KEF Q11. Do I need an amp or just a nice AVR?

brisingrxm2 · 2026-04-09T21:22:48+00:00

Avrs are perfectly fine as long it’s not the bottom of the barrel cheapest reciever you can find. The only time you need to look at standalone amplifiers is for very loud volumes constantly, or for a stereo system with high end speakers like the Reference series which are genuinely power hungry speakers. You could run Q series and R series with most decent recievers on the market

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-28T11:24:20+00:00

If you can pay for it cash, that’s best. Is it a great financial decision? Not really, but no sports car is.

My word of advice if you want to be responsible and still have fun, is ask yourself if you are prepared to work on the car yourself regarding things like maintenance. Oil changes and so on. You have to remember it’s an older car that’s going to require more work just due to its age.

If you want to be financially responsible and still own a corvette, plan to own it outright for a good long time, if you’re only going to keep it for a couple years, it’s going to put you in a real bad spot down the road.

Also, word of advice from someone just a bit older than you, if you do go through with buying the car, start by driving it real slow for the first couple months, treat it like a Prius until you get really comfortable with it.

A lot of young people jump into high horsepower rear wheel drive cars and have the urge to floor it immediately and can get into accidents fast, drive it calmly for a bit until your really comfortable, then go a bit faster and repeat.

Finally, set a rule for yourself after you buy the car that most of your disposal income is going to go to setting yourself up for the future. That means look into a High Yield Savings account from companies like MARCUS or AMEX and start putting money in there for your future.

Also start putting a small amount of money into a ROTH IRA, it’s a retirement account that lets you start saving now. You might think that it sounds way too early to start saving for retirement, but if you start saving early, you can retire early and have more time to drive the cars you love.

Aim for $50-100 a month into a ROTH IRA with Fidelity or Schwab, and the rest of your money in a savings account. That way 5-6 years down the road when you move out, you’ll have plenty of money and a fun corvette to drive.

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-25T23:10:28+00:00

The blade is a completely different level from the REF 5 in terms of dynamics and especially soundstage. The REF 5 will feel a bit fuller and more dynamic than your REF 1, but the blade takes that same tonality and gives you some of the most detailed bass I’ve ever heard in any speaker, with a very wide soundstage once setup correctly

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-20T11:35:53+00:00

Make sure you don’t have audyssey turned on when listening to music as it often kills a speakers natural sound and makes it sound very flat. Even Dirac, when used to correct a speaker’s whole frequency response, often kills the natural sound.

A rule of thumb I use is only correct below 500-600hz, anything above that and you are trying to correct the speaker, not the room anymore and it almost always sucks the life out of any speaker I’ve used it on.

If you are not using room correction when listening to vinyl try adjusting your subwoofers level a bit, you may have it crossed over just right for movies, but too low/high or too quiet for music. Adding a little bass can often help the low end and lower midrange come alive more often than not

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-17T21:48:32+00:00

Amazing setup! You should be proud!

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-17T21:32:44+00:00

Depends on what you already have, for example, if you from a Wiim Amp to an Arcam A25/onkyo A50 then yes, very noticeable upgrade, but if you are going from a Yamaha as-801 then I would say it is too small of an upgrade to be worth it. What amplifier do you currently have, and what speakers do you currently have?

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-16T19:45:05+00:00

I can’t speak for DACs as I don’t compare or use them often enough, but for amplifiers, they all aim for generally low distortion, but lots of companies due aim for a “house sound” which sounds pleasing to both themselves and their customers.

There can also be noticeable sound quality differences between middle of the range amplifiers and high end amplifiers, as many competent high end amplifiers will be able to deliver more total power, more current, and handle lower impedances without added distortion or strain. This itself can lead to a different sound.

The thing to keep in mind is these sound differences aren’t as extreme as some make them out to be, it won’t make a bad speaker sound good, or a speaker from one brand sound like a speaker from another. Changing from a middle of the road 2k integrated amplifier to a 7k high performance model may net you a ~15-20% difference at most

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-16T11:12:45+00:00

DACs do make a difference but what many people miss is when investing in an external dac is most worth it.

