Is KEF Uni-Q technology really good?

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Passive_audio_enthusiast said:
Bass is tricky to get it tight. It varies a lot depending on the room acoustics. Sometimes just with optimum placement it can get tight. I used to judge speakers in the past the same way until I realized without experimenting every possibility with placement it’s too early write anything off.

When I bought my current speakers it had lot of qualities which I liked but bass was “boomy”, and sluggish at the showroom. As per reviewers it should be very good in terms of bass. Anyway I had the option of returning them if I didn’t like it so I took them home. My room has one wall on the right side with lot of glass and to the left side it’s the dining area which is open. The booming was initially present, then I used UMIK to measure both the speakers seperately at the listening spot. One was booming and “slow” since it was placed next to the wall and when I swapped left and right the results became same- the one near the wall was killing the experience. Then I shifted my entire setup a 1 meter to the left, and closed one of the ports on the right speaker and now they very tight. It sounds way tighter controlled and detailed in my room than its bigger brother at the showrooom(at its position set up by the store guys). I am 200 percent confident that the bigger speaker is better than mine, but as of now anyone hearing them both would judge it the other way! Sometimes some eq would kill out the boominess on certain setups without spending any money. Also i used to belive that “driver speed” was a thing, but to me- this is a myth. It sounds fast, when it’s flat and the room is non reflecting. When a delayed wave of the same frequency reaches your ears if it within a certain limit, both of the waves combine to form a longer wave which makes it sound “slow”. Unless the driver is having some issues which you can see from its frequency response and distortion measurements, the placement or the room itself is the real villain. You can get absolutely terrible sound from very good speakers with bad placement and bad room acoustics.

My car has no after market system and since it’s under warranty I m not confident to experiment on it. It had very bloated bass, and with a 31 band EQ app, I could reduce the problematic bass part and overall experience became very pleasant without spending any money.
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very well explained, apologies if i offended anyone because of the subjective assertions.

i did audition ls50 and wasn't partifularly impressed, i thought the tweeters did let down those awesome bass drivers (felt as if tweeters didn't have that 'extension' to match the dynamics of the bass drivers), especially considering the high price of the speakers and demand for the expensive amps. hence my open question, thanks
 
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ajuvignesh said:
Speaker placement can fix so many issues. Pulling in the speaker from the side and front walls is almost mandatory. You said it right :)
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to add to this, in my experience, if you don't listen in high volumes (relatively speaking, ambient noise becomes paramount), room acoustics becomes moot in quiet times, just like headphones. open to criticisms, etc, again YMMV 🙂👍🏻
 
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sound1 said:
very well explained, apologies if i offended anyone because of the subjective assertions.

i did audition ls50 and wasn't partifularly impressed, i thought the tweeters did let down those awesome bass drivers (felt as if tweeters didn't have that 'extension' to match the dynamics of the bass drivers), especially considering the high price of the speakers and demand for the expensive amps. hence my open question, thanks
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The tweeter on the the ls50s have almost no distortion. It’s extended but intentionally kept at a lower level to sound smooth. You can eq it up without any audible artifacts. The meta version sounds more open and clean and doesn’t have that “megaphone” feel without eq
 
Passive_audio_enthusiast said:
The tweeter on the the ls50s have almost no distortion. It’s extended but intentionally kept at a lower level to sound smooth. You can eq it up without any audible artifacts. The meta version sounds more open and clean and doesn’t have that “megaphone” feel without eq
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i should probably audition the meta, but i may not. since 1L speaker needs an amp more than its price to sound right, i might skip it altogether. especially considering the underwhelming experience i had before. again no offense please 🙏🏻

EDIT: again KEF bass drivers are so amazingly dynamic, i was just looking for a matching tweeter hence my interest in Fyne audio
 
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sound1 said:
i should probably audition the meta, but i may not. since 1L speaker needs an amp more than its price to sound right, i might skip it altogether. especially considering the underwhelming experience i had before. again no offense please 🙏🏻

EDIT: again KEF bass drivers are so amazingly dynamic, i was just looking for a matching tweeter hence my interest in Fyne audio
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No offence taken :)

I have a pair of LS50 meta's that I bought used out of curiosity. Only spun them for around 2 or 3 hrs. And decided they are not for me. So off they went back into their boxes again. I can see why a lot of folks can like them, especially if one prefers a more neutral sound. But like you, they are not for me too, despite their technical prowess.

Having said that, at the 1L mark, they give a lot of top quality sound that can scale well down the line. So still rank as excellent speakers in my book, but not my ears.
 
I recently auditioned Kef LS50 Meta at ProFx in Bangalore. The pairs were run with Denon PMA900HNE and Polk HTS10 subwoofer. I streamed the songs wirelessly through Apple Music.

