KEF Q100 + NAD D3020 = happy n00b

[xram]

Hi all, new to hifi, upgrading from 11-year-old computer speakers. I'm wondering why there is so little discussion of the KEF Q100s on this forum. I got these for $399 delivered from accessories4less, and I am totally blown away with the sound I'm getting for $810 total, including the NAD D3020 and monoprice 12 cables.

Anyone else out there running these speakers? I'm just so psyched right now I had to post something.

 

[ID.]

Hi all, new to hifi, upgrading from 11-year-old computer speakers. I'm wondering why there is so little discussion of the KEF Q100s on this forum. I got these for $399 delivered from accessories4less, and I am totally blown away with the sound I'm getting for $810 with the NAD D3020 and monoprice 12 cables.

Anyone else out there running these speakers? I'm just so psyched right now I had to post something.

They were released quite a while ago now, and budget kit like that tends to generate most of its buzz when it first comes out. Overall I think the R range has gotten more acclaim on the forum and the R100 is quite often discussed.

 

[xram]

Ah. So is there something better I should have grabbed for the money? I don't know what else would sound better at the $400 mark horizontal on my bookshelf (so had to be front ported and point- source).

Having saved for a bit on a teacher's salary, it's kind of a bummer that an $800 setup is seen as 'budget' / too cheap to be worth discussing.

 

[Andrewjvt]

Ah. So is there something better I should have grabbed for the money? I don't know what else would sound better at the $400 mark horizontal on my bookshelf (so had to be front ported and point- source).

Having saved for a bit on a teacher's salary, it's kind of a bummer that an $800 setup is seen as 'budget' / too cheap to be worth discussing.

Ok firstly welcome to the forum and glad you liked the sound.

Please dont take what Id said the wrong way. He never meant anything bad he just answered your question as to why they are not talked about so often on these forums

The q100 are great speakers as are the q300. There are quite a fe members that use the q series and are very happy.

The nad is a great amp also.

 

[JamesMellor]

No you couldn't :

"and I am totally blown away with the sound I'm getting <snip> I'm just so psyched right now I had to post something."

Is about the best result you can get , enjoy the music

James

 

[ID.]

Sorry, never meant you should've gotten the R100s instead. Just that there hasn't been much talk about the Q series recently. I think the Q300 and 500 got more attention but they're considerably bigger and pricier.

Glad to hear you are happy with your combination. A nice change from the frequent posts by people disappointed with their new setups comprising the products with the most hype and stars.

 

[xram]

No, that makes total sense! My initial question was phrased poorly - I basically was just wondering if anyone had a similar entry setup.

Thanks for the welcome. I've got a lot to learn, but for right now a little ignorance is bliss.

 

[mfdphd]

Hi all

I should received both (speakers and nad) by the end of this week. I am planning to connect the nad to my mac pro 2010 (optical port or should I use a usb port??). I will be posting my comments soon. I am a newbie too. I bought the Kef q100 in accessories4less. They said they are open box.

I am also want to connect my little raspberry pi DAC with this amp.

 

[Andrewjvt]

Also the nad has a good dac already. Why would you want to connect another dac?

 

[mfdphd]

With a raspberry pi, I can connect a usb driver and control my music with volumio. So I do not need to use my computer to listen flac files. According to the spec, DAC HIFI 2.0 is capable of converting sampling rates of up to 32 bit / 384 kHz. My idea is to connect the dac output to the analog input in the nad.

 

[xram]

Personally I'd probably connect with USB and take advantage of the built in DAC.

I'd also be interested to hear what you think of the setup. It might be because I'm used to a very bass-heavy cheap 5.1 system (ancient Logitech Z-680 with world's boomiest sub, why I finally got rid of it), but I'm finding the little bass EQ button on the back helps to fill out the sound of the Q100s. I was thinking about getting a small sub, but after turning on the bass boost I'm happy for now.

 

[xram]

Ah, I didn't realize it was also going to be the source (earlier it sounded like you were trying to decide between optical out and USB from your Mac, in which case USB would be the way to go).

If you already have the raspberry pi, try it both ways and see what you like better (and report back, I'm interested). Honestly, I can't detect much of a difference between the built in DAC on the NAD and running my Apogee Duet 2 through the aux.

 

[mfdphd]

Hi everyone

I just got the kef q 100 and nad d 3020. So far so good. I like the audio quality. It seems the optical output (mac pro 2010) does a better job than the usb connection. These days I will try to use my raspberry pi as a dac and see if I can hear any difference. I am newbie in hifi. Should I use port plugs for kef q 100?

Thank you.

 

[xram]

I don't have them in - they really kill the bass, which is not overwhelming anyway.

It's also surprising (to me at least) that the optical in your MacBook would be better than the DAC in the NAD. What about it sounded better to you?

 

[mfdphd]

According to the NAD manual:

Supports bit rate/sample rate:
up to 24/192 (via Digital Audio input)
up to 24/96 (via USB input)

I am trying my rapsberry dac ( hifi dac v2.0 + volumio + airplay) with the nad d3020 (aux1 analog input). The sound is really good.

---

NAD D 3020
Kef q100
Mac pro 2010
Raspberry pi DAC

 

[NS496]

I think the DAC in the d3020 is probably perfectly acceptable, nothing high-end obviously.
I use my Macbook’s optical out and it sounds fine. I get a garbled noise with USB for some reason, hope my unit is not faulty… The analogue out from the mac is also perfectly good, if a little ‘softer’ compared to the optical connection (but it could also just be different ‘volume’ fooling my ears). I get some listener’s fatigue listening to CD’s via the coax-input though, the analogue outs of the Rotel sounds bettter, but I need a long cable run (5m) so thought coax would perhaps pick up less noise… But to really get my feet tapping I spin a record on the Rega. Somehow the music is just more involving that way and really shows me what this little amp is capable of. I’m not claiming it is ‘better’ with vinyl, I just saying I enjoy that more than the digital connections to the amp… The KEF’s appear to be have similar low sensitivity as my 685 s2’s, but my combo still it goes loud enough! Glad to hear the NAD can drive the KEF's.

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_10205690203549831]

As a very happy owner of a D3020 and a raspberry pi with volumio i want to share my findings with it.
At first i hooked the pi to the D3020 by USB, the sound was allright.
Then i bought a Hifiberry Dac+ and used the analog input from the D3020. Sound was much better than over USB.
After some reading about the onboard DAC of the D3020 i decided to switch from the Hifiberry Dac to the Hifiberry DIGI+.
Hooked it up to the D3020 over coax.
I was blown away by the difference compared to the other two options: much more control, tighter bass.

My D3020 drives two, rather old, but nevertheless, great floorstanding speakers: MB Quart 800.
And it can do it with ease!