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New amp(s) for RF7 MKII


Wim M

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Hi, I am new on this forum and I wanted to ask some help.

My system is about 22 years old. So I thougt it was time to upgrade some things. First I switched my JBL speakers for a brand new pair of RF7 MKII's. Now I want to replace the amp.

The dealer suggested me the following setup: a Rega Cursa 3 as a pre amp combined with 2 mono bridged NAD C275BEE's.

Does anyone have experience with these amps?

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Biil, Thanks for your answer, but have you already heard about Rega? He says Rega is more 'musical' than NAD as far as pre-amps concerned. Joop

Joop,

I have heard of Rega and good things but have not heard Rega. The Rega/NAD combo sounds like it may be a winner.

Have you considered a NAD integrated like the M3 or C375BEE? Might be worth look.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?intatran&1304978313&/NAD-Master-Series-M3-Integrate

M3.jpg

Bill

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I have been listening to my new RF-7 II's for a week now and they are really blowing me away. Very musical, accurate, natural and effortless. I am currently driving them with the preamp section of a Harmon Kardon HK3490 and the power amp section of a vintage Sansui G-9000. The reason I am not using the power amp of the HK is that I previously had a set of Forte II in there and the HK just could not deliver enough current to drive them properly. Next, I intend to try the HK by itself to see how well it can drive them, and then I am going to try a Fisher KX-200 tube amp. If you are interested, I can keep you posted on how that works.

The RF-7 II's are really marvelous speakers, and I really hope you find the right equipment to help you enjoy them!

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Bill,

I checked out the specs from the suggested NAD's and they really look fine pieces of 'machinery', but I'd rather go for seperate amps just in case I decide to go for a multichannel setup.

Next week or so, our dealer promised to come over at our place to demonstrate the Rega/Nad's, on our RF7 MK2's. In fact, can hardly wait.

I also heard some good things about Rotel (RC 1580 + RB 1582) I'm going to try to find a Rotel dealer nearby to check them out. Rotel also has so called Class D amps, much power in a small, lightweight box. Have you heard about them?

Joop

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I have my RF7 MKII's for 3 months, and I have to say they didn't sound at all in the beginning, I really was disappointed in them. But only after a few hours 'break-in' they really came to life!

I drive the RF7 MKII's with a vintage Kenwood KA 1100-D (160W/ch @ 8 Ohm , 450W/ch @ 2 Ohm). Last week, I thought it was time to turn up the volume, now they have about 50 working hours. As the volume knob reached the 9 o'clock position, my wife came running in from the kitchen, shouting (have you gone mad or what?) she also was fearing for her chinaware :-)

Still, I want to replace the amp.

Please keep me posted!

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I have not heard the NAD Amplifier that you are looking at. I would be very cautious of running that amp in bridged mono. Many amps distortion goes WAY up when run that way. I looked for the NAD specs, and do not see any published while bridged.

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I looked for the NAD specs, and do not see any published while bridged.

NAD website states 400w x 2 in bridged mode.

Features
While 150W is very powerful for home use, there can never be too much power if you like your music loud and clear. An option to add more power in the future is to ‘bridge’ the C 275BEE and add a matching C 275BEE for one of the most powerful home audio systems you’ll ever encounter. Power goes from 150W x 2 to over 400W x 2! This also has the additional benefit of being ‘dual mono’, meaning each channel and each speaker is totally isolated from the effect of the other.

Bridged (Monophonic) Mode
IHF dynamic power 8 ohms 800 W
IHF dynamic power 4 ohms 1200 W

Bill

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but the NAD website states a THD of 0.02%, mono bridge, full power, which I think is still 'very acceptable'. Compared to, for example, a Rotel RB 1582 which states a THD of 0.03% (all channels driven, not bridged) the NAD outperforms the Rotel with 50% even in mono bridge mode.

But actually I'm not a firm believer in specs and figures, I 'll just wait for the demo at my place, on the RF7 MKII's and with my room accoustics.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Last week we had the demo at our place of the Rega/NAD amps. Source was an Olive O3HD.

It wasn't really a succes. Mids and Highs were allright, it sounded like he placed a center speaker, voices seem to come from somewhere in between the RF7's. Bass performance was poor, I must say. I had the impression that the NAD's ran out of power way too soon, and although we had been listening for only an hour I found that they ran very hot.

I hooked up my powered sub, and I never heard such tight bass before (coming from the sub). So I think the Rega pre amp was alright.

Does anyone have suggestions? Someone suggested a second hand Rotel RB 1090, or the new series of Rotel Class D amps.

