Speaker brands KEF Vs

aoaaron

aoaaron

aoaaron

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Thinking of buying a 5.1 setup. Budget is around 1.5k for speaker + receiver + amp... room is 4x5m

so far I'm considering

KEF Q500x2 R+L
KEF Q200c front
KEF Q100x2 rear
Monolith Plus -FF Subwoofer 500W RMS (maybe)
AVR x3300 or x2300


Do you think thats a good setup? What would you get with the money?
 
I've had Q speakers in the past, they're ok for first setup but tbh I'd be looking at second hand, higher quality speakers. You need to go and have a listen to a few brands.
Also go and listen to a couple of rear speaker types, monopoles may not always be the best speaker type.

Got a couple of Kef Reference speakers myself.
 
Dont think blowing £500 of a £1500 budget on the sub is a good Idea and for your room size the Monolith is probably overkill as in a 3.4 X 3.4 room the XXS400 DF i have is borderline to much.

Demo is a good idea expecially if you are planing on a lot of music listening aswell as every one likes a slightly different sound and I found Kefs too bright for my liking when my B&W are more warm.

AVforums is worth a read and bargains can be had in the classified section and places like Richer sounds, Superfi and PeterTyson normally offer good bundle pakages of Amp + 5.1. You can Allways e-mail to see if they can do the deals minus the Subwoofer as BK subs offer much better value for money than the ones included in the deals.

It really depends how much time and research you want to put into your buying decision.
 
i Agree a 500watt Sub will sound awful in not a very big room My Dali kubic one is 100watt and my room size is not very big if i push near the limit it doesn't sound as nice with the size of my room it would sound great in a large room so i have it on half
 
Could allways e-mail and ask if they would give you a price on this package minus the sub. http://petertyson.co.uk/index.php/marantz-sr7011-with-monitor-audio-bronze-5-speakers.html
Then go on ebay and pick up a B grade xxls400 from this seller http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/colosussxb?_trksid=p2047675.l2559
Worked out at £389 delivered for me and cosmetic flaw is so small I cant see it unless I look really hard.

If £1500 is your very max budget at the moment then I would just stretch to that bundle as the Amp retailed for over £1000 when released and has had very good reviews. Keep with the bundled Sub for now and if you feel the need to upgrade later when you have more funds.

Places Like Seven Oaks Sound & Vision are a good place on the high street to demo different set ups and you can haggle good discounts from them, But if they will not match the price of bundles found elsewhere dont feel obliged to buy form them.

Dont get fooled or pressured into buying expensive cables.
 
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No such thing as too much sub, it just means you it'll player cleaner and those frequencies easily, and peaks will sound great. I'm using a SVS SB Ultra 13 in a small room and it sounds FAB. Although in a smaller room I'd recommend a sealed box. So consider the BK XLS400 or similar

Modern movies have an insane amount of LFE so you need a great sub, I'd recommend a 12" driver minimum, 500W sealed, 300W ported.

"i Agree a 500watt Sub will sound awful in not a very big room"

That doesn't make sense. I'm using a 1000W sub with 13.5" driver, and amplifiers for the speakers totalling 1700W total for the 7 channels. Why would a powerful subwoofer that can play loud, and low sound bad? In fact what'll sound bad is a low powered subwoofer, with small drivers, or speakers with little drivers. 25mm for soundbars mean it'll sound pretty tinny with poor midrange. Those drivers cannot reproduce the low frequencies that are needed, at high spl with low distortion. I've got a Q Acoustics soundbar that goes behind the TV, it's not bad for the size and sub is pretty good considering the TV's own speakers, and provides a fair rumble, but no way can compare against full on speakers and larger sub.

"My Dali kubic one is 100watt and my room size is not very big if i push near the limit it doesn't sound as nice"

That means it doesn't have enough oomp, you've just contradicted yourself. It sounds like you need a better speaker system. That's a soundbar is it not? 48hz-22khz. And isn't going to play that loud. So you're missing a fair bit from low end, 28hz, or more.
 
hornetstinger said:
No such thing as too much sub, it just means you it'll player cleaner and those frequencies easily, and peaks will sound great. I'm using a SVS SB Ultra 13 in a small room and it sounds FAB. Although in a smaller room I'd recommend a sealed box. So consider the BK XLS400 or similar

Modern movies have an insane amount of LFE so you need a great sub, I'd recommend a 12" driver minimum, 500W sealed, 300W ported.

