KEF Owners Thread - Page 51

Does anyone use the B-Tech BT77 wall bracket with IQ1s?

It's sold on crutchfield, for example (can't post a link). It has king of a platform with adjustable side plates that squeeze the speaker between them.

Can anyone suggest a center that would work with the 3005 setup? Got a full set back on the circuit city clearance in august and picked up a demo set last week that was missing the htc3001 center.
Would the iq6c center match up well?

Obviously, the 3001 center would probably be the best match. A 3001 satellite would work well, too. I do not know if either of these is available separately, nowadays.

But the UniQ driver (mainly the tweeter) on both the iQ2c and the iQ6c should timbre match quite well with the 3001s. I would think that the iQ2c should suffice. And it is probably much less expensive than either a 3001 satellite or 3001 center.

I would like to ask someones opinion... if you were to get surrounds would you go for the IQ3's or the IQ1's ? The thing is the monetary difference between them is not an issue for me. However I am sure the iq3's might sound better but they are alot bigger. 26 pounds each vs 9 pounds each. The thing is I am looking at mounts and stands right now and I do not even see any that can barely support the IQ1's. I do not know yet whether I am going to wall mount my speakers or use stands either. What would you do?

I am looking into this issue myself. Just a little while ago I found something on a search

http://www.avforums.com/forums/7841442-post5.html

LOL, notig, I'm following you around! Muwahaha!

Seriously, though, what are you interested in pairing the iQ1s with? Crossed-over, the iQ1s will perform pretty similarly to the iQ3s. If size/weight is at all a concern, I'd just go with the iQ1s.

Where'd you get that weight info?
iQ3 weighs just under 15lbs
http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it...-iq3-black-ash
Dimensional Specifications
• Dimensions (Each): 14.4" H x 8.7" W x 12.9" D

• Weight (Each): 14.8 Pounds



iQ1 weighs just under 10lbs
http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it...-iq1-black-ash
Dimensional Specifications
• Dimensions (Each): 11.8" H x 6.9" W x 10.3" D

• Weight (Each): 9.9 Pounds

where are the iQ series on clearance?

do you mean @ accessories4less?

nm, found it

on sale @ vanns.com + onecall.com

a4less sell them on eBay - and you can use 25% cashback there.

wow!

unfortunately i just bought the kef 3005, the CFO will never approve of the iq9s

They sell the whole IQ line, not only IQ9.

How about iQ1s, then? Or iQ3s?

i know... but if i'm going to get the iQ series, i might as well get the iQ9.

my recent purchase of the 3005 is truthly worth it. Saw IronMan, Hulk, and Indiana Jones all on BR and its awesome.
i was just considering upgrading my 3005 to a 7.1 by adding 2 iq9 for the front and the iq6c for the center

would the iq1 or the iq3 be a good choice as front speakers? my setup is mainly for movies.

i just finish setup my kef iq5 i like to know if i have to use the foam or can leave out

jav29, you do not need to use the foam with tie iq5's. You can experiment with it if you want comparing with and without the foam to see what you prefer.

I should have followed up a couple of weeks ago (just noticed a response to one of my last posts). I did indeed purchase the iq5's and an iq2c. I had rear ported Cambridge Soundworks towers in a buit in cabinet, and the CSW center did not fit. So I finally sold those plus the surrounds, and for $100 more got the 3 KEF's. I got the iq2c because this is just our living room, mainly used by my wife for tv and tv dvd's. If I was looking for speakers for heavier movie and gaming use, I would have looked to the iq6c, but I have a dedicated room for that.

However, I must say I was surprised at how well the the iq2c performed-- connected it to one of the front speaker connections and listened to some music with it to make sure it worked when I first got it, and I was surprised at how much sound it could put out.

I did a comparison of the iq5's and the Aperion 6T's I have in my main room. Below is my comparison, just coming from an average joe so to speak. I don't have extensive experiences with dozens of brands or decades or listening under my belt, so take my comparison with a grain of salt. Over all I am quite happy with KEF's, and keep in mind there is about $1000 in price difference between what I paid for the 6T's and iq5's, and with that in mind I think they held their own pretty well.

The veneer is very nice looking. The fit and finish of the speakers is great, well put together. They only weigh 22lbs, but they are not big speakers at around 33" high, less than 7" wide, and about 10" deep. Because of their size, they actually seem hefty. The cabinets sound very solid when rapping on them.

I had probably 20+ hours on them when I finally did some comparisons.
I used-
Blue Man Group - Above (How to be a Megastar)- great for sound stage, imaging, and percussion
Peter Gabriel - Growing Up (UP)- listening to this song you swear it is in 5.1, I don't have any other stereo source that gets into your head as much as this one when in the sweet spot.
Dream Theater- Just Let Me Breathe (Falling into Infinity)- need a little rock with lots of kick drums...
Nightwish - Wish I had an Angel, Amaranth (Once, Dark Passion Play)- female vocals, power metal, let's push it a little.

I did not move speakers back and forth, as a result some of what I heard could possibly be improved by futzing with placement some more. As usual, keep in mind I don't have a lot of experience with dozens of speakers or have a golden ear. Almost all listening was done in pure direct mode.

BMG- the imaging seemed very precise with the iQ5's, and the soundstage was good, it went just beyond the speakers (better than the CSW they replaced). They are rated down to only about 43hz, so at first they sounded fine. But then I switched to the 6T's, and it was kind of like "oh, that's what I was missing". Of course that could be remedied with a subwoofer. The imaging between the two speakers was very close, however the 6T's seem to have bigger soundstage as they seem to envelop me more and some of the drums seemed like they were coming from further out beyond the speakers.

PG- I thought Growing Up was good with the iQ5's, but didn't seem quite as impressive as with the 6T's. The 6T's seemed more lively and a little more detailed. I checked the sound level, and they were within about a db with the 6T's a little quieter actually. That was one thing I noticed- I tended to prefer the 6T's even when they weren't playing quite as loud as the iQ5's.

DT- Once I got into the heavier stuff here, I started to notice the iQ5's seemed a little brighter and more forward than the 6T's, and the 6T's seemed more 'laidback'. I guess I don't know for sure if I am describing them right, but that seems to fit what I was hearing the best. The iQ5's seemed to lose a little bit of their imaging here- with the drumset I noticed drums, snares, etc being used all over the front stage witih the 6T's. On the iQ5's they seemed a little more focused in the middle and not as 'all over the place'.

NW- Not much for soundstage or imaging here, just loud rock. These songs have some pretty good bass, which was noticably absent on the iQ5's. But then again, for background music it wouldn't matter so much, as there still is decent bass here, just not real deep. The female vocals sounded good (on my old CSW's they sounded 'off' for some reason). This was also the point I turned them up to 100db briefly, and for such small towers they held their composure rather well, there seemed to be some strain there, but not nearly as much as I expected.

I also have to add that I did not do direct comparisons with anything acoustic, but I did listen to a few things, Eagles, Norah Jones, 10000 Maniacs, and the iQ5's sounded great with those.

Having bought the 3005 setup, I don't understand that logic.



They'd work great, especially with the 3005s. Unless you are interested in 2-channel only music listening, I see no reason to get the iQ9s if you are adding to a 3005 setup. The iQ1s and an iQ2c up front would be a great match for the 3005s and the HTB sub.

Well, do you understand what they are for? As armaraas said, experiment. It is simple enough to do.

Thanks for the report, armaraas!

Hey guys I am recently going to join you.. I ordered 2 Iq 9's for fronts, Iq6C for the center, and four IQ1's for surround... I was wondering what crossover settings are recommended?

I heard that you take the lowest frequency they can do and add 20 and set that as crossover?

so 38hz + 20 around 60 hz on the fronts?

the center is 65 hz so maybe 85 hz for center?

and 50 hz + 20 so maybe 70 hz for the IQ1's? Does this sound about right?

another thing.. when you use an SPL meter and calibrate.. I know this is a newb question but to get the speakers to the same SPL level is what you are adjusting to get them to this level the crossover frequencies or something else? the crossover is to tell what bass to send to the sub basically right?

Do you have the ability to set different crossover's for each speaker set (fronts/center/surrounds) or not? Even if so, I doubt you will have all those settings available. Usually the smallest increment is 10Hz, so I doubt you will have an 85Hz setting (maybe, though). Some receivers only have 20Hz increments; 40, 60, 80, 100, and 120Hz, for example.

Adding 20Hz is probably not a bad way to do it, but realize that the Hz scale is logarithmic, so 20Hz up from 38Hz is a much larger step than 20Hz up from 65Hz. Some people recommend using a crossover setting that is an octave up from the speaker's -3dB low-end capability. For your fronts, this would be 76Hz (38x2), and using an 80Hz setting for them would not at all be unreasonable (it is what I would use). You will not be "wasting" the speakers if you do that. But for the center it would be 130Hz (65x2) which IS too high. 80Hz would be OK for it. Maybe 100Hz, but I wouldn't go higher than that (see below). For the iQ1s, it would be 100Hz. They, too, would be fine with an 80Hz setting.

80Hz is, by far, the most commonly used crossover setting. Many people use it even if their speakers are capable of much lower output than that. Above 80Hz, bass frequencies begin to become more localizable to the subwoofer. Generally (but not always), with a capable subwoofer (a speaker that is specifically designed for reproducing bass), you want to send as much bass to it as possible. So, provided it is OK with the speakers being utilized, 80Hz is a good cut-off. But you will also want to experiment a bit. It may be that your front speakers reproduce the 60Hz to 80Hz bass better in your room than the sub. Just make certain to recalibrate everything when you change settings (see below).

It has been argued that using one single crossover value for all the speakers may be better than using different values for each speaker set (and vice versa). Personally, I would just use a global 80Hz setting for all those speakers.

And, yes, the crossover setting determines which frequencies from any speaker channels set to SMALL are rerouted to the subwoofer.

What receiver will you be using? Does it have Audyssey or some similar auto-CAL/auto-EQ capability? If so, you may want to use that, at least initially to see what crossover values it assigns to the speakers.

If no Audyssey (or similar), you will set the crossover values in the receiver manually and calibrate the speakers' levels with the SPL meter. The SPL meter measures the sound pressure level. Basically, it is how loud the speakers are. The goal is to adjust them so that each speaker contributes equally to the overall output as measured at your "sweet spot". The crossover setting CAN indirectly affect a speaker or sub's output when it is sent a test tone, but you will have already decided on and set the crossover settings so it is irrelevant when calibrating the speakers' levels.

Very informative ty.. I will be using the Denon 789 which has the newest audessey... you already know the sub the klipsch rsw10d

for the sub i will probably just set the crossover to be controlled by the receiver and max it out right? 120 or 150 hz or something. is there any con to doing that?

My plan is once I get all the parts on christmas I will first do a manual setup and then just run audessy to see if it improves anything. I am still debating whether to get an spl meter at all.....

So, I would give Audyssey a whirl, at least initially. It may very well detect and set your iQ9s to LARGE. If it does, I would definitely change them to SMALL, manually.



You definitely do not want the sub's own crossover to participate at all. With many subs, this is accomplished by turning the sub's crossover up as high as it will go. But I think that your sub will have a low-pass bypass, LFE mode setting, which you would definitely want to use. The manual should be available online at the Klipsch website, so you can give it a look-see.



Well, if you want to "first do a manual setup", you'll need an SPL meter. Many people like to have the meter just for the independent assurance that Audyssey is doing things properly.

Your sub also has 3 digital EQ presets; flat, punch, and depth. Have you considered what setting you might use? I would think "flat" and just let Audyssey adjust everything from there. But you should experiment. You will most definitely want to rerun Audyssey when making changes to this setting.



I do not know exactly how Audyssey works and what your options will be with your version, but I would recommend listening to the iQ9s alone, naked, with no EQ, so you can get a feel for how they really sound prior to allowing Audyssey to apply any EQ to the speakers, themselves, because Audyssey may change their character considerably. Personally (and I am sure many would disagree), other than the lower frequencies, I would not want my speakers EQ'd by Audyssey. But, as I said, I am unfamiliar with the inner workings of Audyssey. It may have a way to set it to only EQ the lower frequencies. There is a huge Audyssey thread in the AVR sub-forum.

Does anyone here own the new IQ 90 and IQ 60c? I just ordered them but have to wait for a few weeks before I will get them. I heard them in comparison to the older IQ 9 and 6c and to be very honest: I didn't hear any real difference in the dealer's showroom. Still, when pushed for a decision I went for the new ones together with a PWS 2500 downfire Sub because the price difference wasn't that big and I'm gonna hang on to them for a while.

What won me over from comparable units was their sound without subwoofer with my favourite surround DVD-A and SACDs. To my ears, nothing sounded better in this price range. And the looks were approved by my sweetheart because they will have to decorate our living room. They will be replacing a German Magnat Vector Needle set that has just about collapsed after being tortured with a Yamaha RX-V1700 AVR and lot's of Blu-ray sound orgies.

hey sivadselim,
i'm unsure what you mean by


are they made for different purposes or something? bad idea to mate them together?


didnt think it was possible, but the misses agreed with the purchase and i went ahead and ordered the iq9 w/ the iq6c.
the current plan is to work them in with the 3005, but eventually i plan on moving the iq9 to its own dedicated room and possibly upgrading the surrounds?

based on your other post, you said to set them up as a "small" speaker with the cross over of 80hz? what should the crossover be for the 3005s (still 120hz)?

thanks

Well, I mean why would you, on the one hand, buy a small satellite setup then, on the other hand, decide that you want iQs but that you want not smallish speakers, similar to what you already bought and which you must have bought for a reason, but the biggest iQ there is. So, you are swinging the pendulum from the 3005s all the way over to the iQ9s. iQ1s or iQ3s would seem to me to be a more appropriate happy medium.



Yes, that is what I would use for the iQ9s, but you can use whatever you want to use. Not that it is correct, but doesn't KEF recommend 80Hz for the 3005s in their instruction manual?

thanks for the quick response!

I bought the 3005 because I was able to get a smoking deal on them @ circuit city for ~$300 OTD
size was not really a concern to me, although this is for my room and having huge surrounds would not be ideal.

I was reading the 3005 thread and people were saying that 120hz was a good setting for those.

what would you recommend for crossover settings on the HTB subwoofer?

Thanks again!

You need to bypass the sub's own crossover. That means turning its crossover as high as it will go or, if it has it, using the bypass setting. But, IIRC, that sub has no built-in crossover, correct? So it is irrelevant.

yes, the sub itself has no crossover settings

but my denon has a crossover setting for the sub. which i currently also have it set on 120hz.

Leave it at 120Hz unless you think that creates a subwoofer localization issue. If you use 120Hz for your 3005s, then it's sort of a moot point because that can also cause subwoofer localization issues. As far as I can tell, using an LFE cutoff that is less than 120Hz is not too common.