KEF Owners Thread - Page 161

Originally Posted by galvs

Amazing speakers...blow away the oldies XQ20, rich and tight bass, sounds like towers!
Congrats Kef!

Originally Posted by Tamas

Looking for any thoughts reviews on Q700s - I am looking to use them as my front 3.

Thanks for any feedback.

Tom

Originally Posted by cream puff

they are a nice sounding speaker but when i was auditioning i found the q900 to be quite a significant upgrade especially in the low freq. go with the 900s if you can swing the extra money, if not the 700s are a good sounding speaker

Originally Posted by ntrain96

You know, Ive owned and sold Kef speakers now going on 20 plus years, and I have to say the new Q/R series Kef's are actually a big dissapointment, especially over the XQ series(The XQ10's and 20's specifically) which I consider one of Kef's greatest bang for the buck speaker line ever made period, especially with a few tweaks/mods. I would not put the new R series monitors in the same class as the XQ20's......I even have a hard time putting them in the same class as the iQ bookshelves which themselves can be made to sound fantastic with xover and internal cabinet damping mods for dirt cheap money. The new cabinets and drivers are just made cheaper, the minute they went to a box enclosure it became obvious what Kef is doing to cut costs and to improve profit margins on their mass produced, main product lines during what is now a poor A/V economy. And the new R/Q series in room frequency response has shown to be poor in comparison to the older XQ and needs alot more EQing to get a respectably flat response curve in the midrange and treble regions.

Originally Posted by drewTT

Can you be more specific about the mods for the iqs? I have a pair of iq90s.

Originally Posted by Tamas

The size of room will be 12x25, |I didnt think the q300s would be able to play as well as the 700s. The 900 i thought would be overkill.
Already have 2 subs.
I was looking for a better front soundstage behind a Seymour screen.

Tom

Originally Posted by Tamas

The size of room will be 12x25, |I didnt think the q300s would be able to play as well as the 700s. The 900 i thought would be overkill.
Already have 2 subs.
I was looking for a better front soundstage behind a Seymour screen.

Tom

Originally Posted by ntrain96

The iQ's really benefit from 2 mods. Cabinet reinforcement and damping(do first), and xover board component replacement(do 2nd if your comfortable with a soldering iron and have a few bucks to spend). The cabinet mod requires fiberglass resin, hardener and a large carton or 2 of carbon pellets(like what you would use for a fish tank filter or air purifier), and a can or 2 of spray on V-blok. Mix the pellets with the resin and hardener and allpy to the entire inside of the cabinet walls, once dry and hardened, spray on V-blok. This will make the cabinet alot more inert, and add some weight to the speaker. The carbon pellets, resin and v-blok help to reduce outside cabinet vibrations and absorb and diffuse the backwaves of the speaker on top of the generic poly fill used stock by the factory.

The xover conpoents used by Kef in pretty much ALL of their lines have poor tolerances overall. For those without the ability to EQ out each independent channel at multiple frequency points, replacing the xover components can significantly improve the natural imaging ability of the speaker. I've modded a pair of iQ10's and 30's to the point where they produced better imaging and sound detail(And a flatter fs response) over a pair of stock Reference 201/2's, and for a small fraction of the price.

Originally Posted by cream puff

while i am personally a fan of 'hot rodding' speakers to get more performance out of them, i dont think its a fair comparison to compare a set of modded speakers to a set of unmodded speakers, since not everyone is comfortable (or skilled enough) to modify a set of speakers.. and for those that are skilled enough, not everyone is brave enough to crack open a new set of 500-2000 dollar speakers and start fiddling.. you can make a pinto faster than a ferrari for less money, but at the end of the day its not a ferrari.

Originally Posted by ntrain96

Well, in all reality, there really is no such thing as a "Ferrari" speaker IMO, unless you DIY and spare no expense in materials and design on your own. Even speakers costing 5 figures PLUS dont have more than but a few hundred bucks worth of materials into them at most. Take my Old Revel Salon's, or B&W 8 series tower speakers. The majority of the material is mdf, even the crossovers were STILL using generic run of the mill components. The drivers themselves, though proprietary in many cases, were still in reality "average" in terms of whats available to the DIY market. A pair of Revel Salon's that retailed for about $15k a decade ago had in reality about 3-400 dollars worth of materials and components in them, and even that might be stretching it a tad. Speaker markup is only rival'd by jewelry markup. In other words, its overly obnoxious and rediculous.