"i Agree a 500watt Sub will sound awful in not a very big room"

That doesn't make sense. I'm using a 1000W sub with 13.5" driver, and amplifiers for the speakers totalling 1700W total for the 7 channels. Why would a powerful subwoofer that can play loud, and low sound bad? In fact what'll sound bad is a low powered subwoofer, with small drivers, or speakers with little drivers. 25mm for soundbars mean it'll sound pretty tinny with poor midrange. Those drivers cannot reproduce the low frequencies that are needed, at high spl with low distortion. I've got a Q Acoustics soundbar that goes behind the TV, it's not bad for the size and sub is pretty good considering the TV's own speakers, and provides a fair rumble, but no way can compare against full on speakers and larger sub.

"My Dali kubic one is 100watt and my room size is not very big if i push near the limit it doesn't sound as nice"

That means it doesn't have enough oomp, you've just contradicted yourself. It sounds like you need a better speaker system. That's a soundbar is it not? 48hz-22khz. And isn't going to play that loud. So you're missing a fair bit from low end, 28hz, or more.
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I agree but I was taking into account the OP spending 1/3 of his budget on the monolith in my post. Your right that a sealed unit works best in smaller rooms. I have just finished watching San Andreas and the XXLS400 has enough power with gain set to 2 on the gain controls to make me feel like im actually in the earthquake. As for the Speakers amplification the more watts the better as long as its undistorted.

One of the plus points about the top end marantz & Denon AV Amps is the room correction does a good job on the Subwoofer by all reports.
 
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KEF Q are mediocre at best.

Best way to get a good setup on a budget is to build it slowly. So with with your 1.5k I'd be looking at spend that on just a AVR and a pair of floorstanders

AVR:

Latest tech on a budget - Denon 2300 (4k atmos etc)
Better sound quality - Go second hand. Arcam and Anthem are generally best, but rarely offer the best features set. (these won't have 4k atmos etc at this price range)

Floorstanders - spend the rest of your current budget on these + cable + banana plugs

After that you'll need another 1.5k or so for a center, surrounds + stands/wall mounts, sub and cable.
 
killem said:
I agree but I was taking into account the OP spending 1/3 of his budget on the monolith in my post. Your right that a sealed unit works best in smaller rooms. I have just finished watching San Andreas and the XXLS400 has enough power with gain set to 2 on the gain controls to make me feel like im actually in the earthquake. As for the Speakers amplification the more watts the better as long as its undistorted.

One of the plus points about the top end marantz & Denon AV Amps is the room correction does a good job on the Subwoofer by all reports.
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If you think a 12" sealed box sounds great, try a ported subwoofer tuned to 11hz. Literally the room, door, and windows is bulging outwards, and you actually feel weird and queasy.

Had a SVS PC Ultra 13 before this, it's 13.5", 750W, ported, native tune is 20hz, can be ported to 16 or 11hz.
 
rallyslag said:
If wanting kef second hand reference are the way to go reference one and two's can be had for £4/500 a pair!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KEF-Refer...137308?hash=item2a8393f15c:g:vagAAOSwHjNV9T0V

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pair-KEF-...348990?hash=item2123c9cebe:g:pZsAAOSwSlBY4QpX
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Those Kef speakers are 4ohm nominal, and dip to 2ohm. You need a good amplifier, I would only consider dedicated power amplifiers with them, and not AVR's. I have a pair of Kef 2.2's.
 
hornetstinger said:
Those Kef speakers are 4ohm nominal, and dip to 2ohm. You need a good amplifier, I would only consider dedicated power amplifiers with them, and not AVR's. I have a pair of Kef 2.2's.
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Generally a good idea with anything half decent from the KEF range - I had a setup* many years ago and they sounded pretty bad on a generic amp I had which did OK with my previous Optimus Pro-X5 (bought purely on looks). So much better with a proper amp.


* Which was a silly waste of money really as I couldn't even anything like properly use them in the place I was living at the time.
 
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Dali speakers are worth looking at, good value for money.

Call the Movie Rooms in Edinburgh (they deliver free) Dan there has sorted me some great prices on stuff.
 
Rroff said:
Generally a good idea with anything half decent from the KEF range - I had a setup* many years ago and they sounded pretty bad on a generic amp I had which did OK with my previous Optimus Pro-X5 (bought purely on looks). So much better with a proper amp.


* Which was a silly waste of money really as I couldn't even anything like properly use them in the place I was living at the time.
Click to expand...

Kef's are fairly sensitive speakers, don't need massive amounts of watts, but they need a amp with ability to drive low loads, so big power supply and don't run into problems into these loads (high THD, overheat, power drops etc)
 
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