Any Thoughts on KEF's new IQ line?

Before you buy a KEF iQ speaker, look at the cabinet up close, or find out whether it is real wood veneer or simulated wood veneer. I bought the KEF Q2ds (the dipole surround from the previous Q series), which looked good in the photos, but up close I discovered that the cabinet finish is simulated wood. You can see the halftone dots on the plastic laminate. Very disappointing! They do sound good however.

All of the iQ line and older Q line are faux wood veneers.
At that price I would question the guts if it had real wood veneer.
From 3ft or more you would be hard pressed to tell that the veneer aint real.
If you want something real to gripe about it would be the smaller midwoofers on the new center and surround speakers as well as wide variations in efficency.

The new stuf does offer one more option for veneer; wallnut.

The iQ7 and iQ9 are quite good. Both are improvements over last years models.

Can someone comment on the sound staging? Just how superior (if at all) is the Uni-Q driver at producing a deep sound stage in comparison to more conventional driver arrays?

I'm trying to decide between the KEF IQ9 and the Wharfedale Opus 1. Any advice would be helpful. My amp is an NAD C372 if this makes any difference.

Tony

IMO you can either spend the same money to get an all around good performer (like the Kef's) or you can get a speaker that performs within it's physical and $$$ limitations.

Compare a $1,000 floorstanding speaker to a $1,000 bookshelf. The price does not neccesarily dictate quality but more often than not the monitor will give you better imaging and a more realistic presentation within its limits. The tradeoff is the lowest frequencies.

As far as a good mid-priced solution the iQ9 is hard to beat. It will not give you the same performance in the midrange as many comparably priced monitors though. Not a terrible tradeoff considering that you won't have to mess around with subwoofers and it is a very nice looking speaker.

Good luck!