I bought this player out of curiosity because it comes with a huge reputation in certain audio circles.
This is not for budget or mid-priced systems.It will reveal problems with lesser sounding components.If your speakers have rough sounding tweeters,if your power amp is a little coarse sounding or if your preamp is not really good you would be better off with something far more forgiving.For example a very decent modified valve preamp sounded a bit rough with this player whereas a Supratek Cabernet preamp which is ten times the price sounds magnificent.
In a refined and composed system this player sounds superb however.
It seems to be especially good with orchestral and rock music where it produces a big,spacious and vibrant sound but is also good with small scale acoustic music.

Fantastic Bass, Soundstage, and Clarity.

Crappy Remote Might be to Bright for some

OK, Been listening to this KAV-300CD for about a week now. Old player was a Sony CDP-XA20ES. I can certainly see how some of the reviews in here complain about the brightness of this player. We'll it is bright. Much brighter than my Sony. However, the bass, clarity, and soundstage make the Sony look like garbage. Im amazed at how good this player sounds. The brightness on my system i believe is due to a interconnect mismatch. I went to Audioquest Caldera's biwired and im very happy with those. My interconnects are Nordost Blue Heaven 1 pair RCA and 1 Pair XLR. Being silver plated OFC is probably where my brightness is comeing from. Once i go to Audioquest Python's XLR for my interconnects i'm sure my brightness will disapate. I also agree with the remote comments. What a piece of crap from Krell. The remote for my KRC-2 is solid bilet aluminum. Dont know what their reasoning is. You'd figure for an MSRP of $4200 you could get a decent remote. Oh well... in short this player is awesome. My componants are as follows. Krell KSA-150 Krell KRC-2 Krell KAV-300CD Infinity Kappa 7.1 series 2 Audioquest Caldera Bi-wired Nordost BlueHeaven interconnects

Similar Products Used:

Sony CDP-XA20ES

Strong controlled bass , clarity and definition throughout . Well built .

None at the price .

Looking for a quality player I auditioned Musical Fidelity's Nu Vista M3CD and Pink Triangle's latest but they were a bit dear new and I missed used deals . Having read good reviews on the Krell I searched for a bargain and found one like new . I got it mail order unheard and am happily impressed . Not harsh at all . Great bass and mid/high clarity . Voices are clear and in quiter vocal music I can literally hear the words being formed by lips and tongue and the singer breathing . Loud hard rock or quiet female vocal the Krell is sorted . I use Pink Triangle Integral and Celestion A3s and balanced connection .

HDCD capable. Well built. Reliable TEAC transport.

Lousy cheap remote. Harsh sound.

Having owned Krell equipment for a long time, I was looking forward to this CD player to be a simply perfect performer. It is not. The mids and high end tend toward being harsh. The bass is not typically powerful Krell bass. The HDCD capabaility is a nice plus, but there are very few of these discs available. Somewhat dissapointing.

Extreme good mids. Grinds out the deepest bass on your cd´s. Open and great 3D. Plays HDCD. Looks great. It´s a Krell!!!

Nothing!

This is just a wonderful cd-player. No matter what kind of music you like, this player will handle it. Compared to the new KAV 280cd, the KAV 300cd sound more alive. More open treble, the mids are more natural and the bass has more slam. The KAV 280cd is not a bad player by far, but the KAV 300cd is closer to the Krell Class A series. If you find this player; buy it. If you already have the Krell KAV 300cd; DON´T SELL IT!!!!! Some of my system: Balanced Audio Technology VK60 Krell KAV 300CD MIT Terminator2 Biwire Harmonic Technology Truth-Link RCA Klipsch Reference speakers The future preamp will is the BAT VK30, and the Klipsch speakers will change for the much better Audio Physic Virgo III.

High end: NOT bright as others have said.May be due to Vandersteens reputed laid back highs-good match. But still makes cymbals sound like unique metal objects, not synthesized effects. Great ambience and imaging. Now can hear what "depth" is! HDCD ability, if you can find any discs. Might make you reconsider one of those under 1000$ players, since you can get a used 300 for nearly that. Will blow them away. Avoid the KAV 250CD. Bad rep. for malfunctions.

Bulky-19 inches wide, requires at least same shelf depth. Don't understand sqauk about cleaning in review below.

Lovely sound. Very good-excellent discs come alive. Got it used/mint on Audiogon. Most prominant upgrade to the system. Useing with KAV-300i. Used with Hafler amp/preamp before for a short time. With Vandersteen 2Ce speakers. Sounded great with the old amps. Sounds great with the 300i I just got used. Important: Use the balanced XLR interconnects with the 300i! Highs seemed rolled off a bit with unbalanced inputs to 300i, maybe due to hi impedance input. Make your own balanced jumpers, from mike cable if you cannot buy easily.

