Kef speakers?

[lowfat]

I know about the warranty. Still wouldn't buy it likely when it comes to speakers. I wonder if they'll price match from an online store.

[Cptn Vortex]

I bought some 1980's Sansui 3 way towers for $60 and so far, they are the best speakers I have ever owned. Such warm, filling sound.

[lowfat]

Bought two sets of the IQ1's from Visions (on sale for $200/pair) and I am rather impressed with them. Although I find it kind of silly that they are bi-amp'able yet don't even have banana plugs. Like wtf. What kind of home theatre guy is going to have their surrounds bi-amped but not use banana plugs.

Will buy the IQ9's and the IQ10 next week some time

[Sheep]

Originally Posted by lowfat

Bought two sets of the IQ1's from Visions (on sale for $200/pair) and I am rather impressed with them. Although I find it kind of silly that they are bi-amp'able yet don't even have banana plugs. Like wtf. What kind of home theatre guy is going to have their surrounds bi-amped but not use banana plugs.

Will buy the IQ9's and the IQ10 next week some time

Banana plugs don't improve the sound quality, they are there simply for ease of disconnecting the wires. Generally, you only need then on the receiver/amplifier end of the wire.

Kef's are known to be of decent quality in the home theater market. One design flaw they have is the bi-axial midrange-tweeter setup. Midrange drivers need HEAVILY braced and dampened cabinets to remove the back wave and resonance from the sound. Tweeters also require their own sealed chamber to perform optimally. With this design, you do not have this (although, neither to 99% of loudspeakers out there). Another problem resides with the baffle. The tweeter and midrange need to have their own flush mounting locations on the baffle, preferably with rounded edges on the side of the speaker to reduce diffraction. With this setup, it is impossible to achieve this.

Cadaveca,

Would you care to state your reasoning behind not owning front firing ports?

Enaberif,

Ports do not make speakers louder then they actually are. They make use of the back wave coming off the woofer. Remember, the speaker pushes sound out over air to the front, AND back. A ported enclosure is more efficient (+3dB) over an equivalent sealed system. There is pro's and con's to ported and sealed enclosures, and either of them improperly build will sound bad, but the sound was there the whole time, it's just not being used in a sealed speaker.

Sheep

[lowfat]

I know banana plugs don't improve quality, but all the cables I have are sleeved w/ banana plugs and the ends were heatshrinked. So I had to cut all my cables to get them to fit. The Soundstage speakers that I had before cost half as much and they even had banana plugs.

I bought the iQ9's a week or so ago and absolutely love them so far.

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by Sheep

Cadaveca,

Would you care to state your reasoning behind not owning front firing ports?

Sure. In comparison to the same general design, my ears prefer the port to be rear-facing. The re-direction and dispersion of the bass just seems to result in "tighter" tones and a larger soundfield. Of course, it requires a bit more work in placement, as the distance from the speaker to the wall will effect the sound slightly.

I'm using a total of 9 speakers in my set-up, with 7 in the front, including the subs(which are run both from LFE and the "B" channel), and two rears, to I don't even really need that much bass pushed directly at my ears.

[tyreman]

Originally Posted by lowfat

I see NCIX always has these things on sale and was just curious if anyone has heard them before. I am looking to upgrade my home theatre and was thinking about purchasing these due to their price. I've been looking at AV123.com stuff as well, but am afraid of shipping from the USA. Which is another reason I was looking at the Kef's.

I used to have a couple sets of KEF speakers years ago.
Did a great job.
Had the famous low freq. passive radiator butyl rubber surround
I can't remember all about it now but VERY good.

I run B&W 803's fronts now
B&W 2000's side's
B&W 602 rears I forget their series number

[Sheep]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

Sure. In comparison to the same general design, my ears prefer the port to be rear-facing. The re-direction and dispersion of the bass just seems to result in "tighter" tones and a larger soundfield. Of course, it requires a bit more work in placement, as the distance from the speaker to the wall will effect the sound slightly.

I'm using a total of 9 speakers in my set-up, with 7 in the front, including the subs(which are run both from LFE and the "B" channel), and two rears, to I don't even really need that much bass pushed directly at my ears.

Bass below 80hz radiates omni-directionally, so having the port front or back won't "fire" the bass to you, or to the wall. The air coming out will need some room but not much. Also, speakers should be run as "small" (no bass) when the system has a subwoofer. The only time speakers should be run "large" is if they are capable of 20hz at no less then -3dB.

Sound field (soundstage, imaging) has to do with the Theil/Small parameters of the drivers, baffle, and placement (Toe'd in, or facing straight). Given the right circumstances, speakers should not roll off the high end when off axis to the listener.

Sheep

[IRQ Conflict]

Originally Posted by enaberif

Ported speakers to the front is to make them sound louder than they are :(

Actually it is done to extend the low frequency range. But at the cost of accuracy. Your best bet is to buy the largest diameter subs you can afford.

I hate ported subs. They are junk.

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by Sheep

Bass below 80hz radiates omni-directionally, so having the port front or back won't "fire" the bass to you, or to the wall. The air coming out will need some room but not much. Also, speakers should be run as "small" (no bass) when the system has a subwoofer. The only time speakers should be run "large" is if they are capable of 20hz at no less then -3dB.

Sound field (soundstage, imaging) has to do with the Theil/Small parameters of the drivers, baffle, and placement (Toe'd in, or facing straight). Given the right circumstances, speakers should not roll off the high end when off axis to the listener.

Sheep

you're right, but my ears aren't designed to specifics, nor is my living room a soundproof testing station. I'm a musician, so when I record myself playing, playback must sound exactly the same to my trained ear.

Also of note is that Yamaha makes 2 of it's high-end amplifiers with 7.2 + "presence" speakers for a reason...which my set-up emulates.

And while bass amy radiate in all directions, lovely things like furniture affect sound quite largely, so non-standard set-ups to overcome this are not going to be configured normally, nor is my set-up really used as a home theatre...it's used as a home studio.