Best Amp for KEFs (Q4, Q6C, PSW2500, Q Compact rears)

[admin_exported]

My 9 year old Sony STRB940 is starting to play up so it's time for a change. What does the panel think of the best options for a new AV amp to match my speakers? I am considering the:

Pioneer VSX 919 (or increase budget for the LX52) but both may be too bright for the speakers ?

Denon 1910 (or increase the budget for the 2310) but have heard they are difficult to set up?

Yamaha RXV1065, good price but not sure the spec warrants £510 let alone the list of £700...

To complete the picture, I have a Pioneer 435XDE and will be purchasing a Sony Blu-Ray probably s360 since the panel doesn't support 1080p.

Advice on amp most welcome !

 

[TheHomeCinemaCentre]

It depends on what you are looking for really. Do you use the system for music or is it mostly movies? For music the Yamaha 2065 is a good match as will the Marantz SR6004. For movies the LX52 will make the Kefs sing as will the Onkyo NR807.

Specification tells you nothing about how an amp will perform, the only way to really know is listen. If you do increase your budget then the SR6004 would be my choice of the lot with your speakers.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. The system will be mostly used for TV (will be upgrading to Sky HD soon) which includes quite a bit of music channel watching, plus a couple of DVDs per week (to be Blu-Rays when I bought one!) Another aspect is to play my Ipod Touch through the amp so like the idea of the Ipod Pioneer connectivity. Do the KEFs have a reputation of being 'bright' and thus not to be teamed up to a bright (e.g. Pio?) amp?

 

[Anonymous]

Any more thoughts from the panel?

 

[fayeanddavid]

bramley

If it helps I have Q7 fronts, iQ6c and DS2 dipole rears with a Storm III sub and have run thse off of a Yamaha RXV 1300 intially and now a Yamaha RXV 2700 and I am delighted with the sound for movies, tv (Sky+HD) and iPod connectivity

The performance stepped up considerably when I bi-amped the Fronts (from the surround back outputs of the amp), reset the equalization to Flat and ran a sound test to confirm the auto calibration and adjusted accordingly (auto cilbration was close, just needed minor tweaking and abit mor on the sub)

Haven't reviewed the amp you refer too, however the above gives me stunning sound (yes..........I'm think I'm a confirmed Yammy man)

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks. I'll check out the 2700 !

 

[fayeanddavid]

Bramley

The 2700 is a generation back and has no HD codec for Doby or DTS, if you can get your hands on one and can live without the HD sound codec you sould be able to get one well under the list price of a couple of years ago

Does everything else brilliantly and will accept analogue out from suitable blue ray players as you require, I for one am not upgrading just for the HD sound decode

Hope you can fine one

Cheers