With this being said, you can pick up a pair of iQ10's for a few hundred bucks or less, tear it down, reinforce and refinish the cabinet(for the DIYer its actually a fun relaxing project), upgrade the xover components, and have a speaker that can sound better than a pair ofKef reference 201/2's that cost how much stock? And your out of pocket expense will only be a few hundred bucks and that including the cost of purchasing the speakers themselves. For someone who wants "reference" sound quality, but without the cost, this is a very viable alternative, and an easy one to accomplish too.

Kef's UniQ drivers range from average to above average in sound reproduction quality potential compared to whats available on the market. But the point source design gives them above average potential like a true full range driver when it comes to imaging if they are driven actively or the passive xovers are upgraded. Kef's drivers aren't in the same league as say a Fostex, Audience or Mark Audio driver, but for a fraction of the cost they are actually darn close, especially for the relatively inexpenisve price. The older XQ/iQ drivers have alot of untapped potential. And if you want the "Ferrari" quality cabinet, then just bypass the iQ series and look for a pair of XQ's while they are still available.

Originally Posted by jaxwired

Hi guys. New KEF owner here. Just picked up some Model 3s. New in 1998. Bought them from the original owner. Still had the boxes in perfect shape. Had them playing for about a month now. Pretty amazing sound. Spectacular really. Using a Bryston 4bsst2 amp with a placette preamp to feed them.

BTW, I tried replacing the stock jumpers with some Kimber and found the stock jumpers sound better, go figure.

Anyway, loving these KEFs. Really underated. I prefer these older KEFs with the woofers inside the box. Great warm sound. : )

Originally Posted by ntrain96

You know, Ive owned and sold Kef speakers now going on 20 plus years, and I have to say the new Q/R series Kef's are actually a big dissapointment, especially over the XQ series(The XQ10's and 20's specifically) which I consider one of Kef's greatest bang for the buck speaker line ever made period, especially with a few tweaks/mods. I would not put the new R series monitors in the same class as the XQ20's......I even have a hard time putting them in the same class as the iQ bookshelves which themselves can be made to sound fantastic with xover and internal cabinet damping mods for dirt cheap money. The new cabinets and drivers are just made cheaper, the minute they went to a box enclosure it became obvious what Kef is doing to cut costs and to improve profit margins on their mass produced, main product lines during what is now a poor A/V economy. And the new R/Q series in room frequency response has shown to be poor in comparison to the older XQ and needs alot more EQing to get a respectably flat response curve in the midrange and treble regions.

Originally Posted by galvs

I don't agree.
I have both XQ20s and R300s, and side by side R300s have more puch, much better bass and presence.
IMHO, for my taste, R300 is a step over XQ20.
Just my opinion, of course.

Originally Posted by ntrain96

Your post here kind of furthers my point a bit. I agree with part of the assesement you made. More "punch", and "presense" I agree with in a sense, but better bass?, or specifically more acurate and more detailed? No way, its not even close. Those XQ20's are ruler flat down to near 60-70hz before they slope off in a nice linear fashion.

BUT........

If your going with a pair of monitors and have no sub,and are trying to attain "full range sound" out of a small monitor then I can see going with the R300's..........they are basically a direct step down design of the 201/2's in terms of driver array and cabinet type/volume tuning........but if you have a good solid sub or 2, then without question the XQ20 is a much better TRUE monitor. Its a true point source driver, the tolerances from driver to driver are tighter as measured with RTA data in room, and its frequency response is much smoother. The XQ20's have alot of natural advantages over the R300's. A. Single Point source driver which allows for better imaging, vs. 2 front drivers. B. Less xover components in line on a 2 way passive system, vs. the 3 way on the R300, allowing for less signal alteration C. A much easier to tune front port system that thankfully doesnt hurt sound quality whether near a back wall, on a shelf, or out in the open. Rear ports like on the R300, give the dreaded 2 peak/ 1 valley bass response(More punch and prsense as you state)but at the expense of detail and accuracy, and the 2nd lower peak under 80hz just muffles the upper midrange excessively unless you keep them far enough away from a rear wall or corner. Without question fill the rear port with the included port plug to reduce this......but then you might lose the "punch and presense" you desire. Its a design tradeoff they made. But again, if your not running a sub and want as close to full range sound as possible, I can understand in a sense going with R300's, and of course if they sound better to you and its what your after, then thats all that matters. But if you have a good sub or pair of subs, Id without question stick with those XQ20's, or would have gone with the R100's in place of em. Just MO of course.
I'm actually surprised you didnt think of doing something like a pair of R100's and with the money saved over the R300's, pick up a matching sub or 2. Would have been a system that you would have liked alot better to your taste, especially since you want bass punch and presense.......you would have had that, and then some with alot more clarity and detail on the lower octaves as well as those R300's still have zero bass in the lowest octave, and from 40-80hz its muddy and uneven still.

