KEF Q Series

I listened to the KEF Q1s (bookshelf) yesterday at a specialty A/V store and thought they sounded great. I brought my girlfriend to the store (b/c I live with her, I must consider the GAF factor ) to show her some of the things I was looking at - she's tired of my huge floorstanders (me too, but not b/c they're huge, just because they suck - they're Optimus 1500s purchased from radioshack a few years ago). When I showed her the KEFs she really liked them and even thought the Q3s, the smallest floorstanders, were acceptably small.


My question is this - now I'm thinking about a 5.1 system with the KEF Q3s for fronts and the Q1s for backs, and obviously the Q9c center. I'm not sure what I'll do with the sub - haven't heard any of the KEF subs, but I might go with an alternative sub - the 5 speakers are already pushing my alloted budget.


Another configuration I've been considering is using 4 Paradigm Studio/20s and a paradigm center. I haven't actually heard the paradigms yet (the dealer I went to yesterday was renovating and didn't have them hooked up), but plan to soon.


Before I do, does anyone have any thoughts on how the two systmes might compare?


Is it worth spending the extra $100 or so per speaker for the Q3s over the Q1s when really its the same amount of drivers, etc., just a bigger speaker? Will having the floors make a noticable differnece for fronts over the bookshelf Q1s?


Can anyone recommend a cheapish sub (

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Personally, I'd get five of the Q1s (or four Q1s and the matching centre) and save some money. Since you're using a subwoofer anyway, I don't think the slightly greater bass extension of the Q3s will be worth the additional expense.


Having the same speaker at each location will give you a pretty consistent soundstage all the way around, plus you'll only have to deal with a single crossover point to blend with the sub. And remember, just because you're getting Kef speakers doesn't mean you should limit yourself to their line of subwoofers; listen to different brands and models within your budget and pick the one that sounds best to you.


Good Luck,

Sanjay

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I'll agree with Sanjay's suggestion to skip the Q3 in favour of the Q1, unless you're going to spend more than the price difference on stands. I have a Q5/Q1/Q9c setup, and while the extra range of the Q5 is nice, the Q1 is certainly capable enough to anchor the system.


The KEF sub that I bought with the system is okay, but after nine months I'm ready to upgrade to someing a little more, well, SVS. The PSW2000 doesn't add much to the system's range, playing only slightly lower than the Q5s. I've recently demoted it to the rear, using the speaker-level inputs to pretend that I have 'full-range' (35hz+) surrounds. The Q1/sub combo is as good as the mains for music, and I don't notice much degradation with the Q5s handling the LFE. So, to make a short story long, I'd say that sounds good, with a modest low-end extension, takes up very little room, and is pretty. It might be a great match for an apartment -- one of the requirements that I had when I bought it was that it must match a very small room -- but see what else is in the same price range.


... if you'd like photos, let me know. The KEF Q series, and even the little woofer, look great. (I don't know *what* they were thinking with the Q8s, though.)

I'm currently auditioning anything and everything that's in my budget (and then some).


At one store yesterday I listened to Paradigm Studio v3 40 & 100. At another store I listened to KEF Q7, NHT ST4 and Triad Silver LCR.


Frankly I didn't fall in love with any of these. I previously heard and liked the Paradigm Studios v3, but this time I had my music with me that I was familiar with, Cutting to the chase, of these 5 I liked the Triads the most, provided that it was mated to a nice sub.


I A/B/C'd the KEFs, NHT and Triad in a single store (LaserLand in Cupertino, CA), all running off Denon 5803 receiver. I used three completely different CDs: Diana Krall 'When I Look into Your Eyes', L. V. Beethoven from "Immortal Beloved" soundtrack and Evanescence (rock/orchestra background/lots of guitars/synths/male & female vocals).

KEF Q7

I agree with others that the KEF has a large soundstage, nicely three-dimentional. It has a nice and warm midrange. however, I felt that it lacked both in the highs and lows. What kept going through my mind as I was listening is something aking to a bell-curve: definitely good middle, but lacking on the lows and highs.

NHT ST4

I went to the store to listen to the NHTs. A friend of mine is a big fan, so I thought I'd be impressed. In fact, I was disappointed. This was the worst speaker of the bunch, to my ears at least. It's a fairly bright speaker, yet the highs were on the tinny side. Tiny soundstage. Not much on the bass extension. Uninspired midrange. Oh well...

Triad Silver LCR

I was amazed by the Triads. Nice, full sound over most of the freq spectrum. The speaker is rated to 80Hz on the botton, yet I was amazed how much bass extension it provided. Paired with a nice sub it could be very nice. The soundstage was huge, very 3D. I liked this one.

Paradigm Studio v3: 40 and 100

The Paradigms I auditioned in a different store, so no direct comparison with the other three. I previously stopped by for a quick listen and liked them then. After reading others' glowing reviews I expected to be wowed. Sadly, I can't say I was. Regardless which model I listened to, there just wasn't something there. The bass was a bit lacking. Highs were somewhat 'compressed'. Soundstage was OK, but I wasn't amazed. Oh well... which brings me to...

B&W Nautilus 803, 804 and 805

I went and auditioned these today (Century Stereo in San Jose, CA). I've previously fallen in love with these speakers three years ago. Fast forward to now, and I still *love* them. Wow!!! Granted, these speakers, esp. 804 and 805, are in a completely different pricepoint. But the sound--oh my!!! I used the 803 as a reference only, since it's out of my price range. (Frankly, the 804s are too expensive also, unless I do a lot of self- and wife- convincing, and I'm not there yet.)


