I recently pulled the trigger on the Kef Reference 3’s and they should be arriving sometime next week. Before this splurge, I recently upgraded from the Uniti Atom to the Uniti Nova with my Kef R3 bookshelves (not to be confused with the floorstanding Reference 3). I know that using the Nova to drive the Reference 3’s would be a great disservice to the speakers as the Nova’s 80 WPC stands on the lower spectrum of Kef’s recommended amplifier requirements of 50-300W. This is a stop gap solution as I plan to thoroughly audition amplifiers (hopefully in-home) before making another substantial purchase. I have read on many occasions that it is much more dangerous for a speaker to be underpowered instead of overpowered as it “may produce hard clipping (distortion) which ultimately causes the voice coil windings to overheat, resulting in a dead speaker.”
Finally, my question is: will using the Nova with the Reference 3 pose a non-negligible threat to the lifespan of the speakers?
Here are a few of the speakers specs:
| Amplifier requirements | 50-300W |
|---|---|
| Sensitivity (2.83V/ 1m) | 87.5dB |
| Harmonic distortion | |
| 2nd & 3rd harmonics (90dB, 1m) | <0.5% 40Hz – 100kHz |
| <0.2% 200Hz – 10kHz | |
| Maximum output | |
| (peak sound pressure level at 1m with pink noise) | 113.5 dB |
| Impedance | 8Ω (min. 3.2Ω) |