Any Home Audio (hifi) people out there? Help needed!...

[R1 4GHA]

Hi all,

Wondering if some one could give me a bit of help, iv been given some speakers and an amplifier off a customer in London who didnt want them anymore,

They are..

4 pairs of Monitor Audio Radius 90s

1 pair of KEF Reference 104/2

1 Rotel RA-05 amplifier,

Im new to home audio, google tells me that its all half decent gear, What im trying to find out is what is that amplifier suitable to power (out of my speakers)

And im guessing the KEF's need a more manly amplifier as the pair are bigger than me!

Thanks in Advance

Rich

[snow_muncher]

1 pair of KEF Reference 104/2

1 Rotel RA-05 amplifier,

That amp will run those speakers happily - should sound good

[R1 4GHA]

Ok Cheers for that,

What about the other 8 speakers!? Im thinking of selling 2 pairs of them and buy another amplifier to power them?

Rich

[snow_muncher]

Those Monitor Audio Radius 90s are surround sound speakers

Hook them upto a dolby 8.1 surround sound amp with a sub woofer unit and you'd have a cracking film setup too

[GentleGiant]

Size doesnt matter (how many times have we heard that!!). With speakers and amps it is the speaker "load" and the unclipped current output of the amp that is important. If the amp struggles (the Rotel wont), to provide a clean signal to the speakers at higher volumes, it will overheat and eventually melt the speaker coils, even if the amp is rated far below the speakers power rating. This is because a clipped sinewave output pushes the peak current and voltages for longer than a clean sinewave.

Examples

I have a pair of HUGE (over 1.2m tall), old Cambridge speakers that are rated at 20watts RMS and a tiny pair of "surround sound" speakers rated at 150watts RMS; both sets are run from my 200 watt per channel amp.

I used to have a 30Watt RMS Rotel amp, the above speakers would go LOUDER (and deeper) with it, than they do with the 200 Watt replacement because the Rotel puts out more current.

[jrw]

They're all rubbish, let me know your address and ill take them off your hands and get them out your way :p

Seriously, you were given these!! I want your job.

[R1 4GHA]

Just hooked the pair of KEF's up to the amplifier, Wow there amazing and not going on ebay!!

Also Megga impressed with 2 pairs of the Radius 90s hooked up,

SQ from all of them is top notch, and the KEF's have some serious bass!

Think il sell 2 pairs of radius 90s to fund an amplifier for them,

jrw He didnt want any money for them! I gave him a crate of beer the next day haha, hes just moved into a £2m apartment up on the 42nd floor in canary wharf! Moved from a house so was chucking bits out... , hes having a B&W system fitted now

Rich,

[GentleGiant]

My Cambridge speakers have KEF drivers, they ARE very good, but expensive to repair/replace if your idiot sons moronic girlfriend pokes her finger into the tweeter dome.

[jrw]

Just hooked the pair of KEF's up to the amplifier, Wow there amazing and not going on ebay!!

Also Megga impressed with 2 pairs of the Radius 90s hooked up,

SQ from all of them is top notch, and the KEF's have some serious bass!

Think il sell 2 pairs of radius 90s to fund an amplifier for them,

jrw He didnt want any money for them! I gave him a crate of beer the next day haha, hes just moved into a £2m apartment up on the 42nd floor in canary wharf! Moved from a house so was chucking bits out... , hes having a B&W system fitted now

Rich,

Nice - i bet they sound great. When i move i am going to get some Kef floorstanders when i have the room. I also have a Kef 5.1 speaker package and that sounds amazing when my Onkyo Amp is cranked up on an action bluray

[R1 4GHA]

^ Not good!

I just sold a pair of Radius 90s for £130 delivered (not sure if that was a good price?)

Iv put the rest of them on ebay, If they sell, they sell & I have a wod of cash, If not I have some sweet audio

Also put the KEF's on, Note sure what there worth? I put them up at £800 just to get them listed, Any ideas what there worth? anything less than 500 im happy to keep them

Put the amp up for 400 (as I dont want it to sell unless the rest does!)

(It was free listings weekend on ebay!)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130714659950?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Rich

[R1 4GHA]

jrw, That sounds good!

Im moving to France in July, Our new place has a few barns, Plan is to convert one into my man cave and im thinking the KEF's will play a huge roll in that!

[jrw]

jrw, That sounds good!

Im moving to France in July, Our new place has a few barns, Plan is to convert one into my man cave and im thinking the KEF's will play a huge roll in that!

They are awesome but alas at the moment i live in a semi!

If anyone ever buys our house we are moving to a 4 bed detached and the plan (depending on which 4 bed house) is to covert the study or the 4th bedroom into a cinema room with some big settees, an electric 100inch screen and a Optima 3D projector. Depending on the size of the room i may keep my current AV setup for the living room and splash out on a 7.2 system for the cinema :p

My mum works in a high end furniture store and they have a lot of footballers as customers and they have just had a mock up double garage conversion installed in their as a cinema.....My god that sounds good....The sub alone costs £1.5k and there are 2 of them in there. It is better than any cinema i've been too.........Coming to a footballers crib near you soon! (the make of the speakers escapes me at the moment as i have had far too much wine!)

Can't wait!

[goonybird]

^ Not good!

I just sold a pair of Radius 90s for £130 delivered (not sure if that was a good price?)

Iv put the rest of them on ebay, If they sell, they sell & I have a wod of cash, If not I have some sweet audio

Also put the KEF's on, Note sure what there worth? I put them up at £800 just to get them listed, Any ideas what there worth? anything less than 500 im happy to keep them

Put the amp up for 400 (as I dont want it to sell unless the rest does!)

