Krell website - FPB stuff gone?

I was looking at http://www.krellonline.com this morning. It appears that the "Class A" section under "Models" was removed, which had all the FPB models. Does anyone know if they discontinued the FPB stuff? I think the evolution stuff was going to replace it. Did this happen?

I wouldn't be surprised.

Wouldn't surprise me either. Amost all the "high end' American manufacturers are whorishly jumping on the HT bandwagon. I imagine Krell will continue to make "cost-is-no-object) reference gear, but I wouldn't be surprised if the "mid-line stereo" stuff is all going to be replaced by their multi-channel HT dreck.

Everyone else is doing it too--Bryston, Rotel, Proceed, etc. Sunfire has pretty much abandonded any sort of stereo gear all together in their ruch to snag the HT $$$, and it wouldn't surprise me to see companies like Levinson, ARC, and Cary comng out with gonzo high-end HT gear soon too.

Hey, even the purists have to pay the bills, and HT is where the BIG BUCKS are these days...

--Richard

Dreamer said:

Wouldn't surprise me either. Amost all the "high end' American manufacturers are whorishly jumping on the HT bandwagon. I imagine Krell will continue to make "cost-is-no-object) reference gear, but I wouldn't be surprised if the "mid-line stereo" stuff is all going to be replaced by their multi-channel HT dreck.

Everyone else is doing it too--Bryston, Rotel, Proceed, etc. Sunfire has pretty much abandonded any sort of stereo gear all together in their ruch to snag the HT $$$, and it wouldn't surprise me to see companies like Levinson, ARC, and Cary comng out with gonzo high-end HT gear soon too.

Hey, even the purists have to pay the bills, and HT is where the BIG BUCKS are these days...

--Richard

Click to expand...

Justifies moving the low end to China

For used Krell owners it probably makes used gear more valuable ... For used Krell shoppers, not a good thing

The above comments assume that the new Evolution line is
inferior to the FPB line. I respect Wes Phillips' reviews and
hope to someday audition the Evo402 myself.

The new Evo line appears to be just a broader, cosmetically
homogenous FBP line with no-compromise-cost-no-object
HT added to the mix. The new $18K Evo707 brings this to
mind. An all CAST theater anyone? Yikes.

Unfortunately the FPB stuff was on the outer edge of my budget. The evolution stuff is just not going to happen. I probably wasn't going to be able to spring for even the FPB stuff anyway, though.

discocarp said:

Unfortunately the FPB stuff was on the outer edge of my budget. The evolution stuff is just not going to happen. I probably wasn't going to be able to spring for even the FPB stuff anyway, though.

Click to expand...

I think this is probably true for a lot of people. I wonder if Krell isn't pricing themselves out of the "mainstream" high-end market. Unless they come out with a new line of high-end gear below the evolution series, their sales may take a serious hit over the next few years. I would expect to see a replacement for the FPB series, along the same price point, perhaps using some hand-me-down technology from the Evo line.

Definately. When you start talking about $15k for an amp, it borders on crazy talk for people on "normal" budgets (if there is such a thing!).

First let me say that I have been a big fan of Krell since their beginning,
They are always on the cutting edge of high end audio. I heard their system in Vegas this year and was very impressed with their all Krell system using Valhalla speaker wire.
Also their were quite a few 402's being used by mostly speaker manufactures.

Krell will naturally discontinue their previous line when they develop a new series. It is always interesting to hear comments wondering if it is better? Of course it is better it would be audio suicide to introduce an inferior product.

In all of my amplifier upgrades all Krell KSA 100 < KSA100s < FPB300< FPB400cx they were all for the better with the most noticible being the last one. As far as the cost of a component it is all fodder for debate.

I'm sure the evo stuff is better. But you have to get better at similar price points (with some inflation for sure, but similar at least). Its easy to be better when you add $5k+ to the cost!

It suprises me that Krell did not retain a few of the FPB stereo amps in the current lineup. They had a strong following among the two-channel solid state crowd and were slightly more affordable than a pair of their M counterparts.
I've never been able to afford Krell new; all of my amps were picked up used for roughly half of the original price. I would like to be the original owner of some new Krell gear someday but its always been slightly out of reach. Looks like that trend will continue with the Evolution series.

Tj

My first pair of Krells, the long-discontinued 250m's. They were a good investment new and an absolute bargain on the used market. When Krell dropped these and made the (more expensive) 350mc's their entry level monoblock I'd bet they turned away more than a few new customers.
These are now my rear-channel amplifiers.

T-

My babies....650m's. Built like a tank and almost as heavy. Even with two people they're a tough move. Original sticker was a whopping 26k; I was able to pick these up for a bit less than half of that. My wife still gives me the evil eye over this one....

