KEF Q350 Speaker Review

[crappypanther]

I would sort boomy bass sound from rear port and boomy resonances from cheap cabinet with thin side walls.

At what frequencies do you feel boomy resonances?

 

[Konstantin E]

At what frequencies do you feel boomy resonances?

I would say Q350 has main problems around 750Hz and minor on 250Hz and (or) 500Hz. This is my own opinion without measurement and I can't confirm this data.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Yes, of course! This is first thing I did.

I would sort boomy bass sound from rear port and boomy resonances from cheap cabinet with thin side walls.

I have no special equepment to check frequency diagram, so my decision was to buy "problem free" Revel M16. After modification of Q350 has (in same room with same DAC and amplifier) very competetive sound with M16. But Q350 and M16 have different "sound color".

I agree with Robbo9999. An UMIK1 and REW will give you the tools to really quantify and pinpoint any change you introduce. Secondly it will also give you insight into your rooms behavior. The boominess you describe is not only necessarily coming from the speaker but from the room itself and can be tackled differently but by changing the speaker stuffing.

 

[test1223]

This might help modification with measurements.
https://www.hifialex.de/pimp-kef-q350/ (German)

More damping material seems to be a very good idea.

 

[Tangband]

Hello friends!

I've bought KEF Q350 and I was very dissapointed with "boomy" sound. I felt strong vibrations on side walls of the speakers by my hand even on low volume. I did many efforts to place speakers in to right position but the sound was boomy. Nothing helped.
I agree 100% with Amir's review.

So, I decided to trust Amir's opinion and have bought extra Revel M16. I spent some evenings to compare speakers with ampifier Atoll AM200se. M16 has more "soft" and neutral-pleasent sound, but in my small room they also give too extra bass. Not boomy, but not plesent for TV or cinema...

Aa result, I have bougt 15 sq.m. of synthetic winterizer (100 g/m^2). I removed a speakers and very tightly fill boxes by material. I spent around 5 sq.m. in to each box.
Now Q350 seems for me not boomy at all. Probably I hear sometime little "dryness". I think that now tonallity is very closely to HD650. I able to listen all my music collection without headache and I very like Q350. I don't feel any vibrations from the side walls of Q350.
And now I have difficult choice beetwin M16 and Q350 - I want keep both pair

View attachment 237126

Congratulation.

This is an easy mod to do with many speakers - most speakers have way to little damping material inside.
Further improvement in the midrange can be done, using sheep wool .

 

[crappypanther]

Thanks to those who wrote here about the damping of the q350. It got me interested. Once I read about it on another resource.
Last night I filled one speaker (I used a padding polyester from a pillow) and did an A-B test: damped speaker vs original. The difference was obvious by ear: The upgraded version does not have a box resonance of 100-300 Hz. This is what immediately catches your ear. Perhaps the resonances of 700-1000 Hz also go away, but here it is more difficult to make out by ear. As for me, that A and B sound good at medium frequencies. But on the sub-bass and mid-bass - the damped version is better without a doubt. The main thing is not to plug the port, so as not to lose the low frequencies.

My A-B test was very-very similar to what you can hear here: (ls50meta= upgraded q350)

I can't say that I didn't like the stock version. But with the new I just get high.
Now the Q350 even reminds me of my ex ATC scm12 pro with the speed and clarity of the bass. And I must admit that the Warfedale Diamond 12.2 also have a similar bass character. 12.2 just have incredibly high quality cabinets for little money:

 

[crappypanther]

According to this site

Pimp a KEF Q350 – oder: Gutes noch besser machen… – HiFi Alex

the picture becomes like this:

 

[duta]

Just saved the settings and compared to the once I posted. I think I can hear a slight difference. In any case, me like the Sprinorama better. Thank you again!

Personally, compared to the Spinorama, the EQ settings for the Q300 sound a bit too "metalic" in the mids and the highs. I feel like the mids sound "canned" and the highs to hissy.

Setările Spinorama pun maturitatea în medii și înalte. Este controlat acum. La fel și basul. Pot să mă înșel, dar pentru mine basul se simte și sună ca un bulgăre de zăpadă care se rostogolește de pe munte, cu acel zgomot și senzație de Armaghedon care se apropie. Tipul de huruit și gât adânc care îți dă pielea de găină. Lucrurile uimitoare sunt că aștept ca basul să devină copleșitor și să strice distracția. Aproape ca în momentul în care știi că bulgărele de zăpadă te va lovi și va face ravagii... Dar nu se întâmplă niciodată. Uimitor.

Și este aproape ca și cum ar exista un pic de ecou în comparație cu setările mele inițiale care îmi dă o senzație de spațiu.

Desigur, pot să mă înșel complet și să spun prostii, dar totuși, vă mulțumesc că ați oferit această experiență uluitoare cu o simplă legătură.

Pentru înregistrare, iată setarea Spinorama EQ pentru Q350:

Setați câștigul preamplificatorului la: -2,4 dB.

