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KEF Q350 Speaker Review
- Thread starter amirm
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Interesting that you said this. The clearest track to show a difference was not classical (though I find these to be more revealing than most of the kind of distortion I am hearing)
The clearest tracks to show a difference were 'Isabella lundgren 'Lay down your weary tune'.
And 'When I am older' from the Frozen 2 OST
_warning ; (The dynamics are quite wide on this)Both are voice only on the most impressive parts on my horn.
Although Its not the kind of music I listen to really, the Acapella parts of Isabella's song sound special on my horn, but not so on anything else I have or almost anything I have ever used. Its the closest to 'real' I have ever come across.
I have played this track on many speakers at audio shows, and the JBL Everest was the one to show the same effect. As was the LV Olympian (but I will ignore my liking this speaker so much as I can't see why it sounds so good to me really).
Yet even listening on EQed high end IEMs the track is good, but is isn't THAT special a track when I otherwise find the top cans like the Hifiman units really show up most speakers.
Bearing in mind this stands with various EQ settings from flat to +-0.5db with many filters to +- 1db flat with only shelf 0.707 Q filters, 4th order, 2nd order FIR min phase, lin phase and IIR + various other settings I have saved to A/B switch between. All calibrated mic, level matched etc.
Ironically, the subjective comments I've most frequently here associated with KEF (other than spatial qualities) is how good their midrange is
Totally willing to accept this is just me
I A/B'ed the small KEF unit that Amir reviewed well with a little EQ a month or 2 back. The alternative was a ATC SCM 11. No contest for me. Shame as I think KEF speakers would look beautiful in my new living room.
On a side note: The presumably aesthetic decision of KEF to have sharp 90 deg corners on the cabinet will be a contributing factor to the uneven FR graph ( particularly off axis) Though not all KEF models have this- just most.
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Not sure what your view on this is, but I would guess the piston area of a KEF 5 or 6 inch coax outer 'ring' is prob equivalent to something like 4 inches if it was not coax. That would get us to only 83 Db at 40hz for 6mm xmax. Which may well be out of flux control for the gap in this driver anyway. Given I regularly listen at 110Db......thats a firm nope for my uses!
This is what makes speakers like the big JTRs interest me. That waveguide/mid cone doesn't need to move much to get the spl.
110dB... at the listening position? My ears are crying just thinking about it
Just goes to show people have vastly different listening preferences habits. For reference, the Harman preference studies were conducted at 75 dB average B-weighted. That's about what I listen at too.
Sorry, you wrote mid cone in your previous post. Which insinuates it's not going to be expected to play bass frequencies. Also you complained that the entire kef line sounds bad, due to imd. But the 3 way kefs are usually crossed around 300hz so... I would agree that the ls50 would probably not sound great at high spl.
110dB... at the listening position? My ears are crying just thinking about it
Just goes to show people have vastly different listening preferences habits. For reference, the Harman preference studies were conducted at 75 dB average B-weighted. That's about what I listen at too.
110Db at 1m. 5m 'ish' listening distance for the main system.
Oh phew. Still very loud but I should've known that couldn't be possible haha.
The KEF line probably sounds good. Just not to me. Measurements suggest they are top tier especially for the money. I look forward to Armir measuring a ATC speaker for correlation against my own experiences one day mind you.
tecnogadget
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Did you measure 110dB at 1m while listening ? Which weighting curve did you use ? Sustained 110dB throughout most part of the music track or just peaks?
Calibrated C weighted Galaxy cm140 peak measures over this regularly.
Am I really listening at levels much above the majority then?
I find I don't get down to all the fine detail on classical music unless the level is round here.
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tecnogadget
Addicted to Fun and Learning
I dunno about the rest, but I’m sure you are not listening softly
I know at 5meters there is less output but I’m too lazy to calculate the spl level right now.
Even though the levels may vary these are useful guidelines
As an example KEF Reference 1 bookshelf spec sheets rates it at 111dB Max Output (peak sound pressure level at 1m)
I do not know for sure if it is higher than a significant majority among users of this forum/audio enthusiasts, but Toole talks preferred SPL levels in detail in section 3.5.1.6 of his book. Key points:
- "Recent investigations found that conventional TV dialog is satisfying at an average level of 58 dBA in a typical domestic situation, but at 65 dBA in a home theater setting."
- But musicians, audiophiles, and sound engineers tend to listen louder
- Cinemas are calibrated to 85dB C-weighted, up to 105dB peaks(with subs calibrated higher)
- So home theater installers calibrate to the same reference level, but then their clients tend to play movies at -10dB or lower.
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I've had it that loud before at 4m
. That's the combined output of both speakers and subs, though.
Thanks for the correction of the type of speakers being tested and I apologize for the misinformation.
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And it looks like IMD is higher in the Kef, I'd like to see that measured more.Thx
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Higher than what? It actually looks quite good to me based on these measurements.
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