Few brands trigger awe among audiophiles like Krell. Dan D’Agostino’s spare-no-expense designs remain sought after 30+ years after their release, and for good reason: few designs can match the rich cohesiveness and dynamic range of a golden-age Krell (as distinguished from today’s Krell, which never seems to have recaptured the magic after D’Agostino left).
So when I had the opportunity to pick up a Krell FPB-200 at a bargain price on Craigslist, I jumped at the chance. Apart from Krell’s reputation and my own positive experiences with the brand, I was intrigued by this model’s regulated output stage and power supply, which Krell claimed to cure current and voltage drops that affect musicality. I was also intrigued by the fact that this full Class A amp can deliver 200W into 8 ohms, 400W into 4 ohms, and 800W into 2 ohms!
I briefly demoed the amp at the seller’s home, but he had on hand only a pair of midsize bookshelf speakers to test it with. The amp clearly worked, but it was impossible to form any meaningful impressions about how it sounded. Nonetheless, I took it home with high expectations.
I hooked the amp up to my Revel Salon2s and my Benchmark DAC2 and let it warm up for about an hour before playing music. The amp got warm to the touch, but it was not nearly as hot as I expected from reading various reviews, which perhaps should have been a warning sign.
I then tested the amp with a variety of records, from Alice in Chains to Sarah Bareilles to Markus King to Cannonball Adderley. The first thing I noticed was the excellent bottom-end for which Krell is known. This was true across albums and genres. The amp clearly took hold of the woofers and generated better and tighter base than most amps I’ve used with these speakers. This was a good sign.
Unfortunately, the more I listened, the more I detected a graininess that I don’t typically hear from high-end amps. The soundstage was there, and the bass was excellent, but vocals in particular lacked the clarity and crispness to which I’m accustomed. The mid-range also seemed muddied and lacking resolution. At first I hoped the amp just needed more time to warm up, perhaps after a long period of storage. But after several weeks of listening, its fundamental character did not change.
The very best amps are hard to take out of your system. You miss them almost immediately, and you worry that you won’t be able to recreate the joy they created in your listening room. I never had that problem with the Krell. After a few weeks, I replaced it with a Counterpoint amp and preamp, which I’ll review soon, and never looked back.
The question is why was the Krell so disappointing? I think the answer lies in the perils of vintage audio. At this point, the capacitors in this amp are roughly 25 years old. They likely need to be replaced, and the amp could be out of spec in other ways as well. The problem is that it’s obscenely expensive to have this amp serviced and recapped, particularly if you want to send it to Krell. I have recapped many amps over the years, but I wasn’t keen to take on a project of this size. It likely would have taken a few dozen hours to complete, and there is no guarantee that the recap would have solved the problems I was hearing. It could have been any number of other faulty components, so I decided to simply move on.
As you can see, I wasn’t impressed with this incarnation of the FPB-200. But given what I heard on the low-end, I do think the design has incredible potential. I’d love to get my hands on a recapped and serviced version so I can hear what I was missing.
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