Krell is as about as lofty an audiophile brand as there is in the market today. With the creativity and design sense of creator Dan D'agostino, Krell makes some of the single most important AV components on the market today ranging from their somewhat affordable KID iPod dock all the way up to their Krell Evolution 707 AV preamp that packs a hefty $30,000 price tag. While Krell gets a lot of very deserved ink for their power amps, often Krell doesn't get the credit they deserve for their source components, which brings me to the Krell Evolution 505 CD/SACD player.

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Priced at $10,000, the Krell Evolution 505 player is in the upper echelon of players on the market today. However it is far from the most expensive stereo source players that money can buy. The recently reviewed EMM Labs products that grace the racks currently of HomeTheaterReview.com's Associate Editor, Ken Taraszka, are significantly more than double the cost. The Krell 505 is a player that can play traditional Compact Discs as well as stereo SACDs that are either hybrid, single layer and/or dual layer discs. Anyone who knows Krell products knows that they are built like a brick shithouse, which really helps the performance of an audiophile source component. The rigidity of the chassis and the beefiness of the actual transport mechanism are keys to the success of any player at this level. Krell's circuit design uses Surface Mount Technology, which through miniaturization reportedly lowers the density of electronics in the signal path. The Krell Evolution 505 uses Krell's CAST system for a proprietary connection for those using an all-Krell system, which limits the number of voltage gain stages to one. In audiophila more often than not - less is more.

Another signature Krell move is to spec in the most over-the-top transformers into the power section of a product, and despite the fact that the Krell Evolution 505 is a source component - you get a transformer that would make most audiophile amps feel insecure. $10,000 isn't cheap for a Compact Disc and SACD player, but with the Krell you are getting a lot of physical technology. Lastly and possibly most importantly, Krell's internal matched 24 bit 192 kHz DAC chips are used on all channels, which allows CDs to be upsampled to a higher, more high definition resolution. While all audiophiles wish they could get access to native 24/192 audiophile for mainstream music, the fact is that Compact Disc is still the standard audio format for most audio enthusiasts. Making Compact Discs sound better is the most important goal of a player like the Krell Evolution 505.

Cutting to the chase - how does the Krell Evolution 505 sound? It's filthy good, that's how it sounds. Quiet, accurate and resolute come to mind for starters. As you might expect the player can replay the top-of-the-line source material and make it sound truly fantastic. However that's not what impressed me most with my time with the Krell Evolution 505 player. What was most impressive was the way the player could make mid-level and crappy sounding Compact Disc and SACD titles sound truly fantastic. Thriller on SACD (Epic) is one of the musically most important releases on the now dead audiophile format, but to be honest with you - I had pretty much written the stereo release off as a chunk of audio crap. That is until I played it on my system using Krell Evolution electronics (Transparent Cables and Wilson WATT Puppy speakers). "P.Y.T (Pretty Young Thing)" was nothing short of incredible when every other time I spun the disc (mostly on a cheaper, mass-market Sony SACD player) it sounded thin, lifeless and digitally hashed out. On the Krell, the bass was so much more taut that I was dumbfounded.