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Last week we had the demo at our place of the Rega/NAD amps. Source was an Olive O3HD.

It wasn't really a succes. Mids and Highs were allright, it sounded like he placed a center speaker, voices seem to come from somewhere in between the RF7's. Bass performance was poor, I must say. I had the impression that the NAD's ran out of power way too soon, and although we had been listening for only an hour I found that they ran very hot.

I hooked up my powered sub, and I never heard such tight bass before (coming from the sub). So I think the Rega pre amp was alright.

Does anyone have suggestions? Someone suggested a second hand Rotel RB 1090, or the new series of Rotel Class D amps.

I have a 2 channel direct mode so I do mess around with just the 7s, and coming from so much bass in my set up (3 subs 2 that are huge) and what the 7s put out going to just the 7s makes it hard to not feel like something is missing for me. But if I sit down and just listen to them from the start it’s a lot better. I think it’s hard not to get a little spoiled when we all use subs so much in ht. 15 years ago subs weren’t very popular in home systems. Just corner load the fronts and eq up the bass. So what we think is good bass I think has changes a lot. But I to have thought about getting a really nice 2channel amp and when I listen to how good my xpa-5 sounds I bet 2 exp-1s our possible 1 xpa-2 even would be plenty.
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Confirming Emotiva amps are really good value, i run Forte IIs off 2x UPA-1 and it sounds well satisfying.

Emotiva preamp USP-1 is best sounding at price range - yes, it's a bold statement and yes, i listened to it, but i liked and kept my slightly more expensive tube preamp. They promised to release XSP-1 this summer, which will be true balanced preamp (although i personally don't really care for balanced).

Although i am about to get Oppo95, i still have my Rega Planet CD player and it works beutifully. It's not a preamp, but it could help reassure You that this somewhat rarer brand in US of A produces decent quality products.

Good luck in Your search.

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Confirming Emotiva amps are really good value, i run Forte IIs off 2x UPA-1 and it sounds well satisfying.

Emotiva preamp USP-1 is best sounding at price range - yes, it's a bold statement and yes, i listened to it, but i liked and kept my slightly more expensive tube preamp. They promised to release XSP-1 this summer, which will be true balanced preamp (although i personally don't really care for balanced).

Although i am about to get Oppo95, i still have my Rega Planet CD player and it works beutifully. It's not a preamp, but it could help reassure You that this somewhat rarer brand in US of A produces decent quality products.

Good luck in Your search.

There is a really good review of the xpa-2 on audioholics.com he basically said that it sounded as good as his denon 5808 (I think that’s the model. he said is the best avr he’s heard) its 7k and it’s a monster. He also said it was the most powerful amp he’s ever bench tested. It’s crazy because I kind of get scared if it’s cheap I just assume it must be cheap if the price is. However Internet direct companies have really impressed me from my subs to my amp. Just get so much for what you spend.
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  • 1 month later...

I heard from a friend very nice things about Parasound Halo amps combined with Klipsch. I already contacted a dealer to have a demo.

From what I've read on the Parasound site, are these my options:

1) one A 21

2) two A23's: mono bridged

3) two A23's: one A23 for each speaker but bi-amped.

Can somebody give me some advice?

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The Emotiva XPA-2 is a beast! It will have those RF-7s breathing! Don't be fooled by the price. They have cut out all of the middle men that make a profit so you're getting a quality product at rock bottom price. For two channel you wont be lacking bass with an XPA-2/RF-7 combo. Best bang for the Buck out there IMO.

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1) one A 21

2) two A23's: mono bridged

3) two A23's: one A23 for each speaker but bi-amped.

Can somebody give me some advice?

1) Entirely sufficient (unless your room is HUGE)

2) Even more sufficient, enough for a huge room. Do you really need that much power? Ok, too much is just enough when it comes to ss power, but on the other hand, a single A21 should reach ear blistering volumes before running out of steam.

3) Doesn't make sense; you're giving the highs way more power than needed. Due to the high crossover of the RF-7's, the amp driving the bottom inputs is doing all the work, and the money spent on the amp for the highs is an extravagance. I'm cheap, and given the marginal, perhaps imperceptible benefits of passive bi-amping, this one just seems like a stupid idea. If you need more output, get a more powerful amp, or follow suggestion number two.

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someone on another forum said he thought it was strange to put a big metal bolt here, but I know know if that really does anything. Does anyone here know?

It's keeping the heavy transformer from busting loose, my A21 has the same setup.

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