Brings fidelity to previously unreachable levels. I'll spare you the tired industry adjectives. This product is magical. I have Krell KAV300i int. amp and Dynaudio Contour 1.8 speaks. Previously used Cal Audio Ikon CD player. When I tested the Krell CD ,with Balanced outputs, my jaw dropped on the spot. $3,500 MSRP is a little spendy but this purchase produced 110% buyer satisfaction.

Brings fidelity to previously unreachable levels. I'll spare you the tired industry adjectives. This product is magical. I have Krell KAV300i int. amp and Dynaudio Contour 1.8 speaks. Previously used Cal Audio Ikon CD player. When I tested the Krell CD ,with Balanced outputs, my jaw dropped on the spot. $3,500 MSRP is a little spendy but this purchase produced 110% buyer satisfaction.

I home auditioned the Krell KAV300cd in my system consisting of:Krell KSA100s,Krell KSL-2,B&W 802 speakers,and transparent cable.I have also auditioned the
KAV300cd in numerous other systems.In my opinion,I wasn't blown away by the
unit.It was built like a tank and had good sound,but,there were a few things
that I noticed about this player that made me choose not to purchase one.
At first listen,the player had good bass,a very transparent mid-range,and a
seemingly endless treble extension This was all good and fine and very impressive at first but,became very tiresome and fatiguing in longer listening sessions.I thought that this might have had to do with a long break-in period.I was wrong!This seemed to be the sound charactor of the machine.In my experiance with previous Krell products,I have been nothing short of blown away by the
sound of them.There is nothing like it! I expected to have the same experiance
with the Krell KAV300cd.I did not.I thought that I might have had a faulty
machine,so,back to the dealer I went with the machine.The result: we tried
a different KAV300cd and had the same results.Convinced that I was crazy,I
auditioned 5 other players in the same price range.I came home with The
Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1!The Audio Research CD2 would be my second choice,
hadn't I already purchased the SFCD-1.Still wondering if I made the right
decision,I listened to the Krell KAV300cd again at a friend's house with
different components.The player seemed to sound a little better,but,still it
was too bright for my tastes.In some systems I can see where the KAV300cd would
be an asset,but in mine in my listening room it was not.The Krell seems to put
an emphisis on the treble region that is highly detailed but too bright,cold
and lifeless for my tastes.A friend of mine who owns one feels the exact opposite of me.He loves the machine.I guess this goes to show you that no two
people hear or think the same way.I will end by saying that if you are thinking
of buying this player, or any other component for that matter,carefull
at home auditioning and system matching is a must.I can still recommend the
Krell KAV300cd,but,it was just not for me......sorry Dan.

I owned the Krell KAV300cd for 3 months and found it to be pretty much unlistenable.I really wanted to like it,for it was a "Krell".But the more I
tried to enjoy the player,I just could not.The sound was cold,edgy,bright,
and aggressive.There are far more musical CD players out on the market
today than the Krell KAV300cd.The Krell was just not my cup of tea.The Sonic
Frontiers SFCD-1 is the "ULTIMATE" cd player.It just blows the Krell away
in every respect.The Sonic is everything that the Krell is not,musical,involving,warm,smooth,and laid-back.I have always felt that Krell
amps and pre-amps have been the best in the buisness.Krell just can't get
they're act together with the digital products that they produce.What a
shame.Krell is God.But not in digital,here they rate very poorly.

Right now, I am in process of shopping for a new CD player for my stereo system, B&W 802 III with Krell's KAV 250a and KRC-3, and the main contenders for my new CD player are Krell KAV-300cd and Sonic Frontier SFCD-1. I had a chance to compare both players with the same system, and the result is that the Sonic Frontier is more sonically superior but by not much. The SFCD-1 sound much more warm and lively, and on the other hand, the KAV-300cd is too bright. However, the main drawback for SFCD-1 are a lack of digital and optical outputs and looked-cheap turn on/off switch. With more than $3,500 price tag, Sonic Frontier should offer those output and has better build-quality like Krell does. If does not mind about sonical differences, the Krell has a better value for the money.
For myself, I still undecide which player I'll buy. It's really tuff.


aaa

Well, this audio hobby/habit is certainly a curious beast. I submitted a review for the Krell 300CD ( see below)but, after 6 months of listening, traded it in for a Levinson #39.It's not to say that the 300 is not a fine piece, it is; but to achieve higher levels of textured musicality, I opted for an alternative. I still have Krell electronics - although I also upgraded KAV 300i to FPB 200/ KRC-3 combo. I think Krell's new 250CD at $2,300 would be a much better value.
Still think it's a great unit but compared to some others it is 4 stars.

This Krell sounds like Hell!!!

It's amazing to see such diverse opinions about the same product. It seems the experience of at least some listeners differs strongly from the majority of reviews in the professional audio press. After reading such enthousiastic reviews in the english press (in HiFi News by Martin Colloms and in Gramophone by Alvin Gold), it's astonishing to read such negative assessments by potential buyers and even people who have owned the player.What's the deal here? These opinions are to be taken at least as serious if not more so then the enthousiasm of new owners, who perhaps might feel they can't affort to be negative about a product they've just spent a small fortune on.
Needless to say, this is all pretty subjective, but nevertheless I'd like to put in my two cents worth, even though as an satisfied owner my bias is obvious.

