New Krell Connect

[Masterlu]

Krell Industries, Incorporated, America's premiere manufacturer of high-end audio equipment: award-winning amplifiers, preamplifiers, CD players, DVD players, surround/sound processors, loudspeakers








Up to 192kHz/24-bit playback
3.5-inch QVGA (320x240) LCD Display
Internet Radio UPnP/DLNA-compliant
iOS and Android apps for control. IR Remote optional.
V-Tuner equipped
Wi-Fi and USB, plus Toslink optical and coax digital inputs (DAC model only)
Rack Mountable
Optional 32-bit ESS Sabre DAC features 192k/24-bit playback, with Krell fully discrete, balanced, Current mode analog circuitry
DAC model features RCA and Balanced outputs.
Supported Formats: FLAC, Ogg, WAV, WMA, MP3

[TommyC]

Wow, that is really ugly and cheap looking.

[Sonic]

I wonder how it performs in contrast to something like a Sonos/Benchmark DAC pair...

[keithjackson]

Has anyone used the Krell Connect yet
I would love a comparison to the Bryston BDP 1 and 2 and BDA 1 and 2
Combination

[davew]

Oddly I just replaced my Bryston BDP-1 with a Connect. I'm not using a Bryston DAC. I have a Calyx Femto, So I did not get the internal DAC with the connect either. I liked the BDP but in the end I could not live with the interface and found it to be rather unstable overall, needing frequent reboots, even with latest firmware. That said, I otherwise really liked it in every other way. My amps and pre-amp are Krell, and the system is in the main room of my house, so I primarly swapped for visual continuity, and for the improved user interface. Both these I got and am pleased in this regard. Most importantly, musicality is pretty muchy the same. I don't (and likely shouldn't) hear any difference. The downsides this far:
1. I can't seem to stream FLACs across my LAN either wirelessly or wired. They just don;t seem to buffer correctly and start and stop every few seconds. I have treied everything with no resolve. I have no issues streaming FLACs or WAV and HD-TV over my network with other devices.
2. The UBS port will only read FAT formatted devices so mounting my full library to the streamer is not an option.
3. The overall build quility and design is no where near my other Krell equipment. Granted, the MSRP is much lower too, but still...
4. Only Toslink and RCA coax digital outs. No AES/EBU... (The DAC version differs, obvioulsly).
5. No ability to log into internet radio stations to access their higher res streams.

Overall, I am pleased with the swap, but really need to work out the FLAC streaming issues. Everything else streams flawlessly so far. Though I have seem quite a few "Format Error" messages for many files I know are valid and play on other devices.

[Still-One]

Welcome davew

Thanks for the information.

[Masterlu]

davew... Welcome!

[davew]

Thanks for the welcomes. two more:

5. The remote is overly responsive and hard to use to navigate through the menus. Whenever I try to go up or down one selection it goes moves 2-3 selections and hitting enter shuts off my KCT pre-amp.

6. When browsing in the iphone app if you scroll down through albums or artists from A to some other letter like S and then navigate deeper to a song, change your mind and then go back out to the higher menu level it returns back to the top at A and you have to scroll all the way back down to S again to pick back up where you left off. This gets annoying very fast and I'm listening to artists and albums near the start of the alphabet a lot more as a result.

Sorry, this post sounds really negative. I don't mean it to be. I really like the unit overall. I just want to share my actual experience and observations.

Dave

[SteveK]

I had the Connect with built in DAC. I had no issue with streaming FLAC - up to 24/192 via wired network. Have't tried wifi. No hiccups or interruptions.

Photos on these new Krell designs don't do justice. I also have Krell Foundation and both are solidly built. The black part looks plasticky and cheap, but in real life, it is metallic and looks and feels well made. The silver center is very appealing, especially with red and blue lighting indicating on & off status. Overall, it looks very good, contrary to what the photos show.

The DAC is hyper-detailed in my opinion. It brings out incredible detail and the soundstage is very good. I felt it would go well with a warmer tube system. I have Krell pre/amp and Connect DAC was too edgy.

Streaming worked very well for me, but I have a huge problem with the Krell iPad app. It does NOT let you create a cue. You can click on a song and it will play all songs in that album from that song onward. It will play pre-made playlists. But, if you are like me who adds songs as I listen, it's big deficit. A $2500 streamer without ability to create cue file on the fly didn't sound right. Kinsky app didn't work very well with Connect.

[davew]

Agreed on the que issue. The Mpod app for the Bryston BDP excelled in this regard. I hope the Krell app version 2 fixes this. I also can't seem to get the Connect to connect to my WiFi using WPA2-AES. It connects only if I use WPA-TKIP which slows things down a bit too.