May as well update this thread, rather than starting a new one, as I too have recently acquired some KEF Reference 105.1 speakers. The twist, is that I have acquired the pair that started the thread four or so years ago. I hope the drive yesterday wasn't too badly impacted by the weather
fordiebianco!
This all came around a bit unexpectedly, as I wasn't expecting to purchase any equipment till the summer. Going through an amicable separation, and wanted to get all of that out of the way before getting into anything. I had thinking along the lines of a Cambridge Audo Evo 75, with something like the Q Acoustics 5040's. Due to the separation though, I thought I should see if I could make my money go a bit further, and started looking at what was around on eBay, and here we are.
I currently have a Rega Planar 3 and Fono MM Mk5, and a decent collection of vinyl. Plus there is a vast array of ripped CDs sitting on a NAS, and a few 24 bit downloads that have come with vinyl purchases of late. What ever I end up going with, I need to be able to listen to both the vinyl and the ripped CDs.
I've always wanted some large cabinets, preferably with a meaty pair of monoblocks sitting next to them. While I know that the monoblocks are superfluous, mostly for the looks and a decent integrated amplifier would do me fine, the heart wants the monoblocks. I briefly looked at the 2024 Quad 33 and 303 reissues, noting that the 303's are now properly bridgeable, but £3.5K the set of three is too much for me at the moment. There are plenty of classic Quad 303's going for £200 on eBay though, and according to the internet, they can be driven
* in serial or parallel, to make a 90W single channel amplifier. There's even a really poor quality scan of a document from Quad showing how to do it -
https://dadaelectronics.com.au/doc/Audio/Quad/Quad 303/Q 303 bridge.pdf
So first question, is running a pair of vintage Quad 303's in serial mode, a daft idea...? Given that the PDF states 90W into 16Ω, and these are 8Ω? Let's ignore the fact that I canny understand what's actually involved in the modification either...
I also looked around for some sort of integrated amplifier, given that Quad 303's would probably also require the purchase of a Quad 33 or 44 preamp
and a streamer. eBay turned up a Mission Cyrus 2 + PSX that I could afford, even with an immediate service from ASR. I contacted the seller and he says he's not had it serviced and he's not the original owner, no boxes or instruction manuals. There has been some discussion of this amplifier on here, and other forums, and it leaves me with the impression that maybe this isn't the amplifier for that big cabinet? It would also require a streamer or some sort.
I know I can indulge in some monoblocks by getting a pair of the Fosi V3 Mono's, but I would still need some sort of streaming preamp to supply them with. A WiiM Ultra might do the job, as it appears to have extra inputs for this kind of thing?
It might just be easier to get a
just add speakers streaming amplifier, like the Cambridge Audio Evo's, but one that wouldn't break the bank, like the Naim Uniti Nova PE. Does such a thing exist in the world of Fosi, SMSL, Topping, etc?
Open to any thoughts and suggestions.
* Threads on other forums where this is discussed: