Well, I got 'em. :-)

I initially connected them up as bi-amped as the mid and top of my tri-amped
set up. Unfortunately, the midrange Cyrus 2 decided to pop a fuse, and I
don't have any spares (off to Maplin soon). So, I reconfugred to a 2-way
crossover, with the Qs connected to a single amp. The speakers are stuck
onto sand-filled Atacama stands with Blu-tac. Been listening for about an
hour so far...

Well, that'll be the midrange sorted! Compared to the B110, the improvement
really is an order of magnitude. There's a huge increase in clarity and
detail - much easier to pick out individual instruments, and I'm most
definitely hearing little bits that I didn't know about. A huge improvement.
The first movement of Beethoven's Fifth was excellent.

The imaging is much better, although I'd have to qualiify that by saying
that I've only beein sitting in the nominal sweet spot, and the speakers are
rather closer together than the bigs KEFs are (movability is one of the
reasons I wanted small speakers). When set up better, the big KEFs always
did a decent job of providing a soundstage. My feeling is that these are
maybe a bit better, but it's hard to get past the much-improved midrange
fidelity at the moment.

Power handling seems to be much better as well, although I'm not quite sure
what the limits are yet - the sweet spot, in terms of volume, depends on
each piece of music, and it'll take a while to get the hang of how much
crank each piece can be given. It certainly goes louder. I've notticed that
the bass (the B139s in the old speakers) seems to be okay at louder volumes,
when it would feel like control was being lost if I went close to half-way
on the preamp volume control. I guess this has something to do with the
change in bass crossover frequency - it was 350-400Hz, and is now 60-80Hz.

No sign yet of the treble harshness mentioned by Stewart. Too early to
tell - any perceived harshness in the initial "lets see what they do"
listening session could be as much due to my lug-'ole receptors getting
warmed up. If anything, the treble seems a liitle bit understated, until
something trebly comes along. The T27 seems similar in this reagrd.

They do look nice. I assume the covering isn't real veneer, so the 'dark
apple'-coloured imitaion plastic-effect covering is a nice shade. They're
smaller than I envisaged, and positively diminuitive on the Atacama stands.
Later, I'll move the big speakers to the sides of the room and do some
playing around with positioning. I'll also need to take a look at the bass
crossover point, and may fiddle with the bass EQ. (I haven't commented on
the bass for this reason.)

First blush? I'm impressed. *Very* impressed - seeing them as the mid and
top of a 3-way system, I am amazed that so much quality can be had for 200
quid. The proof of the pudding is in the living with, but I have a feeling
they'll be here for at least as long as the 14 day trial period.


--
Wally
www.wally.myby.co.uk
http://iott.melodolic.com

On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 17:23:44 GMT, "Wally" wrote:

Well, I got 'em. :-)

I initially connected them up as bi-amped as the mid and top of my tri-amped
set up. Unfortunately, the midrange Cyrus 2 decided to pop a fuse, and I
don't have any spares (off to Maplin soon). So, I reconfugred to a 2-way
crossover, with the Qs connected to a single amp. The speakers are stuck
onto sand-filled Atacama stands with Blu-tac. Been listening for about an
hour so far...

Well, that'll be the midrange sorted! Compared to the B110, the improvement
really is an order of magnitude. There's a huge increase in clarity and
detail - much easier to pick out individual instruments, and I'm most
definitely hearing little bits that I didn't know about. A huge improvement.
The first movement of Beethoven's Fifth was excellent.

Good, that's exactly what one would predict, since those heavy old
Bextrene cones were notorious for losing fine detail. It hit the voice
coil fine, but just never struggled through all the self-damping to
the surface of the cone. The key test is to play music loud, when it
usually sound OK, then cut the volume right back. With Bextrene-coned
drivers like the B110 and B200, the sound goes very 'flat' and loses
all its sparkle and detail. Modern plastics are much better in this
regard.

The imaging is much better, although I'd have to qualiify that by saying
that I've only beein sitting in the nominal sweet spot, and the speakers are
rather closer together than the bigs KEFs are (movability is one of the
reasons I wanted small speakers). When set up better, the big KEFs always
did a decent job of providing a soundstage. My feeling is that these are
maybe a bit better, but it's hard to get past the much-improved midrange
fidelity at the moment.

Power handling seems to be much better as well, although I'm not quite sure
what the limits are yet - the sweet spot, in terms of volume, depends on
each piece of music, and it'll take a while to get the hang of how much
crank each piece can be given. It certainly goes louder. I've notticed that
the bass (the B139s in the old speakers) seems to be okay at louder volumes,
when it would feel like control was being lost if I went close to half-way
on the preamp volume control. I guess this has something to do with the
change in bass crossover frequency - it was 350-400Hz, and is now 60-80Hz.

No sign yet of the treble harshness mentioned by Stewart. Too early to
tell - any perceived harshness in the initial "lets see what they do"
listening session could be as much due to my lug-'ole receptors getting
warmed up. If anything, the treble seems a liitle bit understated, until
something trebly comes along. The T27 seems similar in this reagrd.