(It was free listings weekend on ebay!)

http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1558.l2649

Rich

Saw the Kefs. First heard these at a hifi show in Heathrow Penta Hotel c.1986. They filled a whole hall with sound. Awesome.

Have had mine since 1996. Same 104-11 in Rosewood. They will handle whats thrown at them (officially I think its 175Watts RMS) But also worked well with my 10Watts Valve amp sold recently. Loads of info on the internet.

May want to change but there is nothing out ther that comes close, unless spending megabucks. £2000+ on Kef Ref 205's

Only issue is the two woofer units in each cavity. The centre " donuts " disintigrate, and on some earlier units the outer foam surround goes. My donuts have gone

But the surrounds are later rubber material.

Also note the tweeters are ferroluid and can sound dull.

Good side is 4ohms and very efficient. 112db++++ ie headbanging levels

Problem now is only worth £250-500+ so you might struggle with £800? but you never know, and you will regret selling them.

BTW where abouts in Northampton?

[R1 4GHA]

Cheers, Yea I just stuck a random price of 800 up, if they sell they sell...

The SQ on the is imence, and they can go Loud as im sure your aware!

What amp are you powering them off of?

My Rotel amplifier cuts out when its played quite loud, Iv spoke to Rotel and they have advised me that the amplifier is ok for the speakers for up to half volume but anything else and im pushing it hence why it cuts out, Advised me of getting a more manly amp but then were looking at £1500 from what he was saying....

Any help with that would be great, Id love to keep them but i want to be giving them full power so I have the option of going louder,

Im in Weedon, What about yourself? (Im moving to France in 3 weeks though)

Rich

[ilmor]

If you cant get rid of them you could aways give them to me Rich

BTW... we still need to go on a drive somewhere before you go to France!

Andy

[GentleGiant]

Cheers, Yea I just stuck a random price of 800 up, if they sell they sell...

The SQ on the is imence, and they can go Loud as im sure your aware!

What amp are you powering them off of?

My Rotel amplifier cuts out when its played quite loud, Iv spoke to Rotel and they have advised me that the amplifier is ok for the speakers for up to half volume but anything else and im pushing it hence why it cuts out, Advised me of getting a more manly amp but then were looking at £1500 from what he was saying....

Any help with that would be great, Id love to keep them but i want to be giving them full power so I have the option of going louder,

Im in Weedon, What about yourself? (Im moving to France in 3 weeks though)

Rich

Someone is talking out of their bottom; any decent amp should be able to go to its max output with a set of 8 ohm speakers, my Rotel got used as an emergency DISCO replacement a few years ago, and it was running on max for hours without a problem.

Does it cut out straight away, or after the volume has been max'ed for a few minutes?? Open the case and check for dust in the heatsinks.

Of course my old 840BX is built like a battleship, the newer "0" series were built down to a price.

[goonybird]

The Kef 104-11s were 4 ohm but designed to give a very easy load on amplifiers.

I am now using a Pioneer AX10 cinema amp. which is circa 175w rms per channel. Previously used a Revox 200W rms per channel amp.

The rotel shouldn't be cutting out as usually designed to drive low ohms and have high current delivery.

It could be it just doesnt like the way its loaded by the speakers.

Note anything I have had rotel always had the bass rolled off to give a upfront impressive sound so may not sound as good with the kefs as they major on bass.

[R1 4GHA]

ok thanks, If you imagine the dial as a clock he said done take it over 12 o'clock....

Rich

[JezF1000]

The Kef's were a classic speaker in their time and a good performer. They'll definately benefit from better amps, Quad/Naim/Exposure pre-powers.

If not eBay, try the forums such as Pink Fish Media.

[goonybird]

The Kef's were a classic speaker in their time and a good performer. They'll definately benefit from better amps, Quad/Naim/Exposure pre-powers.

If not eBay, try the forums such as Pink Fish Media.

+1

[R1 4GHA]

What amp would you reccomend to power them? something not silly money!?

Thanks

[JezF1000]

I think I'd need to know your budget and what source you intend to use them with?

Cheapest quality source will be something like a Squeezebox Touch fed with lossless music files, pretty much up to a £1,000 cd player nowadays. Or a Dacmagic or Beresford dac connected direct to a computer.

Generally second hand, the lesser names will be cheaper to buy. For instance, you'll pay £250 for an Ion Obelisk 3x-XPak1 but it will be better in my opinion than a Naim Nait 2 which will probably set you back £450!

Also, if you are running digital only from a computer, you could do without a preamp completely and just have a power amp - that's what I have, albeit with a valve phono stage with built in vol control for the odd bit of vinyl.

[goonybird]

I think I'd need to know your budget and what source you intend to use them with?

Also, if you are running digital only from a computer, you could do without a preamp completely and just have a power amp - that's what I have, albeit with a valve phono stage with built in vol control for the odd bit of vinyl.

Ah now we are talking!

Just sold my last valve amp cheapie Rogers cadet from the 1960's (have had numerous Quad,Radford, Leak in the past)

But wanted to do this first. in an Omega prior to my octy vrs. Used it to drive the parcel shelf 6.5" speakers. Sounded great.

[JezF1000]

Excellent!

EAR834p here feeding an Avondale power amp into Shahinian Obelisks.

[R1 4GHA]

Cheers, Be nice to spend no more than £300,

Iv sold 3 sets of the radius 90s, ranging from £105 - £140 per set,

Il see what the KEF's go for, if its not alot im keeping them

Cheers