Krell Industries today announced the initial shipments of the S-1200 surround preamp/processor. The $10,000 S-1200 release culminates more than two years of design work and is the latest addition to the Krell HMI 1.3 capable surround sound processor lineup. The Krell jumps into the more "affordable" audiophile AV preamp market with the Classe' SSP-800 and the Anthem D2v2 which are both priced at $8,000. Until recently, only mass market brands and a few $30,000 AV preamps including Krell's statement Evolution 707 AV preamp offered all of the latest home theater, HDMI and surround sound goodies on the market today.

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Coupling Krell preamplifier technology, state of the art digital processing, and the latest in HDMI 1.3 surround formats, the S-1200 is an ideal centerpiece for any high performance music and home theater system. Based on award-winning preamplifier technology, all eight S-1200U analog output stages are built to the same exacting standard and feature balanced and single-ended cable connections. Only Krell designed preamplifier circuitry is employed within every channel utilizing discrete current based Class A, direct coupled circuitry for the greatest signal purity and highest bandwidth. Performance robbing op amps or integrated circuits are not used anywhere in the audio path. Preamp mode bypasses all digital circuitry and routes analog stereo inputs directly to a balanced resistor ladder volume control for ultimate music reproduction.

"The heart of our surround sound preamp/processors is their sound quality. We start with a great sounding preamplifier and then pair that to the latest in surround processing technology. The S-1200 includes our finest audio and video engineering plus the latest in connectivity technology, HDMI 1.3, to insure the ultimate home theater experience for our customers. " says Dan D'Agostino, Krell CEO and Chief Designer. D'Agostino continues, "The audio signal path is a direct descendant of our $30,000 Evolution 707 Reference Surround preamp/processor. The S-1200 also uses the same DSP engine and 1080p video stage from the Evolution 707."

At the hub of the S-1200 digital signal processing is a pair of dual core 32 bit Crystal CS497004 DSP's performing 1.8 giga operations per second. Digital signals are then routed to 24 bit ESS Sabre DACS.

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