Similar Products Used:

Sony ES, Magnavox(highly tweeked) Parasound(uggh)

Awesome, articulate, muscially truthfull, non-exagerated, handsome, plays even the most scratched CD's HDCD Decoder, Balanced outputs. Makes even the worst stereos sound better.

Brushed aluminum face difficult to clean.

This Player outperforms other players costing MUCH more. In my opinion, this player is the best I've heard. My equipment:B&W 802, Krell KAV300i, Krell KAV300CD, line conditioner.

Similar Products Used:

Adcom, Krell higher end transports, Macintosh, Adcom, Rotel, Sony, Pioneer

Fantastic. Play music with balls - no messing around. If some of the listeners can''t take that then best if they get out of the kitchen.

Imaging/soundstage, bass, balanced outputs

Occasionally needs a re-boot to recognize a new disk

I purchased this CD player on consignment, and since the price was so good (40% off list), I did not do extensive side-by-side comparisons to similar products (e.g. the Cal Audio with balanced outputs at ca. $2200, or the Mark Levinson No. 39 at ca. $6000). However, as an upgrade from my previous, "slightly above entry level" player (Parasound 5 disk), the improvement with the Krell was dramatic. I am mystified by the comments regarding it's "unlistenable high frequencies." I simply do not hear this. To the contrary, this player sounds significantly warmer and richer than my previous player (which did not sound bad to begin with!), and disks which I previously avoided because I heard a certain "digital harshness" to them now sound wonderful. I suspect that associated equipment is critical (see my setup below).

What's been most interesting to me with this player is seeing how it handles different recordings (it's new enough, I've had it about 10 weeks, that I still do a fair amount of A/B comparisons between the Parasound and the Krell...I kept the Parasound in the system for the convenience of a 5-disk changer for parties and casual listening). On certain small group jazz recordings which are very well recorded to begin with (e.g. Diana Krall's "All For You"), I do not hear a tremendous difference. However, on excellent quality, but older recordings (e.g. Sinatra's "Swingin' Session,"), I hear a tremendous difference in soundstaging. On the Krell, it's like I'm sitting 5 feet in front of Sinatra, with the orchestra distributed around and behind him in great clarity and definition -- that soundstaging info simply isn't there without the Krell.

The downside to all this, of course, is that some poorly-recorded CD's have their deficiencies revealed with brutal honesty by the Krell. As a friend put it, "You hear things that you didn't hear before." And that's not always a good thing! However, for well recorded jazz big bands (e.g. Bill Watrous's "A Time For Love") and large symphonic pieces, the Krell sounds spectacular, and throws a huge soundstage. When auditioning my Revels I listened a lot to soundstaging in a "left to right" sense, and how large the soundstage extended beyond the perimeter of the speakers. With the addition of the Krell, I now hear a different type of imaging, in a "front to back" sense, much moreso than previously. For example, on JVC's XRCD re-release of Sarah Vaughan's "Crazy and Mixed Up," it literally sounds like Sassy is sitting right in my lap, with the trio arrayed about 8 feet behind her in an arc: the 3-dimensional soundstaging is just spectacular!

Audio upgrades are a funny business. Over the past 6 years or so, I've gone from a pretty entry level system (Vandersteen 2C speakers, the Parasound 5 disk changer described above, and an inexpensive Yamaha 2 channel receiver) to a respectable high end system (see below). The first upgrade was the amp: I'd quantify that as about a 50% improvement in overall sound. Next was the speakers, which I'd call a much more noticeable improvement, say 75%. Last was the CD player. I'd rate is as the smallest improvement of the 3, about 30%. The thing is, as you improve other parts of the system, when you hear a noticeable difference, even if it's smaller than the absolute difference you heard from a previous upgrade, then you can't live without it! It's like a smidgen of Bernaise sauce and fine caviar topping a really excellent filet mignon. The filet will provide a lot more bites and contribute many more calories to your total meal; but without the Bernaise and caviar, it would lose a lot of its charm.

Associated equipment:
Revel Ultima Studio Loudspeakers
Krell 300i integrated amp (150 W)
Transparent Audio speaker cable
Audio Truth balanced interconnects

as SIA and Fari

none at this price

This is now looking a great product at this price. I use it with Krell amps and Sonus Faber front.

Reviewers should disregard one liners who are trying to distort the ratings. No CD I have heard can match the transparency of this baby at this price. The legendary krell build is a bonus. Buy it without worry - if you can get hold of one.

Similar Products Used:

Meridian, Sony