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Question on KEF speakers

does anyone know what changes this company has gone thru in the past 10 years, supposedly there quality had gone down hill and now they are coming back as a quality name once again???? The reason I ask is, im looking at some of there cheaper bookshelves, the Q1's, I want to find a great sounding bookshelf that is made by a speaker company that is all proprietary. Any names out there that make there own cabinet, drivers, tweeters and have excellent quality? I have looked at KEF, M&K and a few others that i can afford. Im looking to spend around 500.00 for the 2 fronts in a 5.1 system. Please reccomend some speaker companies that have been around forever that make there entire product from start to finish. thanks much for the feedback
mikebu
slappy
903 posts
 
I used to have a set of KEF Q1s powered by a Denon 3803 reciever, sounded fantastic.

Those KEF Q1's are great monitors in my opinion, they reach pretty low too, subwoofer might still be needed, depends on how much bass you want.

I Origionally bought them as "GET BY" speakers, then once they broke in, speaker replacement became less and less of an issue to me.

The Q1s are great. If you can find a place that you can audition them, you really oughtta do it. The Q1s do a good job of reminding you that you dont have to pay ALOT of money to get good sound.
kotta's avatar
kotta
649 posts
 
Energy C-1's are excellent speakers. To my ear, they sound better than the Q1's. The quality of the Energy's is top-notch, and given their very modest retail $, they are an absolute steal. They are more coherant than the KEF Q1's. The Kef's probably go a little lower in the bass dept., but above that the Energy's are superior, IMO. Recently picked up their discounted XL-15 bookshelf speaker and I'm very impressed by that speaker as well. While auditioning the various Energy spks. @ the dealer (before purchasing the C-1/XL-15) I though the C-1 was a better sounding spk. than the larger C-3 bookshelf. Be sure to audition a pair for yourself. They are all made in beautiful Canada from start to finish, I believe. The Kef's are extremely fine spks. as well.
rbstehno
1,454 posts
 
i liked their reference series and currently use a pair of reference 2's in my home theater. you can find a pair of kef reference 1's for around the price you are looking at that (IMO) would sound better that the small 'Q' series speakers.
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
I sent you an email, this is for everyone else - Paradigm is a vertical mfgr. and have received critical acclaim for their products. I know my Studio 80s look and sound very good for the money...

-rw-
unclejeff
1,313 posts
 
Kef is back, big time. I can't speak for their bookshelve speakers, but the Referance has, in my opinion, the acoustic quality of Tannoy(well, almost...) and the presance of B&W.

They land somewhere in between, with more than enough of both to warrent a real good listen.
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