It is detail sounding, so could sound a little edgy sometimes, I wouldn't consider to be harsh, it is on the neutral to slightly smooth interms of the sound texture. It's sound is also dynamic, transparent and good soundstage width and depth. Imaging is good, and lacks slight focus. Bass and midrange are plesant to hear. It is what you pay for.

Solid build, great sound

Problems with reading first track

I recently bought a factory reconditioned KAV-250cd to upgrade from my Rotel player. The rest of my system consists of the Krell KAV-300i integrated and B&W CDM7SE speakers. I love the sound of the player; compared to the Rotel player the sound is fuller (dramatic difference in mid-bass) and in fact the system sounds a bit warmer with the Krell. I noticed the comment from one reviewer about the problem of reading discs. I too have experienced this, but not to the same degree. About 10% of the time, my player will not start properly at the first track - it will often skip to the 17 second mark or so. If I restart (with or without reinserting the disc), the problem usually does not recur. However, I do have one disc that always skips to the 17 second mark, and this disc plays just fine on the Rotel player. The problem has not been bothersome enough for me to send it in for service though.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel RCD-951

I'm new to this, after having a cheap or no stero for years. I list myself as a casual listener, but I'm moving toward Audio Enthusiast. This CD player has blown me away in my 5 months with it. I have heard things in music I've never heard before, and in music I've been listening to for twenty years! I can understand a little of the sense of the music being too bright, and maybe it is just a tad, but overall I love the sound, and it is built like a tank. My seven and five year olds have jumped and fallen in front of it, without a skip. I love it.

Not quite sure...

This player drives me nuts! See below...

I bought my first unit in 1998, together with a KAV 300i amplifier and JmLab Megane speakers. At first things were fine, everything needed to settle in (aka break in), and the look and feel of the Krells certainly constituted a positive element of our living room. The remote is a bit on the flimsy side, but one can order the brick heavy aluminium remote, which amplifies the perceived solidity of the equipment.
Well, and this is were I deviate from all other reviews, things started to turn bad after about 4 or 5 months, when a disproportionate percentage of my CDs (some old, many new) wouldn't load, and the player wouldn't read any information off the inserted CD, let alone play the first title, or any title, for that matter. I took it into the shop, they confirmed the situation (we were using a 300CD as an aletrnative, which had no problems whatsoever with the CDs the 250CD had rejected to read), and shipped the unit, together with one of those particular CDs, to Krell. Well, Krell service calibrated the laser lens and the underlying mechanism to exactly that one CD, which was nice, but it didn't solve the overall problem. It continued to refuse to play much of my favorite music. In my desparation I started to hook up our Sony DVD player to the 300i to get any music at all, and had the shop exchange the 250CD. A new unit came indeed, and had much the same problem right from the start, though not as bad as the old one. I am unhappy to report that this second player now puts me into the same situation in that it refuses to recognize or play CDs which I just bought, say, last week. My peace of mind is really quite disturbed at this point, and if somebody else out there has had a similar problem with these players (serial # starts with 9599...), please let me know.
The sound is otherwise quite fine, lively, and detailed, though I have heard better single box players, too (Audio Research for example). But I am not complaining about the sound, it is the reliability of a unit I have payed deerly for, and which does not keep its promise. I am very disappointed, and actually think of dumping the 250CD in exchange for a decent Quad or Meridian. Any suggestions on the cause of this recurrent problem are welcome (yes, the laser lens is cleaned regularly!)

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Quad, Denon 2700

An excellent,less aggressive,musical alternative to the KAV-300 CD.

The KAV 250-cd is superb: natural, musical and transparant, with absolutely firm and realistic base and a chrystal clear high end with no harshness even at very high volumes.
I auditioned it at home, alongside the California Audio Labs CL-15 (and my old Luxman)with jazz, rock, chamber music, symphonies and choral works. The Krell was clearer, more open and had better imaging. The CL-15 was also very good, but it seemed as if several veils were removed from most of cd's when I switched to the Krell. Perhaps a factor was playing the playing the KAV 250-cd in balanced mode, through my KAV 300i, but the CL-15 was not a balanced model. (My speakers are MAGNAPLANAR 2.5R's). I have now had the Krell 250-CD for three months and am delighted. By the way, it is very solidly built and not low budget,so I don't understand the reviewer who compared it to "My First Sony"!!

Build like a tank! Detail! Detail! Detail! Quiet operation. You have to put your ear right next to it to hear any transport noise.

Slight blip noise when advancing to the next track. Disc drawer is plastic. Remote is so so.

Since my unit was a demo, I'm sure it is broken in.

The smoothest most refined bass of any player I have heard so far in its price range. It is a matter of control. Lots of very deep impact but no boominess at all. The bass sounds just incredible!!! Natural sounding midrange with a sense of magic. Vocals to die for. Instruments sound more like the real thing. High end has lots of sizzle and very clear, with out, the siblance problem of cheaper players. A little bright, but thats what my wife and I like. Horns, cymbals, etc. sound surprisingly life like. In the short time we have had the player I have'n really noticed any harshness or listener fatigue. I wide, deep sound stage. I have line array towers so most of the sound seems to come from the wall behind the speakers. The Krell improves on this greatly.

Looks good and sound great!!! A great product overall!!!

Associated equipment:

Kinergetics Research, Chiro 802 pre/pro
Parasound, HCA-3500, HCA-2003 power amplifiers
Art of sound, Line Array Towers
Art of Sound, Isobaric endtable subwoofers

Similar Products Used:

Arcam, California Audio Labs, Marantz, Resolution Audio, others.

clarity, musicality, flexibility

none noted

addendum to previous report:
I've been using the 250CD as a transport with an MSB Link III DAC including HDCD & 24/96 upsampling modules. The MSB is truly outstanding, however it has also shown me that the Krell electronics are very musical, accurate, and defined. It takes some considered listening to discern the differences between the onboard DAC and the MSB (with either Toslink or Coaxial).
In short, this is a very, very good CD player.

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various