KEF KHT5005.2W speakers - what cables and amp?

[admin_exported]

Hi,

After considering various mid-range speaker/amp combinations to upgrade to (thanks a lot for the help!), circumstances have changed and I am now looking at the KEF wireless speakers.

My question is, what cables would I need to buy to ensure max performance? On superfi they suggest some speaker cable and banana plugs ( I have absolutely no idea what these are, but they sound great), but is there anything else I need to get at the same time? Same goes for amp really, do I just need to get good quality HDMI cables or is the list bigger than that?

Speaking of the amp, would the Sony STRDA2400ES do these speakers justice or do we need to look for a slightly higher-end one? (Yamaha DSPAX863SE?)

Thanks again in advance for any advice given.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I've had these speakers for about a week. I run them off a Denon AVR 2807 with QED Silver Anniversary XT speaker cable. You need a decent amp to get the best from them. Before the 5005.2s I had the original 5005s. I used to run the original 5005s off a Denon AVR 1906 and they sounded pretty good. After I upgraded to the AVR 2807 they sounded amazing.

The improvement from switching to QED Silver Anniversary XT from the QED Qudos Original cable that I used to have was much less dramatic. So don't go (ahem) bananas with speaker cable. And remember that the terminals on the 5005.2 satellites are too small to accept standard 4mm banana plugs. You're better off with bare wire at the speaker end. Some people would argue that you're better without plugs at the amp end too, but personally I like the convenience of plugs.

As for HDMI cables, for short runs it doesn't matter too much about the quality. I use 1m QED HDMI-P cables. These are HDMI 1.3a spec and cost about £17 each from play.com. They'll happily feed up to 8-channel uncompressed PCM and 1080p from my PS3 to my amp, which looks and sounds terrific.

Enjoy!ÿ