ORANGE, CT, USA and MUNICH, GERMANY – May 15 – At the High End Show in Munich, Germany, May 15-18, 2014, Krell will introduce one of the most advanced yet affordable products in its history: the Vanguard integrated amplifier. The Vanguard incorporates a 200-watt-per channel amplifier and a Class A preamplifier, enclosed in a chassis that borrows its design and construction from the new Krell Foundation preamp/processor, Connect stream player, Illusion preamp and iBias amplifiers. Suggested U.S. retail price for the Vanguard is $3,500. An optional, field-installable digital module with USB input, Ethernet audio streaming and apt-X Bluetooth will also be available.
„The name Vanguard connotes leadership and innovation, and that’s exactly what we were going for,” Krell president Bill McKiegan said. „Compared with most other integrated amps on the market, the Vanguard is far ahead in technology, performance and design.”
The Vanguard’s amplifier incorporates a massive power supply with a 750 VA toroidal transformer and 80,000 microfarads of storage capacitance. The tremendous amount of energy on tap allows the Vanguard to deliver 200 watts per channel into 8 ohms, doubling to 400 watts at 4 ohms. This is far more power than most other integrated amplifiers, at any price, can deliver. Two quiet, thermostatically controlled fans permit the use of a surprisingly compact chassis, especially considering how much power the Vanguard produces.
The preamplifier section of the Vanguard borrows its fully balanced, fully discrete Class A circuit concepts from Krell’s top-of-the-line Illusion preamps. Krell’s Current Mode technology is employed to assure unequaled signal bandwidth, easily enough to handle the latest high-resolution PCM and DSD audio sources without impacting high-frequency response and detail.
„We’ve created a lot of landmark products in our 34-year history, but we expect the Vanguard to be one of the most popular and influential audio components we’ve ever designed,” Krell president Bill McKiegan said. “We’ve packed it with many of our most musical-sounding technologies. We’ve kept the chassis small and the design elegant to make it living-room-friendly. Yet it has enough power to achieve incredible, lifelike dynamics with any speaker.”
A machined aluminum volume control accesses a sophisticated front-panel menu system that controls the Vanguard, and also provides features such as input naming, input trim, balance control and muting level—luxuries not offered on integrated amplifiers controlled by traditional switches and knobs. A home theater bypass mode lets the Vanguard serve as the core of a surround-sound system without sacrificing two-channel sound quality in any way. Inputs include three stereo RCA and one stereo balanced XLR. High-quality WBT speaker cable terminals provide a secure, electrically ideal connection.
The Vanguard also offers features that make it perfect for custom installation, such as 3.5mm jacks for IR input and 12-volt trigger input and output, as well as optional rack-mount ears. Additionally, the unit can be controlled with home automation systems through its Ethernet connection.
A key option for the Vanguard is the digital module, which can be added at the factory or by a dealer. The digital module includes USB, HDMI, coax and optical digital inputs; Ethernet music streaming controlled through dedicated iOS and Android apps; and apt-X Bluetooth wireless for convenient streaming from phones, tablets and computers.
„With the digital module installed, all you need to do is add speakers and you have a complete high-end audio system,” McKiegan said. “If your focus is on digital music files and streaming, the Vanguard with the digital module will give you all the convenience of the mass-market streaming audio products, but with sound quality that’s far beyond what those products can achieve. It’s truly an audio product built for the next decade.”
Pricing and Availability The Vanguard will be shipping in July and will have a suggested retail price of $3,500. Price for the optional digital module has not been set yet.