Originally Posted by ntrain96

Yes I remember these well. Actually have a set of Model 2's in their original boxes in the basement, near brand new still.......I take em out every once in awhile to play them. Great sounding speaker IF you have a good punchy amp that is low ohm stable. Bryston definetly qualifies! If you like those 3's, then do yourself a favor and try and find some 2's. The 2's don't have quite as much bass, but the bass is a bit more defined and the imaging due to lack of multi front drivers is as well. And Model 2's can be had for cheap money.

Originally Posted by exm

I stared with the Ref 2s, bought the Ref 3s (using the Ref 2s as side speakers) and upgraded from the Ref 3s to the Ref 4s (using a Parasound A51 amp). I liked them all, but appreciated the lows in the 3s and 4s. Never noticed that the 2s was more defined and I would personally not 'downgrade'. The 4s are monsters in size though!

Originally Posted by toolskizm

So I recently got my Q600C in and admittedly, I've never really own a true center channel. More so, I've never really owned a real home theater setup, so this is my first. Upon connecting this speaker and hearing it for the first time, I have to say that I'm very unhappy with it. I'm really thinking there is something wrong with it though. I've tried hooking it up as a center channel and using multi ch audio to play music, and I also watched a move with it. I even tried unhooking the left q300 and putting it in stereo with the other q300 to hear the difference.
This q600c is very very tinny and seems to have no midbass whatsoever..especially compared to the q300s. Is that what you guys get from this speaker? I'm not 100% sure, but I really see no excursion coming from the drivers. It really sounds like just the tweeter is playing. I'm wondering if I got a defective speaker, but I'd like some input especially since I have nowhere I can hear how this thing should sound.
My expectations were for it to sound close to the q300, but that's definitely not the case. And I don't know if that's because it isn't ported, but for 500$ I'm not satisfied at this point...
I got it from accessories4less, so it very well could be defective..

Originally Posted by arshishb

Accessories 4 less is an authorized Kef dealer & all my Kef units arrived new instead of "open box" as said on their website. They do that so that they can post whatever price they want.

As for the Q600c, make sure you are connecting to the bottom speaker terminals & have the 2 knobs all the way in; meaning keep turning them clockwise till they can no longer go in. Also make sure you have connected the correct terminal from the Denon receiver as well.

Originally Posted by arshishb

What the....? I neither got foam plugs nor rubber foot, no wonder I couldn't figure out how to mount the damn things on the wall.

Originally Posted by romeo_214

I truly disagree with you on this one, A4L does has a reputation on it's own for selling stuff that is on really bad shape and should not be sold at all, check my own and other's posts from several users on this same thread. It's not a guarantee that they will send you a new or just open box item. With them it is always a possibility that the unit they send is defective.



You still maintain that you've got a new item?? With no foam plugs or rubber foot on them??

If I were toolskizm, I'd go to another store that has the Q600c on demo and see for myself if it's the speaker itself I do not like, or it's indeed a defective unit.

Again, as you can see for yourself with A4L there's always that chance.

Just my 2 cents

Originally Posted by arshishb

..............but overall lack of clarity when running it in Pure Direct mode.

Originally Posted by sivadselim



Your center channel speaker isn't used in Pure Direct mode.

Originally Posted by jsil

I just my new Q900 and Q600 on Saturday and calibrated them last night with ARC. The Q900 and Q600 were set at 60hz for both.

Originally Posted by ntrain96

Yep, I was about to say the same thing. Pure direct mode is 2 channel only. At least it is with Onkyo products and some other select mfg's.........