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Good amp for Kef 104.2

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Posted on January 1, 2017 at 17:30:08
jazzbeat
Audiophile

Posts: 293
Location: Kansas city,MO
Joined: February 18, 2004
Have a friend looking for a realistic price amp for KEF 104.2's. I have recently had good results with a friends 107.'s with a Odyssey
Stratos and wonder if these as well require a large power amp with high
cost or any realistic price amps. Bryston and Threshold I am sure would be nice. Any realistic input with this will help.

Thanks in advance....

 

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RE: Good amp for Kef 104.2, posted on January 17, 2017 at 10:15:47
bluemooze
Audiophile

Posts: 269
Location: New Jersey
Joined: November 18, 2009
I use a 1971 Sony STR-6055 receiver (40 watts per channel into 8 ohms); sounds beautiful.

 

RE: Good amp for Kef 104.2, posted on January 2, 2017 at 09:06:18
gregwalshfmc@gmail.com
Distributor or Rep

Posts: 56
Location: Massachusettes
Joined: November 30, 2015
Oh, the Odysee amps are a steal!! Even the cheaper amp would be a great match for the 104/2's. They also match very nice with a subwoofer and skip the kube. I also had custom stands made for mine to get the tweeter to ear level. A nice improvment! You could use cinder blocks for a cheap tweak and see if you like it.

 

RE: Good amp for Kef 104.2, posted on January 2, 2017 at 08:59:43
gregwalshfmc@gmail.com
Distributor or Rep

Posts: 56
Location: Massachusettes
Joined: November 30, 2015
I agree with PAR. If you have your sights set on a Threshold or a Bryston, I'd definitely go with Bryston. I've owned KEF 102, 103.2, 104/2, 105, 105.2, 105/3 (not recommended) and 107's. I had great results with mid-priced amps like B&K, Adcom (stay away from 555 version 1: very fatiging, Version II was a much better sounding amp) and Rotel. DO NOT buy an amp that is not rated into 4ohms. I had a Conrad Johnson amp clip and blow my tweeters on my KEF 107's. Good luck!!

 

RE: Good amp for Kef 104.2, posted on January 1, 2017 at 22:29:40
PAR
The 104.2 was designed to provide an ideal 4 ohm load for amplifiers. It is very easy to drive and just about any amp will work ( subject to the owner's preference for any particular flavour of SQ of course). KEF quote a minimum of 25 wpc into 4 ohms but I have read of satisfactory use with an 8 wpc tube amp. Of course room size is also a factor and as this was a British owner I imagine a smallish room.

The main problems with this vintage speaker seem to be that the foam drive unit surrounds decay and the ferrofluid in the tweeter dries out.

So very large power amps (over 100 wpc into 8 ohms, that being the usual impedence quoted in specs) are not required and would not have been readily available in the speaker's home country when the speaker was manufactured. Over here they would often have been paired with a Quad 405 which would have been considered high powered in the UK back then though I do not offer that as a recommendation necessarily.

 

foam drive unit surrounds decay and the ferrofluid in the tweeter dries out., posted on January 2, 2017 at 10:56:14
oldmkvi
Audiophile

Posts: 10574
Joined: April 12, 2002
Right you are-
I had Bass Drivers replaced around 12 years ago, and Tweeters replaced 3.5 years ago.
Then the Cube buttons ( which is necessary IMO) became intermittent, and I had a Wired-bypass done, all is good now, like new.
I use Mac 275/MC 2500 tube gear, only runs out of gas on the LOUDEST orch peak I have, the end of Varese Ameriques/SFS, when they play Sonic-Thunderbolts.

 

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