On all three--crystal-clear highs, amazingly warm and clear mids. Huge soundstage. Nice bass extension, tight and taught. On Diana Krall's disk track 2, there is a very distinct string bass line. On the 803s, I felt as if I could almost reach out and touch the actual instrument, it was so *there*. The 804s were similar, it's just that the string bass seemed to be a bit farther away. The 805s, the bookshelf/monitor ones, threw an amazing amount of bass for their size, but of course it wasn't nearly as much as the floor-standing models.


All in all, the B&W Nautilus series is amazing. Effortless and powerful. Awesome. My next step is to compare the Nautilus series with their lower CDM-NT series.




Max

I have the Kef Q-Series....right before thanksgiving I bought a pair of Q7s for my mains, the Q9 center, and Q1s mounted on 36" stands for my surrounds. I also have a kickin' SVS 25-31 PC+ sub to handle all the LFE.


I went with their top of the line Q7s for mains since I wanted as much speaker as possible, and I still listen to quite a bit of 2 channel stereo.


Overall, I am extremely satisified with the Kefs. Timbre matching is spot-on, and they are not too bright IMO. No complaints really.


And since they're available online, there are some super deals out there, I ended up paying between 25-30% off list price.


I'm using a somewhat wimpy 90wpc Denon 2802 to run the Kefs, but I've never heard it straining, even when watching say, Attack of the Clones Fellow Ship of the Ring at fairly high volume. Eventually I'd like to add a 5 channel 150-200 watt amp to put some real power to them, I hear they respond nicely to some real power. But 90-100wpc will drive the Kef's just fine...


Good Luck, I don't think you will be dissapointed with the Kef Q-Series, I'm certainly not.


Regards,

Sean Lewis

San Ramon, CA


ps...for a great inexpensive sub, you can't go wrong with the SVS 25-31 PCi. It's $549+ shipping from what I can recall...

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Hi,


I have also checked out all the stuff at century stereo. And I can honestly say I did not hear too much of a difference between the B&W DM604S3, B&W CDM9NT and the B&W Nautilus 801s.


There was a fairly clear difference, but it was pretty subtle. The CDM9nt seemed to be less bassey than the 604S3, while the Nautilus 801 seemed a bit more bassey. (I'd hope so with that damn gigantic 15" woofer on it)... Highs sounded the same pretty much across the whole range. Soundstaging was crap for everything but the Nautilus 801, and there's a reason for that.


I don't think Century Stereo has any of their lower priced speakers set up very well. Pretty certain of that really. If you go into the room where most of the CDM series and the 600 series resides, they're just all thrown on shelves or in a row against the wall. OF COURSE you're not going to get proper soundstaging like that. They're either FAR too close together, or way too far apart, there's no toe-in on the ones that are farther...


The room with the Nautilus 801s is absolutely spectacular, though. The speakers are set up perfectly, with a nice comfy chair in the sweet spot. At one point they had the CDM 9NTs set up in a room similar to that...


Same thing at Laserland. All the reasonably priced stuff is set up horribly. But you'll notice the expensive stuff is set up fairly well. (Well, Laserland doesn't seem to do quite as good of a job at it anyway...but that's beside the point)


Anyway, I'm ranting at this point. But I bought the DM604S3s for fronts because they sound absolutely fantastic when you have them set up decently. If you go beyond a speaker like this, you're seriously just 1percenting it. Sure, the CDM9nt sounds a tiny bit better, but is it worth an extra $1200/pair? Ouch. Don't know if I'd be willing to fork out $2600 for a pair of speakers that I think sounds only SLIGHTLY better than a $1400 pair. ESPECIALLY when you consider that the sound you get from the speaker can vary IMMENSELY based on how it's set up.


Lots of people with hifi stuff, including people on this forum, probably have fantastic loudspeakers but aren't satisfied with them because they didn't spend the time figuring out where they sound better. I've seen lots of pics of peoples theaters here and wonder how they can tolerate the audio from their setups... Lots of folks with speakers that aren't even pointing in the same direction. Or with one speaker much higher than the other. Or with one speaker VERY close to a wall, whilst another is very far from a wall. These things can affect the sound dramatically...


ACK, typing too much. I'll shut up now. Anyway, if you're interested, since you're in the bay area, I would probably be OK with you dropping by my place at some point to check out the B&W DM604S3s. I think you'll find that they sound quite drastically different than the ones at Century Stereo (if they even still carry these? Not sure, haven't been back there in about a year or so now...) Send me a private message on the forum if you're interested.


-kevin

I have a pair of KEF Q50 for 7 years now.

Everytime i listen a new cd, its a wonderfull surprise.

They really are a great speakers.

You have in America a great brand to use with KEF. Harman/kardon.

It´s what i have and i´m very happy with them.

And you have the lucky to buy harman/kardon for almost half of the price them here in Europe.


So I recomend Harman/kardon do drive kef apeakers.

My take.


Kef Q1's are warm... You'd better like a warm sound, or you're gonna hate the Q1's. Personnaly, I didnt like them very much... They sounded a bit muddy, the highs were lacking and even the lows which were kinda exagerated IMHO weren't very good...


Kef Q3's are friggin hot! And by hot, I mean that they've managed to take the overly warm Q1 and made it EVEN MORE WARM!! At that point its not warm, its above warm.. I don't how how you'd call it About 1 minute was enough for me to discard them


Kef Q7: Much better than the Q3's, still kinda warm, but at least its complemented with better lows, better highs, mostly better everything. I didn't hate those, but thought they were kinda expensive for their performance and their sound wasn't what I was looking for.


The Q5 was somewhere around the Q1 & Q7.


I've also recently listened to the QX (XQ?) series. Well what can I say, looks like I'm not a big fan of KEF... Their 4500$cdn speaker didn't impress me...


If you're not looking for a VERY warm sound, I'd look elsewhere: Monitor Audio, Totem, B&W, Paradigm, etc...

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