Oh my. I bet they sound fantastic! They'd better at that price point hehehe!

Tj Bassi said:

My babies....650m's. Built like a tank and almost as heavy. Even with two people they're a tough move. Original sticker was a whopping 26k; I was able to pick these up for a bit less than half of that. My wife still gives me the evil eye over this one....

Click to expand...

WOW! Those are AMAZINGLY HUGEANTIC, GINORMIC, amps! They remind me of the $46k EACH MBL big boys...can't remember the number is a 9XXX model! They are used when MBL has a display at a big show.

They look GREAT!

I was looking at your rack do you have an old Pioneer Elite Laser Disc player in the mix in that first pic of your older amps up front? It looks like one that I have. I still use it from time to time. I have about 60 LD's that I DON'T have on DVD and won't ever buy the DVD of...

Great purchase, and if/when I spend that kind of money I get that same eye! I try not to tell her how much this stuff costs...

Its amazing what more power adds, particulary in terms of soundstage depth. Notice that our reQuests are corner-loaded; typically a bad idea but the best we could do in that room. A/B comparisons with the 650's vs. the 250's have the 650's almost doubling the apparent depth of the soundstage, something that every guest listener has attested to. I originally asked myself if we really needed 650 wpc amplifiers (OK, I just HAD to have them....) but I find the performance justifies the cost.
On the downside, while most of my guests like the Krell sound, they dont care for their 'brutish' physical appearance. They look at home in a 5 channel theater rig, maybe a little out of place in a refined two-channel setup.

T-

Pcar928fan said:

WOW! Those are AMAZINGLY HUGEANTIC, GINORMIC, amps! They remind me of the $46k EACH MBL big boys...can't remember the number is a 9XXX model! They are used when MBL has a display at a big show.

They look GREAT!

I was looking at your rack do you have an old Pioneer Elite Laser Disc player in the mix in that first pic of your older amps up front? It looks like one that I have. I still use it from time to time. I have about 60 LD's that I DON'T have on DVD and won't ever buy the DVD of...

Great purchase, and if/when I spend that kind of money I get that same eye! I try not to tell her how much this stuff costs...

Click to expand...

James-

The LD player is a Marantz LV-520, which was (or I thought it was) based on one of the Pioneer transports. Too expensive for my budget when new, I later picked one up on Agon, and then a second (boxed, unopened) as a spare in the event the first unit quit. Last time I counted we had in excess of 300 discs; most came from bulk lots on ebay and could be had for as little as $1 a title.
While I dont advocate purchasing LD's over DVD's, if you already have a significant collection of the bigger discs, its worth it to hang onto them and keep a good player around. Some of the transfers are pretty good, and there are quite a few obscure titles that may never see the DVD format. A true "B" movie lovers' dream!

T-

Tj Bassi said:

The LD player is a Marantz LV-520, which was (or I thought it was) based on one of the Pioneer transports. Too expensive for my budget when new, I later picked one up on Agon, and then a second (boxed, unopened) as a spare in the event the first unit quit. Last time I counted we had in excess of 300 discs; most came from bulk lots on ebay and could be had for as little as $1 a title.
While I dont advocate purchasing LD's over DVD's, if you already have a significant collection of the bigger discs, its worth it to hang onto them and keep a good player around.

Click to expand...

Totally agree! That is how I got my discs too. I wanted Star Wars in a format better than VHS about 10 years ago so I got an LD player along w/ the 40 or so discs that guy was selling along with it. I didn't like that LD player so I got another one and it came with 30 or so discs and I sold the first one. Then I bought like 3 different Star Wars "sets" to have all the versions and thus a Laser Disc collection was born!

As I mentioned I was/am quite fortunate that many of them are indeed obscure and will either never be available on DVD or I would not buy them even if they were, but they are nice to have and watch from time to time!

Oh, that LD player does look A LOT like mine so it may well be based on the Pioneer that I have. Like you they were to expensive for me when new as well.

I forget what the LV-520 was when new.....$1200 seems familiar. The boxed one I picked up a few years ago cost $100, shipping included. Came with a bunch of discs also.

In addition to movie discs, I have a handful of music/video discs; Bruce, Queen, early Scorpions, Yanni (and its multitrack digital, too). These gems alone justify keeping a player around.

T-

Ah, I see. You guys are looking at the Evo prices compared
to the FPB prices. The Evo-402 may be sonicaly superior to
the FPB-400cx, but the Evo costs 25% more than the FPB.

Rich said:

I would expect to see a replacement for the FPB series, along the same price point, perhaps using some hand-me-down technology from the Evo line.

Click to expand...

I dunno. I'm skeptical the Evo line sounds 25% better
than the FPB line, much less any amps they squeeze in
between the latest Evo and KAV price points.