ID EQ	Tip	Frec	Q	Câştig
1	PK	174	1	-1,31
2	PK	691	6	-1,54
3	PK	929	6	2.5
4	PK	3679	3.05	1,77
5	PK	453	6	-0,82
6	PK	1212	6	-0,7
7	PK	8688	6	-1.1
8	PK	2679	6	-0,5
9	PK	724	6	-0,5

Sursa: https://pierreaubert.github.io/spinorama/eqs.html

EQ for KEF Q350 computed from ASR data
Preference Score 5.7 with EQ 5.7
Generated from http://github.com/pierreaubert/spinorama/generate_peqs.py v0.15
Dated: 2022-05-07-13:51:21

Preamp: -3.9 dB

Filter 1: ON PK Fc 3499 Hz Gain +3.10 dB Q 0.29
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 157 Hz Gain -1.52 dB Q 1.86
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 925 Hz Gain +1.70 dB Q 2.99
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 1242 Hz Gain -1.69 dB Q 2.98
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 704 Hz Gain -1.41 dB Q 2.99
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 3677 Hz Gain +0.64 dB Q 2.99
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 6879 Hz Gain -1.00 dB Q 2.48
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 1040 Hz Gain +1.78 dB Q 2.99

 

[rentaclaus]

Beeing aware of Hifi Alex Q350 pimp since long, comments here convinced me to try it by my own.
What should I say, without having any measurements I believe that the speakers sound after damping more neutral, more precise. Even my wife - which is not interested on technical at all - said she can "see" now the instruments...
As its an easy to do, cheap and completly reversible pimp I say every Q350 owner should try it by himself. If he's not satiesfied he can switch back.
I added one of these to every box

Visaton Damping Material

Visaton Dämpfungsmaterial aus gesundheitlich unbedenklicher Polyesterwolle mit ausgezeichneten Dämpfungseigenschaften, sauber zu verarbeiten. Abmessungen pro Matte 600 x 330 x 30 mm, Verpackungseinheit 125g (2 Matten; ausreichend für ein Volumen von...

www.thomann.de

BTW. for removing the trim ring I used a tire-"iron" made out of plastic like this one.

CONTINENTAL Reifenheber MTB / Tour, 0,71 €

CONTINENTAL Reifenheber MTB / Tour Für die Reifenmontage und Demontage unverzichtbares Werkzeug Hochwertiger, bruchfester Kunststoff - schont Reifen und Fel

r2-bike.com

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Beeing aware of Hifi Alex Q350 pimp since long, comments here convinced me to try it by my own.
What should I say, without having any measurements I believe that the speakers sound after damping more neutral, more precise. Even my wife - which is not interested on technical at all - said she can "see" now the instruments...
As its an easy to do, cheap and completly reversible pimp I say every Q350 owner should try it by himself. If he's not satiesfied he can switch back.
I added one of these to every box

Visaton Damping Material

Visaton Dämpfungsmaterial aus gesundheitlich unbedenklicher Polyesterwolle mit ausgezeichneten Dämpfungseigenschaften, sauber zu verarbeiten. Abmessungen pro Matte 600 x 330 x 30 mm, Verpackungseinheit 125g (2 Matten; ausreichend für ein Volumen von...

www.thomann.de

BTW. for removing the trim ring I used a tire-"iron" made out of plastic like this one.

CONTINENTAL Reifenheber MTB / Tour, 0,71 €

CONTINENTAL Reifenheber MTB / Tour Für die Reifenmontage und Demontage unverzichtbares Werkzeug Hochwertiger, bruchfester Kunststoff - schont Reifen und Fel

r2-bike.com

Would be great if you got an UMIK1 so you can even measure the effects before and after. As relying on subjective impressions is always very tricky especially so when you invested time and effort in changing something the bias that it must be better is quite strong. (Please I am not saying that it isn’t, just saying the UMIK would get you facts and hints what to optimize).

 

[rentaclaus]

Would be great if you got an UMIK1 so you can even measure the effects before and after. As relying on subjective impressions is always very tricky especially so when you invested time and effort in changing something the bias that it must be better is quite strong. (Please I am not saying that it isn’t, just saying the UMIK would get you facts and hints what to optimize).

You are right, measuring would be better. And yes I'm aware of bias (newer, higher price, more beautiful, own work ...), had this experence several times in my life ...
On the other hand. You can't verify everything by your own. E.g. a lot of people here trust Amir and his measurements, I decided to trust the measurements of Hifi-Alex AND the descriptions of people who have added damping to the Q350 enclosure. I wasn't disappointed. So my thanks go to them.
If I could see further usage of the UMIK1 I would consider of buying such, but in the moment I have nothing in mind. nevertheless thanks for the suggestion.

 

[abdo123]

DIY improvements with a new crossover and some extra internal damping
https://www.hifialex.de/pimp-kef-q350/

Sorry for necroing this but do you have any idea what they mean with two mats of Sonofil?

