Very Detailed, Real Bass, life-like, palpable. Simple to operate. Very convenient. Well thought through. Upgrade path to SACD in the pipeline.

Expensive. Heat due to Class A operation.

Incredibly life-like. Transport is superbly detailed without being harsh. DAC is cutting edge, with even mediocre CD players sounding pretty decent. Preamp is very complete, and is an excellent piece of equipment. Owning the 25SC is like the pinnacle of Hi-Fi-dom.

Similar Products Used:

Mark Levinson, Jeff Rowland, Linn

Dear All
I can only say that i couldn't stop my self from buying it.
Can anyone vote more deeply then trough his check book ?
If feel this cd player made me a happier person!
If you can buy try it otherwise you would be better without knowing what you lost
This is IMHO the Ferrari of the CD Players

BTW , used with the krell 250Mc it is as good as it gets!

Enjoy your music
Bye

I spent almost 2 hours playing with 10 CDs on this player. KPS-25s is an integrated CD player with line amplifier. It takes line inputs as well as digital inputs. It has a volumn control knob on the front with digital displayof the volumn. It has a glass cover which can be open up manuallly. Once the CD is inplaced one call just close the cover and it will close gradually by itself.
The system include B&W 801sIII and Krell FPB600.
Simply said, KPS-25s is the best digital front end I have ever heard on this system. It's extermely smooth and details. All harshness and digitis on the CDs are gone. Instead I was rewarded with music. Pure music. I can listen to it whole day without fatigue. This is everything I need for a music system.
For $20K listing price I shall never able to afford it. Is it 10 times betetr than an average hi-end cd player? I don't think so. Yes, it's a great player but
I think an average hi-end cd player shall give you 80 to 90% of the KPS-25s.
For performence I will give it 5 stars. For price I will give it 3 stars.

Cool to look at and use/ Extremely dynamic..full bass

slightly grey character, harmonic structure a tad synthetic compared the CD12

Had the great pleasure to have lived with all 3 units for 6 months. aside from low bass dynamics the Linn was superior in every way, it really wasn't close. having said that there are times when I miss the awsome low end extension of the 25sc and the flat out joy of use. As for the CAST cable system, aside for the fact that they are free with the unit,they sounded way to agressive compared to my Transparent RefXL and MIT EVO2.
System:Rowland Coherence Pre/8ti amp Avalon Radian and Talon Khourus.

Similar Products Used:

LinnCD12 Wadia 270ix/27

Speed, transparency, detail, musicality, one piece industrial design. SC 24/96 version.

Price, if it breaks your CD Player, Dac and Pre-Amp are all in the box.

I just got this piece this afternoon. I have Krell FPB 350MC amps, and the Sonic Frontiers Line 3 was a good match (or so I thought). The KAV 300 CD sounded as good, but different than the Levinson #39, a little leaner. But I felt something was missing. I have Watt Puppies, 5.1 version, and they were sounding thin and compressed. I was worried that if I went all solid state I'd lose musicality and bloom - I felt like this piece was a real risk as I hadn't heard it with the 24/96 version.

BUT the minute music started coming through the speakers, I was BLOWN AWAY. All of a sudden the system didn't sound compressed - it was expressive and insanely detailed and musical. The soundstage widened considerably, but was more focused. I heard a lot of stuff I hadn't heard before, better separation, micro-dynamics. But it wasn't the least bit analytical - this thing spoils you. It's gorgeously built, even the wooden inner box it ships in is really nice. This thing isn't even broken in, and it completely stomped the Line 3 - I am not missing anything except the glow of the tubes. Sure, it's expensive, but with other (fairly expensive) stuff (Line 3 is 5 grand), I was never happy. Basically, this piece embodies the Krell ideology - superb, state of the art sound, but without the typical "hi-end" lack of reliability and clunkiness. An analogy - it's like it was engineered by the Germans, the Italians voiced it, Americans built it, the French gave it soul and the Japanese made sure it worked!

Just for fun, I hooked up my $800 Sony DVD 7700 to the Coaxial DAC inputs to hear the difference, using the new Steely Dan "Two Against Nature" DVD as a reference. Mindblowing - now it sounds like a $5000 DVD player. Smooth and dynamic. No problems hooking up, recognized it immediately.

If you don't have good cables (I have Synergistic Research Designer Ref, this review is without CAST connections which I'll try in the next few weeks), great speakers and amplification, I guess buying one of these will cause a chain reaction of purchases as you get gear that measures up to the KPS25sc. Luckily, it was the last stop in my upgrade quest which has taken place over two years. If you can swing it, buy this and stop worrying about DVD Audio. It is upgradeable so hopefully "future proof". Sure you may need a separate transport for DVD-A or SACD, but the DAC will bring any associated digital equipment up several large notches. Thanks Krell! Now sell it for 10 grand and I'll be even happier :)

Associated music (CDs) - American Music Club, "Mercury". Steely Dan, "Two Against Nature". Radiohead, "OK Computer". Kraftwerk, "Computer World" (Japanese import). Stan Getz, "At Large" (24/96 Japanese import).

Enjoy the music!

Similar Products Used:

Sonic Frontiers SFL2, Line 3, Krell KAV 300 CD.