Receiver that can drive KEF QX1s

I am running a pair of Acoustic Energy AE1 MkIII in parallel for centers off an Arcam AVR350 and the 280 would run the same. The speakers are nominally 5.6 ohm so two would be 2.8 ohm. Been running them for 10 months and no extra heat and no fan turn-on even running the AVR350 on the 8 ohm position.

Quote:
Originally Posted by EricD /forum/post/0

http://www.kef.com/products/XQ/xq1.asp


Says this speaker can dip to 3.2 ohms. I need a new receiver as my old Sony cant handle it. Any recommendations under $2k?


So far I'm looking at:

Arcam AVR280 - $2,000 http://www.arcam.co.uk/prod_diva_AVR280_intro.cfm

Rotel 1057 - $1300 http://www.rotel.com/products/specs/rsx1057.htm

Adcom GFR700 - $2,000 http://www.adcom.com/prod/shopdispla...1&cid=46&sid=3

Denon AVR2807 - $1,000 http://usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3038.asp



The Denon is the cheapest and has all the features but I'm not sure if it can handle going down to 3.2 ohms.


HELP!

Click to expand...

I have a full set of xQ's (xQ5/xQ2c/xQ1 in 5.1 setup) driven by a Rotel 1056. So the 1057 should be fine.


- Mike

Thanks.


I was guessing that the rotel, adcom, arcam (or any other higher end amps/receivers) would work. I was mainly curious about the Denon as its price and features were pretty good.

Yes the Rotel, Adcom, Arcam models would do the trick nicely. If $$$ are a concern, checkout the Sherwood Newcastle 871 models and up. They will work - although the sound quality from the Arcams will be better (at higher $$)

If you're concerned with money, for less than any of the amps you mentioned, you can buy 2 Crown XLS 402 amps and bridge them in mono for 900 watts per channel and use your sony as a pre/pro. You'll need to get a match box for the balanced cable inputs or RCA to XLR cables, but the two amps will cost about $1000 or less. The amp puts out 300 watts to an 8 ohm load in stereo if you want to go with just one and 450 watts in 4 ohm. The only downside is the fan is kind of noisey and they are not pretty amps, but there are ways to tame the fan noise if you are interested. BTW, I have two running like this right now with 200 watt floorstanding speakers that have built in subs and the amps don't even break a sweat. I only have them half way up and I can't even turn my pre/pro (Old Yamaha HTR) up past 8:00 on the volume dial without shaking the windows.

Ya, I'd never use crowns on bookshelve speakers. They are only rated at 120 watts. The only problem is they go down to low ohms, so harder to drive. I dont need 900 watts per channel.....

The sony is pretty much junk. Its old and has intermittant buzzing/humming that it didnt have before. Why would i want to amplify a poor signal?


The only thing that is keeping me from getting a new reciever atm is the HDMI crap.

The buzzing is probably the amp, but yeah, I see your point. You could get one 202 and run it in stereo. These amps for the money are amazing. I think the 202 is only 250 watts per channel. Still, you would need a pre/pro to use it.



Quote:
Originally Posted by EricD /forum/post/0



The only thing that is keeping me from getting a new reciever atm is the HDMI crap.

Click to expand...

I hear you. I have been watching the current receivers w/HDMI since the beginning and reading about the new introductions from Denon and Onkyo, willing to replace my 2 year old Yamaha 2500. I got a little cold on HDMI because of all the technical issues that may or may not be resolved in future versions. It seems to me like it's going to be complicated for a while. Therefore I decided to scrap HDMI all together, component is more than fine, I can't see any difference on my 1080p display. My choice is now going to be focused on the audio portion: Rotel 1057 may be the winner.