 

[rentaclaus]

Sonofil is a trademark for damping mats. Naturally you can use others.
The filling should be sufficient for ~ 20ltr.
Here's the link for original sonofil

Sonofil Dämmwolle Füllmaterial

Optimale Schalldämmung mit Sonofil - Das ideale Füllmaterial für Lautsprechergehäuse Wenn es darum geht, die Klangqualität Ihrer Lautsprecher zu…

www.hifibau.de

 

[Count Dacula]

Not much to add at the moment, but I've had these speakers for about 7 years now. Coming from a lifetime of KEFs, I really have no complaints. I even grabbed a pair of walnut Q150s to remodel the livingroom AV, and add LP to the AV system. I consider the current Q Series a gamechanger, but I don't have a ton of experience with other speakers....usually debuting them in some terrible set-up.

Sorry about the mess, the system is actually in the bedroom (shelves full of clothes )

Sometimes the old KEFs got a little sloppy, but a port plug usually tightened things back up fine. I'm inclined to add some additional stuffing to the Q350s. Generally power came from the ADCOM 545-II I purchased new, which to this day never fails to impress when substituted for other amps, like my Parasound 2125 NC or even my Vidar.

Always on a modest budget, I was not much of an experimenter, partly because I was always pleased with my system. I think the magic isn't perfection itself, but being content with your system, which is pure psych, not Objective and not Subjective either....it comes from the person themselves.

I don't know how to sum everything up about this forum in a phrase. Since I'm techy, it sure is good to get the Objective side of things rather than the endless drivel of Subjectivism. Having a great sounding system literally opened doors for me in the music business. I spent 1000s of hours in major studios, where I think techs listened to all the BS Subjective suggestions, then just applied whatever mix they thought was best. My old systems were a good touchstone, people would bring raw tracks over to test. I had a multitude of music "scenes" to participate in.

1990's were a very creative time in Philly. D&B was by far the best.

Peep Show dramatized EXACTLY how it is in the studio.

The longer the note, the more DREAD...

 

[crappypanther]

I find that some people don't like these speakers because of two shortcomings that can be easily fixed.
1) Dark sound with most amps. Simply solved with a tone block or eq. +2-3db treble
2) Slightly prominent midbass. You can dampen cabinets according to the advice of Hifi Alex, or use an eq, or do nothing.

I use it with a sub, eq and filled cabinets. As such, these are amazing speakers for me.

 

[geox]

when meta for Q series. Q series looks like it could really benefit from meta resonance damping lol

 

[Count Dacula]

Looks like Scotty is in the digital effects business.... https://slatedigital.com/storch-filter/

Kinda cool and "current" and relevant to ASR. My best friend of a long time ago.

 

[Count Dacula]

Tooling with my extra set-ups. Finally all together in one spot. I got a few items last year NiB from 1991 via my wife's uncle, inc the big B&Ws. Oddly, it seems like one has an internal short, and blew out my ADCOM 545II. I have to test/inspec them at some point. They came with a weakass SONY ES model something 50 like 70wpc at .8% it would have never driven them well, if he had ever hooked them up. I have a Parasound 2125 getting serviced to use with them, it should suffice.

Splitting off the SONY ES with some old KEF C25s bookshelves that got a home "rebuild" consisting of removing dried inner dust cap shrapnel and reglueing the coil to the cone and fixing some wizing and buzzes from the grill seats. Q55.2 are back there awaiting the return of a midrange Denon 2ch receiver for AV (without firing up the main system), and Q65 running off the ADCOM 545II, my "reference" system for a long time, Q1s getting redeployed as PC speakers with a lil SMSL thing, also a set of KEF C10s for computer speakers someplace else. At home it's the Q350s for like 7 years and new walnut Q150s now in the living room AV for the WAF, pushed by a NAK Stasis Receiver 2 . So...that makes SEVEN sets of KEF, by my count. What can I say, I was an early adopter with C75s when they first came out. I think I have one good one left from the pair, so 15 total KEF speakers. See why I'm not in a rush to bring the B&W online?

 

[Music1969]

Furthermore, it seems there is insufficient cabinet bracing and minimal to no damping material inside.. That seems to be cheap and easy DYI fix. And advance DYI fix owuld be also to brace the magnet (so to reduce detrimental properties of steel basket)

Would stuffing it full of acoustic form help performance?

 

[TonyJZX]

if this is representative of the insides:

How to damp bookshelf enclosure resonance?

Please excuse me if this is in the wrong section - Just joined the forums and am finding my way around. I am working on a bunch of modifications to my KEF Q350s, including fully active crossover via DSP. One of the main issues with these speakers is two chassis resonances at 700hz and 1.2khz...

www.diyaudio.com

then anything is better than nothing

BUT I'm asking myself why i'm trying to 'fix' $700 speakers... that YO job KEF!

however if you already own them... whats to lose