Before we begin, let's get the disclaimer out of the way: I have always been partial to British loudspeakers and always will be. When it comes to speaker design, the Brits just get it. Maybe it's their geographical location — somewhere between the bland sound of some continental speakers and the hot 'n spicy American sound. Whatever it is, the British dish up warm bangers and mash that sound just right. Speaker selection is ultimately subjective — you should buy the speakers that sound best to you — but for my taste, Britannia rules. On that note, a heaping portion of KEF iQ speakers arrived on my shore.
SETUP Damn! These are fine-looking speakers! That's what I was thinking as I pulled this KEF Q-Series home theater speaker system from its shipping cartons. My set had a true maple finish, and the look of blond wood was a welcome relief from the black vinyl that usually stalks my listening room. The three-way iQ9 towers are stout reminders of the days of full-range stereo speakers. As with many KEF models, the speaker's tweeter is centered inside the cone of the midrange driver in the company's trademark Uni-Q design. KEF says this arrangement ensures that sound from both drivers arrives at the listener's ears at the same time, in addition to providing better off-axis frequency response and a wider sweet spot for imaging.
The hefty PSW3500 subwoofer is elliptical, housing an amplifier rated at 300 watts and a 12-inch down-firing driver. It provides selectable low-pass filter slopes of 12- or 24-dB/octave. Unusually, it includes an infrared remote control to adjust level, phase, and crossover settings. A jack and cable let you tuck it away and still control it via infrared sensor.
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The Short Form |
| Price $3,500 (AS TESTED) / kef.com / 732-683-2356 |
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Snapshot
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| These upper-crust British speakers provide impeccable sound quality. |
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Plus
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•Silky-smooth sound quality |
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Minus
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| •Sub could use a bit more low-end extension and output |
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Key Features
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| iQ9 •($600 each) Uni-Q driver with 6.5-in midrange and 0.75-in dome tweeter; (2) 6.5-in woofers; 37 in high; 36.5 lb iQ6c •($500) Uni-Q driver with 5.25-in midrange and 0.75-in dome tweeter; (2) 5.25-in woofers; 20 in wide; 19.5 lb iQ8ds •($600/pair); (2) Uni-Q drivers with 5.25-in midrange and 0.75-in dome tweeter, 7 in high; 11.5 lb PSW3500 •($1,200) 12-in woofer, sealed cabinet; 17.5 x 23.5 x 15.5 in; 49.5 lb •Finish: Black, apple, maple, walnut; subwoofer: black, apple, maple, silver |
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Test Bench
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| The iQ9 has wide directivity, but rough response above 250 Hz; ripples in the high frequencies are likely from the coaxial tweeter output reflecting up the midrange cone. The iQ6c shares similar character, while the iQ8ds has the attenuated highs common to surrounds. The sub has impressive 110 dB output at 62 Hz and does an honest 20 Hz at 80 dB with less than 10% distortion, but dynamic capability falls rapidly below 62 Hz. — Tom Nousaine Full Lab Results |
MUSIC PERFORMANCE For truly critical listening, I turn to a small stack of "go-to" discs. I have carefully listened to these recordings hundreds of times on many systems and know exactly what they sound like. Any deviation is a defect in the playback system. One of my most trusted discs is Mark Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia. To audition these KEFs, I listened to both stereo CD and multichannel DVD-Audio mixes.
"Speedway at Nazareth" is a deceptively simple song, opening with vocals, acoustic guitars, snare, and synth, and ending with a glorious Stratocaster solo. In the surround recording, the vocals are arrayed across the front. The KEF trio provided beautifully articulated vocals on this track, with absolutely realistic presence and clarity. The baritone lead and backup vocals were audible as distinctly recorded tracks — a sign of accurate midrange response. The burbling synth line in the iQ6c center was nicely integrated with the front panorama, demonstrating superior mid/low-end extension, and the duet between backup vocals and electric guitar was richly detailed.
For music playback, I usually prefer direct radiators in the surrounds over dipoles. But for this recording, and others that use surrounds conservatively, the iQ8ds were just fine. On "Silvertown Blues," the surrounds primarily carry front-channel information with delay and reverberation added, and the dipoles conveyed these layers with a terrific sense of ambience, placing the song in a halo of acoustic space.
"El Macho" has one of the best bass lines ever. It's taut and punchy and will instantly sound flabby or distorted on a less-than-stellar subwoofer. The KEFs reproduced it well, with precise attacks and excellent (and warm) tonality. The front towers contributed upper bass attack, the sub superbly handled everything below, and the transition between the two was seamless. The sub amp hung in as I cranked up the volume, with only minimal distortion at very loud levels. I selfishly wanted more bass extension (something that, realistically, only a larger cabinet can provide), but overall I was extremely pleased with the musicality of this sub.
MOVIE PERFORMANCE December 7, 1941 is a date that will live in infamy. Unfortunately, the movie Pearl Harbor fails to satisfactorily retell its historic events. But every line and vocal inflection of the endless back-story dialogues was transparently audible in the iQ6c center speaker, with excellent intelligibility and good off-axis response. I wasn't surprised that the front towers nailed the movie's lush orchestral score and some great ballroom swing; in Chapter 7, for example, I observed how the towers and sub really kicked up their heels on some pounding tom-toms.
The movie's climatic battle scenes gave the KEF system a full-body workout. Planes dive-bomb from the sky, machine-gun bullets rip through the air, torpedoes speed through the water, aerial bombs whine as they hurtle downward, and explosions rip apart the naval fleet at anchor. The sound designers on this film really made full use of their art, not to mention the surround channels. Fortunately, the iQ8ds surrounds did not disappoint. Although they couldn't compete with the front towers for pure impact, they produced a very diffuse ambience and created a huge sound field. Tonally, the dipoles were similar to the front towers, successfully merging their sound with the direct sound from up front to create a unified and realistic sense of space. The spatial fidelity of this system in my listening room was excellent.
As in my music audition, the iQ9 towers cranked out good upper bass, allowing better reproduction of bass attacks that are often poorly executed by small satellite systems. You just get much cleaner, more articulated bass that really punches through. As with music, the subwoofer did the heavy lifting, pounding out the literally thousands of explosions embedded in the soundtrack. Explosions aren't musical, but if they're not well-reproduced, the distortion is obvious. In this case, the PSW3500 cleanly played anything thrown at it.
A final note: The ability to remotely control subwoofer parameters on the fly, most notably the level, is an absolutely terrific feature that'll quickly spoil you.
BOTTOM LINE It's always enjoyable to audition high-end speakers, particularly when they come in an attainable $3,500 package. Like fine wines, they're almost always pleasurable and display individual traits. The KEF Q-Series home theater speaker system is highly transparent, with low-end warmth and a smoothness that extends across the frequency range. Its commanding sound — and attractive design — would be impressive in any serious home theater. With speakers like the iQs, the sun will never set on the KEF empire.
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