I've owned the 300cd for about 6 months now in a system with the KAV 300i and Transparent Super (balanced) interlink and speaker cable (two separate runs per channel for bi-wiring), feeding Etude MP1 speakers.It seems that hardly any europeans visit this site, so not too many people will be familiar with these speakers. Just to give a little context, it's a 110 litre, full range bass reflex loaded 4 way system designed in the late '70 using drivers like the KEF B139 and B110. Not exactly state of the art anymore, but I still seem to prefer their sound to various more contemporary speakers I've listened to, including Thiel CS 3.6, B&W 802III and others.
One of the supposedly negative aspects of the 300cd is the presence of an overbright, even agressive treble. I can only say that in the context of my own system, there is not even a hint of this, unless the music calls for it, which is something entirely different (e.g. listen to live music: a drumkit played with dedication and enthousiasm sounds agressive, whether you like it or not).
It might be that these older and probably less reveiling speakers compensate for any overexposed treble this player might have in another system. But then again I listened to the 300cd on a couple of other speakers as well - notably the Wilson Benesh Act One, Sonus Faber Electa Amator II and big floorstanding ProAc Responses - even before I bought the player, but didn't notice any agressiveness in the treble there either. Perhaps my ears compensate in some way, I don't know.

In choosing my cd player, I started out with the KAV 250cd, which sounded very good to me after having used a Sony CDP-X 555ES for many years. However, the transport section of this player was somewhat disappointing, being rather noisy and occasionally refusing discs, skipping tracks, etc. Perhaps if this transport was better built and better functioning I wouldn't have bothered - since I liked the sound of the player well enough - but I ended up with the 300cd for a home trail, although way over budget at that particular moment.
Apart from the much more solid and confidence inspiring operation of the Teac transport, there was simply no comparision in sound quality: much better transparency, wider and deeper soundstage, more dynamic presentation and much more lively, extended (!) and natural sounding treble. To me it definitely justified the extra cost. Perhaps the 250cd is a bit more lightfooted, which might explain why some feel the 300cd has less than excellent rhythm and pace.

All this make only one thing perfectly clear: no two systems are equal, no two listening rooms are equal and no two sets of ears are equal. So there's only one way out of this: listen for yourself in your own listening room with your own system for at least a week and then decide whether or not you like the sound. Use that period to do some system tweaking as well. I've found out that the 300cd (and the 250cd too, for that matter) benefits a great deal from a good isolation platform (in my case the addition of a Sicomin component support platform made all the difference in the world). You also need to be very careful with the choice of interconnects. Balanced operation is strongly recommended and in my case upgrading from Transparent Balanced Plus to Balanced Super was no small improvement. I have no doubt that further upgrading to Ultra or Reference will not be lost on the 300cd, but the price tag of these products holds me back.
It seems to me that the extremely reveiling nature of the 300cd can easily tip the sound over the edge of unpleasant brightness, so system matching is of great importance. Perhaps the alleged treble roll-off in Transparent product is a particularly good match in this case.
In my system it all results in edge of the seat stuff, without getting tiresome even after extended listening sessions. My experience is that even the older cd's in my collection - which used to suffer from a certain harshness - sound more benign and natural with the 300cd. When I have the time, I can't seem to stop listening and just revel in the sound, making one discovery after another with discs I already had, but the sound of which I couldn't really enjoy before. I don't think you can ask for much more.

I haven't listened to enough different cd players to give a comparative rating that can make any sense, so at least this rules out the maximum of 5 stars. But since I've experienced great sounds in the past months and I don't seem to be impressed at shows anymore by systems costing far more than my own, 4 stars for the 300cd seems correct.

Caveat: I've read that Krell has increased the price of the 300cd with $700 (for the same player, apparently not an improved mark II version). Although this is not really bad news for anyone who paid the old price, I still think a price increase of 20% is difficult to justify. It prompted Stereophile to delete the 300cd for their listing as a recommended product. While I can't really say if the 300cd is overpriced, this will probably downscale its sales figures in the future. To me at least, that seems a pity.

Thought I'd add my bit on this, I've been listening to one of these for a couple of months.
It needs a good warmup and does sound brash when first plugged in.
Two weeks or so makes a big difference, the bass deepens and the mid/treble gets less 'shouty'.

I think the variable reviews are to do with system mismatches - I believe the inherent quality of the player and electronics is near enough as good as it gets. The grip it holds over the sound is quite remarkable - and the dynamics and energy throughout the frequency range are exceptional. You only have to listen on 'phones or tape something off it and play it back against tapes from other sources to hear this.

Sound and build quality

Pathetic remote and user interface

I've heard tons of them. The only thing I've heard that I would prefer to this model is the Meridian 508.24. But at over twice the price of what I paid for this, the difference wasn't worth the cost.

It's awesome. Detail is the best quality of this player. Soundstage is fantastic. Build quality is first class.

The remote is cheap and operating it is depressing. It was obviously left to do last by the design team.

Similar Products Used:

Meridian, Levinson, NAD, Arcam, Rotel