2001 Products
of the Year: Krell CAST System and Epos M15 Loudspeakers
It may seem strange to award joint Product of the
Year status to a $27,500 set of electronics and a $1400 pair of loudspeakers, but both, in
their own way, exemplify the finest qualities of the high end.
 The Krell CAST System offers
traditional high-end values -- solid engineering, exquisite build quality, and detailed,
powerful sound that comes startlingly close to the elusive ideal of live music. These are
attributes that Krell has always incorporated to a greater or lesser extent, but the
Current Audio Signal Transmission technology brings a new level of accuracy to the
equation, possibly allowing us for the first time to hear just how good Krell's components
have become.
CAST also offers audiophiles a powerful inducement for
purchasing a single-brand system. The signal comes straight off the DACs without
undergoing an I-to-V conversion; thus, current is transferred from a high-impedance source
to a low-impedance load, minimizing (if not outright eliminating) the cable's effect on
signal transmission. Or, to put it even more simply, the entire system behaves like a
single global circuit.
The sound of the system is startlingly fresh and clean --
more dependent upon the sound of the source material, the room it is performing in, and
the speakers it is paired with than on a signature sound. The FPB-300c is powerful enough
to drive difficult loads to barometer-changing SPLs, yet it never sounds heavy or coarse.
In fact, it (and the other CAST components) can sound as lithe and agile as the most
delicate microwatt tube amp or as powerful as a stadium PA depending upon the material it
is asked to perform, but its own sound remains as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel.
Expensive? Undeniably. Krell's level of obsession is
manifested in its construction quality. You probably don't need a 1/4"-thick
faceplate or gold-plated connections or a curved Palladian "column" on the
faceplate to produce superior sound. On the other hand, Krell manufactures its products
that way because it doesn't believe in cutting corners. Any corners. The company probably
didn't need to include a second control zone in its preamp or recapitulate each connection
in multiple formats, either. But it can't be denied: Whether or not you buy the premise,
the results are revelatory.
For solid engineering, innovative thinking, and exquisite
implementation, we award Krell onhifi.com's Product of the Year for 2001. Sic itur ad
astra!
 The Epos M15 loudspeakers,
like the Krell CAST system, are capable of expressing the wonder and magic that hold us
all in thrall to music. That the company manages to do so for under $1500 per pair is just
further cause for rejoicing.
Loudspeakers, an audiophile maxim would have it, are the
most flawed of all audio products: You can spend $100,000 and still not perfectly create
the live event. This may be true, but the last decade has seen amazing progress in the
area of loudspeaker technology -- and this is evident nowhere as much as in affordable
speaker offerings.
Never have audiophiles had so many choices of accurate,
timbrally neutral $200–300 speakers as they do today, and choices at higher price
points are making specialty audio manufacturers work awfully hard to continue offering
that sonic "little bit extra" that has always been their stock in trade.
Epos' unassuming M15 is a wonder. Combined with an honest
source and a solid integrated amp, it offers audiophiles on a budget the authentic
high-end audio payoff: goose bumps! If you want soundstaging, imaging, and almost
full-sized thrills'n'chills, the M15 will deliver 'em to you. It never sounds less than
good and usually sounds astonishingly right.
You give up a degree of low-end authority, but subwoofers,
these days, are cheap. And you can always add one later -- if you feel the need after
experiencing the M15 sound in full. The M15 is beguiling, responsive, easy to drive, and
phenomenally satisfying. If you believe that high end audio is the private reserve of the
well-off, you need to hear the M15. To quote the gospel tune, they'll take you there!
For rewarding audiophiles with all of music's magic at a
price almost everyone can aspire toward, we award Epos with onhifi.com's 2001 Product of
the Year.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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