Good, this affects different people in different ways. I happen to be
very intolerant of harsh treble. I'd rather hoped that advancing years
would fix this problem, but seemingly not! :-)

They do look nice. I assume the covering isn't real veneer, so the 'dark
apple'-coloured imitaion plastic-effect covering is a nice shade. They're
smaller than I envisaged, and positively diminuitive on the Atacama stands.
Later, I'll move the big speakers to the sides of the room and do some
playing around with positioning. I'll also need to take a look at the bass
crossover point, and may fiddle with the bass EQ. (I haven't commented on
the bass for this reason.)

First blush? I'm impressed. *Very* impressed - seeing them as the mid and
top of a 3-way system, I am amazed that so much quality can be had for 200
quid. The proof of the pudding is in the living with, but I have a feeling
they'll be here for at least as long as the 14 day trial period.

Glad you like them - KEF have for many decades produced excellent
speakers at all prices, nice to see that they haven't lost the touch
despite changes of ownership.

--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering

"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote


No sign yet of the treble harshness mentioned by Stewart. Too early to
tell - any perceived harshness in the initial "lets see what they do"
listening session could be as much due to my lug-'ole receptors getting
warmed up. If anything, the treble seems a liitle bit understated, until
something trebly comes along. The T27 seems similar in this reagrd.

Good, this affects different people in different ways. I happen to be
very intolerant of harsh treble. I'd rather hoped that advancing years
would fix this problem, but seemingly not! :-)


Hah!

If it helps, you can put me down as a 'ditto that'.....!!


:-)

Stewart Pinkerton wrote:

Good, that's exactly what one would predict, since those heavy old
Bextrene cones were notorious for losing fine detail. It hit the voice
coil fine, but just never struggled through all the self-damping to
the surface of the cone. The key test is to play music loud, when it
usually sound OK, then cut the volume right back. With Bextrene-coned
drivers like the B110 and B200, the sound goes very 'flat' and loses
all its sparkle and detail.

Yes, that's been my experience for years - regardless of source/amp, the
system never really came to life until it was cranked up a bit. In recent
years, the mids have sounded unpleasant when cranked up - I'm wondering if
the drivers are past it (hardish dust on the suspensions, I noticed).


Modern plastics are much better in this regard.

So it would seem. :-)


Good, this affects different people in different ways. I happen to be
very intolerant of harsh treble. I'd rather hoped that advancing years
would fix this problem, but seemingly not! :-)

You should still be able to manage 7-10KHz, though... ;-)

LIS, it may still become evident, but I expect my attention will be drawn to
the improved midrange for a while. I suspect the nett difference will still
be an improvement.


Glad you like them - KEF have for many decades produced excellent
speakers at all prices, nice to see that they haven't lost the touch
despite changes of ownership.

Indeed. I'll give them a try as full-range units at some point, but I
suspect the bass will be a bit of a disappointment. I did mute the bass
outputs and drop the active crossover as low as it goes (40Hz), and the tone
from the Qs was a bit boxy and too lightweight. Not sure how much bottom end
I was filtering out (24dB/octave), but it did sound rather coloured.

I've since moved the bass cabs to side walls and done a couple of quick
tweaks - knocked a couple of high boosts around 30-40Hz down 3-6dB, and set
the crossover to 200Hz. It's sounding more balanced, and the power handling
seems better (goes plenty loud, now). The low bass quality is a bit woolly
and loose - boomy at times, so addressing the bass cabs will be next on the
agenda.


--
Wally
www.wally.myby.co.uk
http://iott.melodolic.com

"Keith G" wrote in
:

Glad you like them - KEF have for many decades produced excellent
speakers at all prices, nice to see that they haven't lost the touch
despite changes of ownership.


I have had a pair of Kef IQ5s for a couple of months and find them
excellent speakers. Their top end performance is great - no harsh treble
but a very sweet and natural sounding top end.

One thing I would comment on though - they sounded a little harsh for a
couple of weeks, and I was playing them for 24 hours a day! It took this
long for the treble to sound really good.

--
Cessna172

"Wally" wrote in news:GBTsf.94472$3E2.24354
@fe09.news.easynews.com:

No sign yet of the treble harshness mentioned by Stewart. Too early to
tell - any perceived harshness in the initial "lets see what they do"
listening session could be as much due to my lug-'ole receptors getting
warmed up. If anything, the treble seems a liitle bit understated, until
something trebly comes along. The T27 seems similar in this reagrd.


My kef IQ5 took a couple of weeks to sound at their best. The treble is the
most open and clear I have heard.

--
Cessna172

Cessna172 wrote in
.207:

"Wally" wrote in news:GBTsf.94472$3E2.24354
@fe09.news.easynews.com:

No sign yet of the treble harshness mentioned by Stewart. Too early
to tell - any perceived harshness in the initial "lets see what they
do" listening session could be as much due to my lug-'ole receptors
getting warmed up. If anything, the treble seems a liitle bit
understated, until something trebly comes along. The T27 seems
similar in this reagrd.


My kef IQ5 took a couple of weeks to sound at their best. The treble
is the most open and clear I have heard.


Well, apart from visiting Keith of course - his sytems always amaze!

--
Cessna172

"Cessna172" wrote


My kef IQ5 took a couple of weeks to sound at their best. The treble
is the most open and clear I have heard.


Well, apart from visiting Keith of course - his sytems always amaze!



Wot you after, Ray?? :-)


Go tell Pinky about the 'hidden subwoofers'!! ;-)