Dynaudio Audience 50 or KEF Q60? [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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ericlin81
05-16-2009, 07:41 AM
Hi everyone, i need to get a pair of speakers for my parents but don't know which one is better. Dynaudio Audience 50 or KEF Q60? In my country Singapore, for a second hand pair of Dynaudio Audience 50 @ $500 and KEF Q60 @ $450, both are in very good condition. Can anyone guide me into which is better.

They are using Rotel RCD-02 HDCD player with ARCAM Delta 290 amp. Thanks a lot.

02audionoob
05-16-2009, 08:14 AM
There are others here who know more about the Dynaudio speakers than I, but I don't recall having seen discussion of the KEF. You might want to research which one suits your parents' listening habits. If the KEF are, as I understand it, more laid back, they might be better suited for classical and jazz and lower volume than perhaps the Dynaudio are. A forum member here...Mr. Peabody...lists a similar pair of Dynaudio speakers in his HT system, but he also lists a 125-watt amp. Maybe the lesser power of the Arcam is better suited to the KEF speakers. However, if your parents' tend to turn it up and drive their speakers hard, maybe the Dynaudio speakers are more suitable. The Arcam amp is rated for 75 watts, which is enough to play pretty loud. I am just making the assumption for this reply that someone with a 75-watt amp probably didn't buy that amp to really crank it up. Just thoughts...not necessarily recommendations.

Mr Peabody
05-17-2009, 05:24 PM
The Delta is an older Arcam amp but if it's built like the Arcam amps that came after it shouldn't have a problem with the Dynaudio 50's. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with KEF. The 50's are a very good speaker with amazing bass for a bookshelf speaker. You will also find they are at home with any style of music.

RGA
05-18-2009, 05:20 PM
I used to own the Delta 290 integrated - it has more than enough power to drive the speakers you're considering. Watts is not an indication of volume and it's really important to make the distinction. 10 watts and 95db sensitive speakers will blow away any 100 watt amp from any manufacturer when connected to 85db sensitive speakers.

If you want loud you buy high sensitive speakers with high power handling - not low sensitive speakers. There is a reason why Horns are used at rock concerts and why for a long long long time entire movie theaters were driven off 8-30 watt amplifiers.

Selling watts is pure gimmickery which is sad since many of the best sounding amps (all imo) are low powered.

The Delta 290 can be a beast in terms of power with good high efficiency speakers - and there is no "good" sonic reason not to buy high efficiency speakers.

I found the Delta 290 to sound considerably better than the series that replaced it. The Arcam went home theater and the products to me went downhill - charged more - in a nicer case. But the 290 for me was their best amplifier. Build quality was merely average though.

Mr Peabody
05-18-2009, 06:44 PM
RGA, those are wild generalizations in which both I differ with. I have yet to hear a high efficiency speaker that sounds good, except for Paradigm which I don't consider "high" efficiency and some Electro Voice Pro speakers. I don't feel the power rating makes an amp sound good or bad, so it's not accurate to say "low power amps sound better". And, if your speakers need the juice, it could be the exact opposite.

TheHills44060
05-18-2009, 07:35 PM
In good condition i'd take the Q60's.

RGA
05-18-2009, 10:53 PM
RGA, those are wild generalizations in which both I differ with. I have yet to hear a high efficiency speaker that sounds good, except for Paradigm which I don't consider "high" efficiency and some Electro Voice Pro speakers. I don't feel the power rating makes an amp sound good or bad, so it's not accurate to say "low power amps sound better". And, if your speakers need the juice, it could be the exact opposite.

Good High Efficiency costs some money. I don't consider Paradigm to be HE or particularly a good sounding speaker maker (that is a preference).

I think it's critically important to listen to a wide range of speaker types before commenting and based off my speaker auditions the last 20 years HE mated with non feedback low powered amplifiers sound almost always better than High watt high negative feedback LE designs. The exception is panel loudspeakers and even here they have sounded better with Single Ended Topology amplifiers. The power rating itself is not the problem it is the way it is achieve - with lots of high negative feedback which IMO is a problem.

It's not a problem until you experience the "other" in my view. For instance I had a receiver and I hooked up a Bryston - Terrific noise floor waaaay better than my receiver - tight controlled - bright but still better. SO I recommended Bryston for quite awhile but what was my comparison? Receivers - some budget integrated amps from Arcam, Cambridge Audio, Rega. Not really a difficult test. Put it up against excellent Single Ended amplifiers with good HE speakers and the Bryston is completely out of its element and in comparison become completely unlistenable. So it went from being a star to being unlistenable through more listening to wider range of equipment. (and one does NOT have to spend more though there is an element to this).

A big Tannoy Westminster or the much smaller Kensington and a low powered amp such as mine or if you must stay with SS - a Sugden A21A will play very loud with deep controlled bass and not have the SS etch/glare grain artifacts encompassing high negative feedback SS amplifiers that I have auditioned - and I have auditioned some of the most expensive big name units. Some are better than others but generally have nothing going for them except being able to drive LE speakers better. And then I try to find a LE speaker I would buy and I come up with zero, because in every case I can find a HE speaker that sounds better for considerably less money. The exception though is speakers under $2-3K - this is an area where some HE speakers are limited - it costs more to do HE well. SO you're limited to Klipsch and a few others from smaller makers - Still Omega speakers have been said to be quite excellent for low money - but they're single drivers so they won't have the bass and loudness capabilities though they may sound terrific midband where most music is.

The difficulty with HE is most speakers are horns and they require work to get right.

This older article from the great Audio Engineer and founder of Monitor Audio and technical advisor for all the major magazines and who is the guy they go to for expert testimony in court cases on all matters audio - Martin Colloms on why no feedback is a good thing - even the SS makers in the blind tests chose the "no feedback" tube amp. Pretty telling - not really it took me 4 minutes or so to know the Sugden A21a mopped the floor with my Arcam or the Bryston I was home auditioning.

http://www.stereophile.com/reference/70/

02audionoob
05-19-2009, 05:22 AM
I hope I didn't contribute to derailing the OP's thread. I mentioned amp power only because I was wondering how the intended user likes to listen to their music and I didn't have anything to go on. Guessing based on their choice of amp popped into my mind at the time. 75 watts is more than my primary system, so for me it would be high.

RGA
05-19-2009, 02:55 PM
Back to the point agreed - if the Arcam can't drive the speaker to acceptable volume levels then it's a speaker of Low efficiency - very low - and there is no good reason for Low efficiency speakers - you limit your amplifier choices both in power and design. The Audience 50 is a pretty good speaker - the Arcam can easily drive it.