Kef R series or Tannoy Revolution Series?

I stand corrected.  In reading the review Audiotroy posted the Newer Q series (50's) have a proper 2:1 ratio for the radiators, which now both occupy the same chamber as the woofer.  Much better.  

eag618

"I am not sure anyone can keep natural boards flat enough to make solid wood cabinets "

Check out Daedalus speakers

Will do facten!

@ 10000_hz_legend

"Side note / Rant:

Why are you considering the Q series? I always thought they were a terrible design.

Correct me if I’m wrong… But when you’re using passive radiators, the radiator is recommended to be twice the surface area of the active driver, which would be fine if both the passive radiators KEF is using in the Q towers were in the same chamber as the woofer, but they are not. KEF uses one radiator for the mid-woofer (Part of the Uni-Q or what have you) in the top chamber and the other radiator for the woofer in a separate lower chamber, so the surface area of the radiators is equal to it’s corresponding active driver.

That aside, the passive radiators are both facing in the same direction as the active drivers which causes them to be out of phase with the active drivers. Then, ON TOP OF THAT, the two chambers are different sizes, so the radiators are reacting at different times because the air pressure is different in each cabinet. So now you have the two active drivers moving forward as a positive signal is applied to them, the two radiators now both move inward, BUT at two different speeds because of the different amounts of air pressure in the different sized cabinets. In slow motion this speaker must look like total chaos.

Now… In THEORY, radiators act as ports, not as cones, so, in THEORY phasing should not be a problem. But I just don’t buy it. I don’t see how any of this is a good design. It looks like a mess that someone threw together. The Q series bookshelves all look great to me, but I have no leads on their thought process when it came to turning those bookshelf ideas into floorstanders. Somewhere, something went terribly wrong. Or maybe not, maybe it’s fantastic and I just don’t understand it."

This is incorrect, The newer Q series Uni-Q driver is sealed(no bass radiator). Both bass radiators are now paired with the single LF driver.

I think you where referring to the older design which i agree wasn’t the best . But the newer Q series are phenomenal for the price and often on sale (20-30% OFF)


note* i  only noticed your corrected response later one :)

I do not have any experience with Tannoys;  I recently bought KEF R-500s for $1800 (NOS) from a dealer.  Audiotroy has a good point and at 42% off is a nice deal.
I would agree that the R-500 does not have tremendous bass but what the salesman suggested to me was to not drive them with inexpensive amps because you will get less bass than if you drive them with good electronics.
I have a Marantz PM/SA 6005 stack and also a Primare I-22 and CD-22 stack and I can confirm the Primares produces much more bass than my entry level Marantz stack.
A case where a knowledgeable salesman/dealer added significant value with his system matching expertise.
Hope this helps.