Affordability: Ultra Audio by Jeff Fritz

In UltraAudio this month, Jeff Fritz ponders the meaning of $500,000 speakers, $100,000 DAC's, and $250,000 / pr. Dan D'Agostino amps in relation to value for his intended audience. His decision this month is to temp D'Agostino to offer his Krell KSA-250 at 3 times it's initial price of $5700.

Previously, he had discussed closing  his "Word's Best Audio System" for reason of him admiring the lower priced Devialet more than his other components he reviewed.

You can presently find KSA-250 amplifiers for sale at the $2000-4000 price, used. Rather than the 250, we would recommend Jeff at least select the KSA-300, to compete with the D'Agostino Momentum of similar specification. While no showpiece, the D'Agostino Momentum monoblock retails for $55,000 USD / pair. If you go that route, may we suggest the stands - they are lovely.

Should Jeff really concentrate on value audio, we would look forward to his reviewing the Emotiva range of products. Their Stealth 6 loudspeaker, styled and powered, is only $400 USD / ea. [That's a 36 Hz to 32 kHz speaker - bi-amplified (100W, 110W), XLR input speaker with a folded-ribbon tweeter, folks.] $800/pr.



They don't offer a $17,100 amplifier, but for the price of a Dunhill Rollergas Lighter ($749), they offer the Krell KSA-300's 300 stereo watts / channel (or 1000W as a mono-block) in their XPA-2.

It may be that Jeff Fritz was considering the Devialet D-240 ($17,495 CDN) when throwing out his 3 x KSA-250 ($5700 USD) value price.

We'd encourage him to try the Emotiva XPA-2, XPA-1 (600W), XPR-2 ($1619), and particularly the XPA-1L (250W) against his Krell KSA-250 at $5700 / $17,100 USD. We'd be remiss in leaving out the reference Emotiva XPR-1 monoblock, but since Jeff talks against weight vs watts, we'll skip it.

The Emotiva XPA-1L however is interesting in that it offers superb class A sound (Krell, SPB) up to a respectable 35W / channel before going class B.

Depending on the age (and use) of the Krell's transistors, you may have a comparable sound with the Emotiva, we wonder - at least with a value speaker like the PSB Synchrony One.





Reading Hi Fi Art, you will have become aware of these products, if you were not already, and some of you likely will already have them in your collection today.



Reading the headline: "The Luxury-Highend Connundrum: A Solution" we were expecting to hear about Solution, a great brand, as you all are aware, mostly likely the Solution 701 amplifier, which although low-powered compared to most, is rather fitting for more top loudspeakers.

Hearing Jeff talk so poorly of previously well-covered equipment by his publication, we were initially aghast, and felt a feeling of loss.

Now on to the $500,000 questions.






In UltraAudio this month, Jeff Fritz