and out) that are 4K KDR compliant. aptX Bluetooth is on board, and there are front and rear USB sockets too (up front for stick-borne music, around the back for a hard connection to a computer).
The K-300i is on sale in the UK from next month.
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Simon Lucas is a technology journalist, with a strong emphasis on the audio/video side of consumer electronics and home entertainment, and has been since 2003. He worked for more than 14 years at What Hi-Fi?, the last six of which were spent as the editor of the magazine and website. Since then he's written for Wired, The Guardian, TechRadar, Stuff, GQ and many more besides.
In the course of his career he's developed a pretty deep understanding of the way both the publishing and the electronics industries function, as well as the sort of intimate knowledge of audio products (both specific and general) that can make people very wary of him at parties.