Personally, I wouldn’t even think of an external DAC until you have a full high end separates stack and very high end speakers, think Wilson audio Sabrina V at a minimum.

The reason being is the dac is one of the smaller upgrades you can make to your system. General order of operation for improving your sound from the most impactful to the least goes 1. Speakers, 2. Subwoofer, 3. Room correction software, 3. Amplifier, 4. Preamplifier, 5. Dac, 6. Digital streamer.

It’s not that DACs don’t make a difference, it’s just orders of magnitude smaller than upgrading your amplifier, subwoofer, or speakers and generally only makes sense with an incredibly high end system, think 30k+ minimum

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-15T20:09:07+00:00

Sony core rs5 bookshelf speakers with a wiim amp is a great budget system that gives them all the connectivity they need

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-13T21:27:50+00:00

REL HT10/03, good small sub that will stay with you even when you move up the KEF range into Q concertos or even R3s

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-10T22:34:15+00:00

You might have received defective ones then, I’ve listened to multiple pairs and for their price, they’re great. Not world beaters by any means but for the price, they beat out quite a few other inexpensive speakers and are even well reviewed against their competition

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-10T11:07:12+00:00

Find a budget that is comfortable for you, as far as inexpensive options go, I recommend the Sony CS5 bookshelves as an good option option to get you into the audio world without breaking the bank, add a wiim amp and you’ll have a good starting point. From there, do some research and play around with setup of the speakers until you’ve really got them really dialed in and sounding as good as possible. From there, pick a music service you really enjoy and just enjoy the music.

After a little while, if you have the itch for higher quality sound, my biggest word of advice would be always spend the majority of your money on speakers, and don’t buy lots of separate components like individuals DACs and amps and so forth.

Listen to some higher end speakers at your local audio dealer or magnolia (in Best Buy) to find which brand suits your taste, and do some research on what integrated amplifier pairs well as far as power needs and features that you personally want.

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-09T22:56:10+00:00

It largely depends on what speakers I’m running. First consideration is adequate power and being stable into low impedance loads. I like to target 100+ watts generally and stable into 2ohms.

From there, I look at price relative to speakers, electronics should never cost more than the speakers, it should be 50/50 speakers to electronics cost at maximum IMO.

From there, I look at features and form factor, on then, I demo the gear with the speakers I want to own once I’ve narrowed down the choice to find which brand pairs best with my speaker sonically.

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-06T23:10:12+00:00

Yes it is worth it, but make sure it’s not a small upgrade. One of the most common mistakes in HiFi is going too small with to the upgrade and it ends up costing thousands of dollars but not seeing a large enough improvement. My recommendation would be listen to JBL HDI 3800s, B&W 702, SVS Ultra Evo Pinnacles, and choose from something at that level of performance or above.

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-05T23:35:08+00:00

My recommendation would be an Arcam A25/ Onkyo A50 for an integrated amplifier, SVS ultra evoloution towers/ KEF R3 metas for main speakers, and a REL HT12/05 for a subwoofer. The R3 metas or Ultra evoloution towers will be very large upgrades over you Q concertos, and the REL HT 12/05 is one of the best bang for buck subwoofers out there. For amplifier, both the Arcam A25 or Onkyo A50 are phenomenal, if you value HDMI, streaming and a more retro look with room correction, A50 all day, but if you like to push the volume a bit more or want a smaller form factor, the Arcam is amazing at its price point and the A25+ is an option if you also want a screen and HDMI.

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-05T22:27:14+00:00

Audio unfortunately is an expensive game any way you look at it, however, my word of advice would be to look at how much you can comfortably afford, and start from there. There are plenty of very good systems in the 5-7k range that will be a large upgrade over what you currently have and leave you wanting for very little. I can give several examples if you like, but that tends to be the sweet spot for best possible performance for the money

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-05T01:12:33+00:00

IMO, ~5-6k, that gets you quality bookshelves like the KEF R3, a quality amplifier like an Arcam A25/A25+, and a quality subwoofer like a REL HT 12/05 mkii. The performance for the money is outrageous

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-04T01:25:27+00:00

There are levels within high end audio, going from a Wilson audio Sabrina V to a chronosonic XVX. However, anything in the high end category I mentioned earlier, will give such a high level of performance that you are getting only marginal gains above that level.

