Hi fellow naimees: What are folks’ experience with the Nait 5si and KEF R series, specifically the R500? I am currently driving Energy Reference Connoiseur speakers, RC 30, a small floorstander with two 5 1/4 woofers, acknowledged as a laid back speaker a la Wharfdale Diamonds series. The sound is fairly dynamic, PRAT-full with good slam for progressive, classic, new wave, and krautrock, but I am looking for a touch more openness in the mids to uppermids. A home demo of the KEF LS50 revealed the mid and upper mid shortcoming of my current set up, but I still need the bass to roughly 40hrtz. The Energy speakers play pretty clean when loud, does the KEF hold it together at high SPL? Last question: I tried the 5si with large floorstanders, and dynamics flattened out. Can the 5si handle the KEFs? I will hope to audition but appreciate any insights nonetheless. Best regards to all.
Posted on: 08 January 2019 by Huge
Thr KEF R5 is nominal 8?, but has a minimum of 3.2? with a 3 way crossover, that sounds as though it may well be quite a 'challenging' load for a Nait 5Si, particularly near to maximum level.
With a nominal 87dB/W and the lower current of the 'little' Nait this won't be the best combination for high SPLs; however it will still get to levels that can damage your hearing if used frequently near its maximum output.
Posted on: 08 January 2019 by Mike-B
I'm a little sceptical about KEF's claimed nominal impedance of 8 ohms. I've just looked at the Stereophile magazine test of the R700 (no test on R500) & it shows that KEF spec the R700 as 8 ohms with a min of 3.2 ohms = the same as the R500.
Stereophiles test results show the minimum is 3.3 ohms but the remainder of the impedance across the audio band is between 4 & 6 ohms. That is not a nominal 8 ohms
So I remain sceptical of KEF's spec's & it further reinforces Huge's cautionary post above.
Posted on: 08 January 2019 by Simon-in-Suffolk
However impedance is a bit loose term to determine amp power - surely it depends on resistance and reactance vectors of the speaker load - and as these are 90 degrees out of phase then assuming the resistance and reactance were equal the current dissipated by the amp would be greater than if the impedance was purely resistive.
So surely one needs to see the resistance and reactance at a point of impedance to determine the current ability of the amp?
But agree nominal 8 ohms impedance means nothing really
Posted on: 08 January 2019 by Huge
Simon, absolutely.
If you can persuade speaker manufacturers to publish graphs of impedance vs. frequency AND phase angle vs. frequency, I'd be very grateful!
(Geeky joke: as we're talking electrical maths here we probably should be using j rather than i .... so: J'd be very grateful!)
Posted on: 08 January 2019 by GoJets
Soundstage.com measurements for the R500 seem to bear out the impedance range similar to the 700 as per mike-b. R500 Sensitivity is slightly less than the Energy speaker. The Energy is a 2 1/2 way vs the three way KEF. Does that make an appreciable difference in amp powering capability? Really, my focus is less high SPL than preserving dynamics at all listenng. I’ve been very impressed by the 5si at low listening levels in this way, so much so I’ve parked the Grado and HiFiMan headphones in the late evenings when the family is asleep! Tks so far for the thoughts.
Posted on: 10 January 2019 by GoJets
My dealer suggested the R300 goes almost as low as the R500, and that I wouldn’t find an appreciable difference in bass output. I find that hard to believe, frankly. Nearfield maybe up to 8 feet, but surely not in a larger space? What are folks’ experiences on this front?
