First HiFi, KEF R500 or R700?

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n2n

Audiophyte
Hi, I am unable to create a new Thread. It says:


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Any suggestions please?
 

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KenM10759

KenM10759

Audioholic Ninja
Well, from what I can read of what you tried to post, nothing bad there so no idea what went wrong.

To answer your question, get the R500 if you have a subwoofer now or plan to get one soon. Get the R700 if you have no subwoofer now and might be a long time before you can get one, or no plans to ever have one.

I have R500 and a modest sub, and for music I've never felt I'm missing a thing.
 
N

n2n

Audiophyte
I tried posting again with no luck... same error message. I'll attach the screenshot (sorry for the inconvenience). i'll appreciate suggestions/ input from your experience and I could really use some help with my decisions.
 

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N

n2n

Audiophyte
Well, from what I can read of what you tried to post, nothing bad there so no idea what went wrong.

To answer your question, get the R500 if you have a subwoofer now or plan to get one soon. Get the R700 if you have no subwoofer now and might be a long time before you can get one, or no plans to ever have one.

I have R500 and a modest sub, and for music I've never felt I'm missing a thing.

Interesting. Thanks KenM10759 for putting it so straight. I had the impression that R500 can deliver enough low end by itself (in a small to medium sized room) for most people. I really don't wanna go down the road to add subs. If I have to add a sub, I would rather go with LS50 IMHO.

Can you please share your experience about R500's bass (without a sub) in a little more detail? Personally, I like tight & defined bass rather than loud and floor shaking experience. I understand R500 would be lighter on bass compared to R700 as it has smaller drivers and cabinet. But is it too weak or loose or undefined?
 
KenM10759

KenM10759

Audioholic Ninja
Oh it's just what you want! I was listening to Euge Groove album "Still Euge" this afternoon, a jazz artist discussed in another thread. I played with turning the sub off and on and even though the recording has deep bass guitar (in the 38-50hz range), my R500 sounded better taking the full range than they do with the DSP of my receiver switching some of it over to the SVS SB2000 sub.

Let me add a little more. They won't do justice to really deep bass like you might find in hip-hop. They can't reproduce the deepest double bassoon or pipe organ notes accurately. Anything above that they can do spectacularly well. The key is placement. I found dramatic improvement when I went from 9" from the wall and 1/2 port plugs to 18" and no port plugs. Amazing difference. They need no toe-in unless you're over 10-12 feet apart.

As for amps, the D3020 can do OK with them for now, though they do like more power. I drive mine with a 60 watt per channel (all 7 channels driven) NAD T758 receiver. I demo'd these at the shop where I bought them on a Parasound amp and they sounded a little better, but the room was also treated and mine is "furnished." My room is 13.5' x 19', and open on the left side rear by 12 feet. A Music Fidelity amp would be a great match-up, though myself I would want to get about 150 watts per channel. The new NAD C388 is on my radar.

DO NOT get that Audio Technica LP60. You can do better. Save up and get a $500 Project, Music Hall or other entry level turntable. Night and day difference.
 
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n2n

Audiophyte
Thanks KenM10759. That really helped me a lot to decide. I think I'm gonna give the R500s a go and order them today. The tips about the placement is certainly a great help. Now I know where to start the experiments from. :)

I hope the D3020 will be able to do a decent job. I can see you really like NAD and so do I. When I first hooked D3020 and played the first song it felt a bit too forward with a narrower soundstage. But it quickly grew on me in a couple of hours. Now I really like its boldness rather than being shy & sweet. It somehow adds a fun-factor to the listening, at least to my ears.

As for the turntable, I haven't put much effort on research yet. I was mostly digging in to the speakers and amps. The only local store I could find has Audio-Technica AT-LP60USB, an Onkyo CP-1050 and a Marantz TT5005. But I understand what you are saying and you are right. :)

Thanks once again.
 
KenM10759

KenM10759

Audioholic Ninja
The Onkyo turntable would be my choice if those were the ones I had to pick from. It's not bad, the only one of the 3 that's direct drive and easily upgraded cartridge. The signal-to-noise ratio is stated to be over 60dB, while the AT LP60 claims 50dB and I know from owning one that it probably isn't even that good.

As for amps, everything you like about the D3020 is in the C388, plus more (especially power.) I had been auditioning one of the C368's at a shop and was very impressed that it sounded very much as good as the Master series. Much cleaner sound than the older C series integrated amps. That you can add the BlueOS system to it for really good streaming is very attractive to me.
 
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