Higher powered but efficient amp with the imaging of a Pass XA-25?

@verdantaudio Thank you for the suggestions. After I incorporate the RP-7 and explore its capabilities I will investigate the AVM line.

@dweller The BAT VK-255SE does sound intriguing. Thanks!

@soix I did try the Audion's. I didn't care for them. Thin sounding, no grunt at all. Plenty of clean detail, but it takes more than that. I had a Voyager ordered but canceled it. Sounds like a very good amp, but perhaps not much different from what I have now, just maybe just a little more detailed. By all accounts it isn't being described as robust, which is in fact what I want.

@chorus Bricasti M3 with streaming card (Qobuz) > Benchmark LA4 (soon to be replaced by Rogue RP-7) > Rowlands > KEFs and two Gallo TR-3D subs (via LA4). I have a couple of CD spinners too but really never use them anymore. And I have a Nuprime Stream9 feeding the Bricasti for streaming radio. I am not going back to vinyl.

@ghdprentice This is not a dedicated audio room. It is my living/dining/kitchen room. I tried a pair of maggie 1.7s but they dominated the room physically. Same with the X5s (had to be way out into the room), they did not do well at higher volumes (sweet as they were), and they had an extremely limited sweet spot - stand up and loose all HF. Actually the KEFs with subs load the room better than the X5s with subs, and their dispersion is such that I can enjoy the music virtually anywhere in the room (decidedly not the case with the X5s). The amp I tried was the XA-25, not the 30. Actually, the noise was probably clipping. The main problem I have with the Pass amps is their inefficiency. I do like their sound.

What I am trying to achieve is increased texture without hash and brightness; more robust sound (see next paragraph); phenomenal image depth. I find depth more satisfying than width, maybe because width is good as is.

Since my original post I partially solved my fullness problem, but at some cost. I was using some ribbon speaker cables that improved detail, slam, and imaging, but caused a number of other problems (false and irritating HF textures, metallic sounding HF at certain frequencies). With Soniquil speaker wires (Raven) the presentation is darker but rich, full, and detailed. What is missing by comparison to the ribbons is some slam. I also changed the ports in the KEFs to the shorter ones, though I can't say I really noticed much difference as a result. If anything maybe slightly muddy in the bass (by comparison). I might put the long ports back in. Or adjust the subs roll off down a bit.

@russ69 ​​​​​​​Your suggestions?

@russ69 If I do it will be for a pair of Joseph Audio Pulsar2 Graphene, Fritz Cararra Be, Sonos faber Olympica Nova, or maybe Harbeth 30.2. As you can see I like stand-mount speakers. I think you would be surprised at what I am getting from these KEFs with the Rowland amps. The room is more energized than it ever was with the Spatials. But I know I can coax more from them.

@artemus_5 See my lengthy post from earlier this morning. Yeah, I know about Sachs and Spatial. They are excellent speakers, superb really, just can't live with the limitations. I tried.

@soix Thanks for the recommendations. I will look into them.

@jayctoy Do you have direct experience with these amps driving speakers in the Reference line? Tell me more, like sonic characteristics with these speakers.

Thank you, everyone, for sharing your experiences and recommendations. You have given me plenty of food for thought. I will see what changes the Rogue preamp brings and then make some decisions. If I can remember I will update this thread but it likely will be 6 months or more.

@atmasphere Thanks! The Spatial X5 are really terrific speakers. Clayton and his crew have done a wonderful job with them. And I know they particularly shine with tube amps. But they just were not right for my situation.

One correction: the Spatial's were five feet from the front wall. And they sounded wonderful... if you sat in the very narrow window of a sweet spot. Most natural sounding tweeter I ever heard. But stand up? Lose all HF. Pour on some power? My perception is they don't scale well. And even with self-powered 12 inch woofers they didn't energize the (rather large) room as well as I like.

Mine is not a dedicated listening room. It is a combination living, dining, and kitchen at 25 x 25 x 8 feet. I have music on almost all the time, as I work in the kitchen, eat dinner, read, compute, or less often just sitting to listen. But I want to enjoy satisfying reproduction whatever I am doing. In this situation the KEF Reference is getting me closer to where I want to be, but there is still room for improvement.