Taste-wise, I am a hard-rock fan(ACDC, Guns n Roses, Creed, Korn etc) but I also like to listen to post-grunge(Switchfoot, Relient K, Hinder etc) and alt rock(Audioslave, Greenday etc).

My reaction to this system is mixed. It's a small boxy speaker. The sound coming from it is bigger than the box, but it is still small. YOU MUST NEED A DECENT SUBWOOFER WITH THESE SPEAKERS. If you play good recordings(e.g. chesky recordings) against it, the soundstage and sound imaging will pleasantly surprise you, but once I play my inner-demon songs(ACDC), there's just not enough meat in these speakers. If you love hard-rock, look otherwise.

When I moved to playing pop/pop-rock, it sounded a bit better. Listening "Don't you remember" by Adele was nice, but then again, it was just nice. It didn't touch my heart. Then I played "Mr Brightside" by The Killers, and the same fate follows. All songs were just nice.

If you enjoy listening at low volume, these speakers are for you.
If you enjoy long-time listening with zero fatigue, these speakers are for you.
If you enjoy detail, instrument separation, bigger soundstage, decent sound imaging, these speakers are for you.

It's a clinical awesomemess. It's best kept at clinics. I needed soul. :)
 
It's like I am in front of a mutton biryani made by a five-star hotel. All the ingredients are pricey, but the chef has made the final product bland so that he can cater to all the guests with all sorts of palette. But "ye desi dil maange more"! :(
 
gradohead said:
It's like I am in front of a mutton biryani made by a five-star hotel. All the ingredients are pricey, but the chef has made the final product bland so that he can cater to all the guests with all sorts of palette. But "ye desi dil maange more"! :(
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I think you might have had the misfortune of having the dealer pair it with inadequate electronics, poor room acoustics, or both. I had the non Meta version for several years and they went pretty loud without the sound disintegrating.
Soul? I was not knowledgeable at that time to think of soul and musicality but I do recall it rocking hard as well as playing delicate detailed recordings with composure and poise. Well recorded stuff sounded glorious and I do recall long listening sessions without fatigue.
You are absolutely right they do much better with a nice sub or two properly integrated as they tend to roll off @80hz. But till that limit the low frequency reproduction is pretty clean and controlled.
For small to medium sized rooms I feel they do pretty well.
 
gradohead said:
If you enjoy listening at low volume, these speakers are for you.
If you enjoy long-time listening with zero fatigue, these speakers are for you.
If you enjoy detail, instrument separation, bigger soundstage, decent sound imaging, these speakers are for you.

It's a clinical awesomemess. It's best kept at clinics. I needed soul. :)
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Low volume playability + zero fatigue + detail+ separation+ big sound stage+ sound imaging + clinical/analytical nature = what else is needed ? :)

Also note that given the speaker's ability to play decent at low levels allows one to pair with a decent amp and not necessarily an expensive amp. I run it with a Rotel 40W @ 8 ohm but never felt the need to upgrade the amp (though some times the upgraditis bug bites) :-)
 
Amarendra said:
Low volume playability + zero fatigue + detail+ separation+ big sound stage+ sound imaging + clinical/analytical nature = what else is needed ? :)

Also note that given the speaker's ability to play decent at low levels allows one to pair with a decent amp and not necessarily an expensive amp. I run it with a Rotel 40W @ 8 ohm but never felt the need to upgrade the amp (though some times the upgraditis bug bites) :)
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I think it depends on what our preferences and our tolerances are. I had speakers that costs way less than the KEF's I have now which had better seperation and soundstage width. Imaging so far in my room is the best on the KEF's(which is why I am not feeling like changing to something else non-coaxial at the moment). But for the price the bass extension could be better. Also the upper mids lack body. There are no chesty singers on KEF! For example Coldplay's Coloratura song's first word 'Coloratura' has starts from low note, compared to speakers with better extenstion and larger drivers, its lacks body, but clarity overall is still great.
 
DB1989 said:
Regular f502 is comparable in SQ to Q series. R7 is a fair step up in performance.
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I don’t think so. Just because q series has a product in F502 range, it doesn’t mean entire Fyne F series can be compared with Kef Q series. Fyne is one step higher. Tannoy xt6f was classified as the best floor standing speaker under 2000 pounds. I have heard q series Q350. It is no way equal to my tannoys. Let alone fyne audio.
As of terry, I would take his advise with a pinch of salt. He once said Chord qutest with LPS sounds like Chord dave.
 
I now see why you’re comparing f500 with Q350. The price is similar.
When I bought my tannoys, q350 was selling for around 60k. Fyne was selling at the same price. Kef has increased the price of Q350 while Fyne didn’t.
 
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