ELS stands for Elliot Schiener a music producer of acclaim who supposedly tunes the system. The system is a very nice Panasonic. Krell is an audio manufacturer that makes absurdly expensive audio components, particularly amplifiers, which also happen to be very good. The real evidence will be in the pudding. My guess is that the Krell will be better than the ELS but I still have to hear the Krell to make that determination, I have owned 3 ELS radios, 04 TL (excellent) 07 MDX (good) and 14 MDX (almost as good as the 04 TL). The Krell has a pretty steep bar to exceed.