KEF R5 or R7 and a good amp

[Acapella]

Hi all,

i hope my thread is in the placed right area, if not please move it to the right area.

Currently i have some KEF R5 (no META) speakers powered by a NAD C268 amp which is sourced by a NAD C658 preamp.
The setup is placed in the living room which is about 26 square meters in size.

The listening position is ca. 4 meters away and the speakers are placed 50cm away from the wall with a distance of ca. 3 meters from the left to the right speaker.
Dirac Live is used up to 1.8 kHz to correct the system.

I have now two mind games about this setup.
Every thought is about the listeing at higher volumes.
Normally i listen at normal room volume and this for music, tv, films etc...

But sometimes when nobody is in the house then i crank up the volume a little bit louder to hear some songs.
My plan is in the future to do that at about 80-90dB (peak power) on the listening position.

So my two mind games are:

1. Upgrading from R5 to R7 (no META versions)
I'm not sure if that is useful or not. Cause i'm not sure if the R7 has more headroom at higher volumes than the R5.
Cause the R7 is only a little big more powerful then the R5, when reading the technical data.
It also depends on the price my dealer can make me for that upgrade.
Cause i bought the R5 only a few weeks ago from my dealer and i'm not sure if he will make me a good offer for that upgrade

2. Switching the amp
The C268 used a pretty old Hypex UcD 102 OEM Module for amplification.
Amir has measured the amp and also can recommend the C268, but i am not sure if the amp will last for longer at my planned volume levels.
Maybe somebody is hear that can give me some experiences about that.
If swiching the amp to another, then i have an eye on the Hypex NC252MP (NC250MP) or NC502MP (NC500MP).
I think the 500 Watt per Channel amp is a bit oversized for my plans.
But then there is the problem to find a good amp which will act good with the 12v Trigger of the NAD C658 (which has a weird behaviour...).

Also i am not sure if switching to another amp will bring me some audible improvements, although the old UcD is not state of the art.

Would be nice if i can get some tips or experiences about my thoughts.

I'm placed in Europe.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Matias]

Hi and welcome to ASR.
If I were you I would try at home an NCx500 based amp (Buckeye, Nord, Apollon) and see if the current speakers can handle a lot more power. If not then I would consider changing the speakers. Be sure to check their return policies in case you want to return, but I think you won't.

 

[bodhi]

90dB at 4 meters and decent headroom? I'd think Hypex NC252MP amp and a subwoofer.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Keep the R5, but yes definitely a sub or two as bodhi already suggested. Very simply speaking it will “unload” your R5 and your amp.

First I thought you wouldn’t need a stronger amp but when looking at the R5 impedance plots I find they drop to about 3 ohms from ca 200 to 500Hz, so if you have the budget the above mentioned stronger amp will help.

Kef R5 Floorstanding Speaker Review

Kef R5 Floorstanding Speaker Review

www.erinsaudiocorner.com

As for subs. If you want to stay with KEF, get a KF92 (the KC62 will most likely not be better than your R5). Alternatively SVS makes good ones too and less expensive (but not the small SB3000 micro or 1000).

I run Reference 3 with two KF92.

 

[bodhi]

I also run dual KF92 (with R5) and they are great, put wouldn't buy again because they are too expensive if you don't need small size and good WAF.

If size and looks don't matter then you can get two ported SVS PB-1000s for price of one KF92.

 

[CapMan]

Alternatively SVS makes good ones too and less expensive (but not the small SB3000 micro or 1000).

Two 3000 micros work just fine in my 12x12 room.

 

[TheBatsEar]

Cause i'm not sure if the R7 has more headroom at higher volumes than the R5.

Seems to me as if they have mainly extended the frequency response.
I would buy two subwoofers and ensure the main speakers don't do much below maybe 120Hz.
That should be easier to drive for your amp and your speakers should be able to play louder.

 

[Acapella]

I ended up switching from my new R5 to some used R7 speakers.
I was lucky to get a very good offer for a used pair of KEF R7 speakers.

The used R7 where like new speakers, cause the foreign customer got them replaced by kef cause of some color clouding from the magnetic grilles.
So the replacment R7 pair has a relative actual week of production like my sold R5.
For me it was a very good deal and the only damage the speakers have are the edge on one speaker.

But this was my own fault.
So the R7s are great speakers, wonderfull sounding and i think i will keep them for a long time.

Before i will play with adding subwoofers to the setup, tuning of the room accoustics is the better way i think.
Cause there is some potential left for the acoustics of the listening room.

Also i bought some Appollon NCx500ST Amplifier (ST Line, Entry Level with Red Case).
This amp should deliver enough power to drive the R7 to very loud listening volumes.

But i have one point on that Apollon Amp as it gets pretty warm during idling or playing music or tv on low volumes.
Is that normal for the NCx500ST Modules or do i get a faulty amp?
Cause that warm case seems not good to me as it maybe reduces the lifetime of the components during the higher temperature espacally when only running on low volumes.

Also here in Germany the Nilai Stereo DIY Amp seems to be available and on stock at one shop.

So i think about to sell the Apollonamp and buy the DIY Nilai Stereo Amp and build it on my own.
Do you have some opinion for me if that makes sense?
From my view the Nilai seems the technically better product to my.

250 Watt per Channel should be enough i think, as 250 Watt is the upper end of the recommendation from KEF of the amplifier power.

Thanks in advance.

 

[TheBatsEar]

I ended up switching from my new R5 to some used R7 speakers.

I'm jealous. I can't seem to find a good pair R3 for myself. Used market is not doing it's job for me in Germany at the moment.

But i have one point on that Apollon Amp as it gets pretty warm during idling or playing music or tv on low volumes.
Is that normal for the NCx500ST Modules or do i get a faulty amp?

I would send them a mail and ask. Maybe get a contactless thermometer so you have a number.

So i think about to sell the Apollonamp and buy the DIY Nilai Stereo Amp and build it on my own.
Do you have some opinion for me if that makes sense?

I think it's wasted life energy, you amp is really, really good as it is. I would concentrate on room treatment and DSP, that yields vastly larger results.

 

[fernando.yang]

Hello,

I have a pair of R5 meta and I wonder if Ncx500 amps are too powerful? Will they blow up R5 meta?

Thanks

Fernando

 

[bodhi]

Hello,

I have a pair of R5 meta and I wonder if Ncx500 amps are too powerful? Will they blow up R5 meta?

Thanks

Fernando

The maximum recommended power is 200W and you can get more than 600W to 4 ohms from Ncx500 so I guess if you try you surely could damage the speakers. Why would you though?

 

[fernando.yang]

The maximum recommended power is 200W and you can get more than 600W to 4 ohms from Ncx500 so I guess if you try you surely could damage the speakers. Why would you though?

I watched this thread and noticed they talked about NCx500 amplifiers meanwhile I'm thinking of an upgrade. So I'm curious. Thanks!

 

[bodhi]

I watched this thread and noticed they talked about NCx500 amplifiers meanwhile I'm thinking of an upgrade. So I'm curious. Thanks!

I'm running R5s with NC252MP and I have all the headroom I could ever want. The NCx500 brings nothing extra to the table.