New amp and floorstanders for £1500

I wouldn't travel 2 1/2 hours to demo anything. 

You may not, but many others do.

Thank you for all the suggestions, 

To be honest I lost a bit of interest in reading the posts when it just turned into a battle between the active and passive boys.

I maybe wrong for not trying the actives but I wish to stick with traditional floor standers

I particularly like the look of the kef r500s, or maybe the r700s, I realise this blows the budget but the more I research the more I want!

I will be having a demo at the weekend, what's a good amp pairing with the kef's?

I still like the options the rotel ra12 gives but is It powerful enough?

Dan

The R500 and R700 are both pretty efficient, they just need a stable amp as the impedance can get a bit low for the budget models. The Rotel will be fine, and DAC aside, it is probably one of the best options around its price point anyway - the DAC is a bonus. Alternatively, try the £500 Pioneer A50. There's no DAC option with this as that is on the £800 A70, but it is a very clean sounding amp that has plenty of grip on the bass, and works well with KEF speakers in my opinion.

They'll need a bigger car park won't they? The whole cult will turn up to prove you wrong; they may even need a bigger hall. NOT!

The truth of the matter is that they won't even go to the Bristol Show on their doorstep, never mind any further. They tried it in 2007 and it didn't go well. It 2008 it totally flopped. I believe the reason put out is that the wrong type of people go to hi-fi shows. Why are AVI frightened of being heard against competition? 

The 2007 and 2008 Bristol Shows were in fact a resounding success for AVI, and led to the thousands of sales which have ensued for their loudspeakers.

They (AVI) had two principal messages to convey to HiFi users, at the Bristol Shows . . . 

1.  The ADM9s were promoted as a complete HiFi system in a small box (the LS cabinet), comprising remote-control pre-amp, DAC, active crossover, and four powerful amplifiers, directly connected to specially designed drive units, without the disadvantages of passive systems, or the clutter, and mis-match problems of the many boxes which comprisd separates systems, nor the need for expensive interconnects, and all costing less than £1000 (in 2007).

2.  Perhaps even more importantly than that, for high quality sound reproduction the only source required was a computer.  Wireless streaming was also demonstrated using iTunes and an Airport Express, with both PC and Apple systems.

This brought howls of protest, mainly from traditional separates dealers, who probably saw their gravy train being threatened, and particularly from the valve and vinyl brigade, who were convinced by their pre-conceptions, and expectation bias, that a computer couldn't possibly be a credible music source.

I well remember many sceptics saying that the vibrations inside a loudspeaker box would destroy the sound quality of the enclosed amplifiers  together with the false conception that at least many layers of 'Mana' style supports should be provided for each of at least half a dozen separates boxes, to ensure sonic isolation for the electronics.

Several people even claimed that 'they could hear the digits', when a computer was employed as a music source, such was the fineness of their 'golden ears'.

Additionally, many believed that lossless, or compressed, music downloads would never replace CDs or records.

AVI successfully demonstrated that 'myths' of the so-called 'audiophiles' were just bunkum, foo, and prejudice, as well as bias from dealers who wished to protect their out of date 'gravy trains'.

The following six years have shown the verity of the concepts which AVI introduced in those early days.

I know, because I was there.

JC

I went to last years Scalford show, along with my ADM9.1T owning mate.  The truth is we were disappointed by almost everything we heard there.  I'd have been happy to take his ADMs over everything bar about 3 systems there (active ATC50's, active B&W 801s, huge Quad panels).  Now he has the matching sub for them, I'd maybe be happy to take them over everything I heard there.  We did, for a while, consider taking our systems to this years, but ultimately neither of us could be bothered.  I'm glad I went to last years though, it confirmed to me that I was on the right track with actives.

The R700s are fine speakers, heard them the other day. Not that hard to drive at 89db either, so a 50W + amp should be fine. 

A 5 hour round trip ?

In this country. 

I am driving up to Scalford, thats a 5 hour round trip for me. Its well worth it!

I did a rougly 4-5 hour round trip to listen/buy my 104/2s over in Cardiff earler this month. About the same when I got the Magnepans from London.

Well Ashley James has a different view. This is the official AVI excuse.

That wasn't our experience when we did it in 2007 with modest success and very much less in 2008. Never again!

We felt it was an utter waste of time and that what we call normals no longer visit audio shows.

jcbrum, will you be coming to Scalford? If you are then I'm very much looking forward to meeting you and comparing your AVI speakers against my big passives.

Oh and for those just wanting to hear Actives, there are some Mackie, Harbeth Monitor 40, ATC 50ASL, Linn Majik and a couple others IIRC.

As well as some esoteric exotica like the Tannoy Westminsters, Avantgarde Uno, Linsays EV's and some interesting DIY horns, open baffles etc.

thats dedication. 

I feel like a bit of an amateur now.