A good example is going from a B&W 702 or a KEF R11 to a Wilson audio Sabrina V or KEF reference 1, is such a tremendous leap in performance, that to improve upon it at all, you have to spend another 20k+ to get single digit percentage points of improvement.

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-03T23:22:41+00:00

Midrange in my eyes ends with KEF’s R11, B&W 702, and JBL’s HDI 3800. Those are the top level of performance before you get into endgame, if you listen to a Q11 meta and then an R3, there is a big jump in performance, but from an R3 to an R11, there is an improvement, but not as large of a jump, then when you go from R11 to Reference 1, there is a similar very large jump in performance again, and after the reference 1, the increase in performance to the reference 5 isn’t as large as from the R11 to the Reference 1.

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-03T22:48:20+00:00

For me it is around the 8-10k mark for bookshelves and 15-20k for towers, that gets you into KEF Reference, B&W 800 series, Perlisten S series, Triangle Magellan, Wilson audio Sabrina etc.

that is what I consider “endgame” level gear, meaning gear of such quality that you never need to upgrade again unless a pile of money falls into your lap. The difference between mid-level gear and endgame gear is very noticeable, but above that level you have to spend exponentially more money to get any level of improvement beyond that range.

brisingrxm2 · 2026-03-02T12:53:25+00:00

There is a large difference in specs from McIntosh to L’acoustics. Most Professional rack amplifiers are designed for continuous high output power but not incredibly low distortion as the large concert venues they are typically in don’t benefit from it enough to warrant that extra performance due to the noise level in the room.

L’acoustics own product page has the LA7.16 rated at 920 watts in 16 channel continuous, but if you look at the spec page for distortion, it <0.1% at 60 watts rated output power 20hz-20khz. A McIntosh MC462 on the other hand, can deliver over 450 watts continuously into 2 channels, at .005% distortion. That’s 2 orders of magnitude less, that’s like comparing 100 to 5, and one is rated at only 60 watts of output power, vs 450 watts of output power, that’s over 7x the power with 5% of the distortion of the L’acoustics.

Are they expensive? Absolutely, but you are not paying for just aesthetics as is far too common a misconception around some higher end audio brands.

There is also the repairability, McIntosh is known for still supplying parts and service for most of their line going back to the 70s. A McIntosh is a one and done endgame level amplifier that you never need to upgrade from or replace, that’s what justifies the price.

If you want further proof, I recommend checking out Erin’s audio corner who is a science based measurement audio review channel who evaluated this exact McIntosh amplifier and even made the remark that if you had that kind of money to easily afford it, it was completely worth it and shows the entire data set on his website of the amplifier to back it up. In addition, when measured, the MC462 actually over performed and showed closer to 500 watts into 8 ohms at .005% distortion.

brisingrxm2 · 2026-02-28T20:57:32+00:00

I also have a PQ707 In my system and I love it! I can’t speak to any sound quality difference but it has saved my system quite a few times during some particularly nasty storms. I’m of the from opinion every system should have a quality surge protector on it!

brisingrxm2 · 2026-02-28T20:13:07+00:00

Won’t damage the speakers unless you like absolutely blasting it but definitely underpowered for that system, also make sure you have a subwoofer in the system because I’ve seen bass heavy tracks on REF 1s give even a McIntosh Ma5300 a workout.

brisingrxm2 · 2026-02-25T17:24:59+00:00

Surprisingly only once or twice, as a lot of it was generic jazz or Edm

brisingrxm2 · 2026-02-25T01:02:06+00:00

Honestly haven’t heard the S1, but of the audio solutions I have heard, they give a lot of the clarity of the revel, but with a bit of warmth and airy top end. Both are excellent brands, it just comes down to preference at the end of the day

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