My new Kef Q500's & Q200c

Pistol Pete1 wrote:

I read about that too...... So I did some comparisons for myself as I had some old Chord Carnival silverscreen that i used to have in the system. I bi amped both, and found I prefered the clear, brighter, more detailed presentation that I found with the Odyssey 2. Obviously I can totally understand why other's may prefer the extra midrange depth the silverscreen offered. Ultimately it's down to personal taste.....my ears must like a slighly brighter, detailed presentation. Luckily my wife and friends felt the same.... Enjoy...

it would be a boring old world if we all liked the same thing and i suppose hi-fi/home theatre is no exception

just out of curiosity how long did your speakers take to settle down?

ive been running mine now for about a week on & off and im noticing quite significant changes, for the first few days the bass seemed a bit bloated but after a bit of tweeking with my positioning and a slight toe in this has gone and the bass has tightened up very nicely, also the treble was a bit harsh at first but this also has simmered down nicely, basicly its just getting better and better happy days!

TBH, I was at home in my office a lot at the time of purchase, so I left them on for 3 days playing no-stop during the day. As my office is upstairs, I was only listening to them from distance. Therefore I didn't really pay much attention to any changes as they were running in.

Saying that, what your describing as changes are typical during the running in of speakers, which is why I initially tend to leave them on for days.

What I did play around with a lot was the distance they were positioned away from the back wall(partition). Small movements made a big different to the amount of bass delivered and overall clarity, so I used that to optimise the amount of bass from these speakers. The closer they weere to the rear wall the more bass produced, to the detriment of the overall clarity.

I was listening to some music via the Pioneer stereo amp and cd player the other day, and the clarity and bass definition sounded truely amazing......very pleased with them indeed.

Just looked at your picture on the first post......

Toeing in would defo be needed, as the side walls are located quite close to the speakers. Mine are 12" from the side wall and 16" from the rear.

The other cheap upgrade was adding some granite chopping boards (tesco) under each speaker....tightens up the bass a little more!!! Unless your floor is a concrete one???

cheers pete, i have mine toed in a couple of inches and 8" from the side walls and 13" from the rear walls and the bass is tight with no boom at all, i have used granite slabs in the past with my old carpet but they are not needed here as the new carpet is thinner and my spikes can get to the concrete floor.

Pistol Pete1 wrote:

'Power Pants'.......you been watching the CBEEBIES channel again, David???

Naah Pete, all my kids are over 16 now, so I haven't seen any kids TV for a good few years! The last thing I watched was Dexter's Laboratory and Johnny Bravo, both on Nickelodeon I think.

*Any similarity between my made up Power Pants and any Power Pants on CBeebies is entirely coincidental, and in no way connected.

Pistol Pete1 wrote:

I read about that too...... So I did some comparisons for myself as I had some old Chord Carnival silverscreen that i used to have in the system. I bi amped both, and found I prefered the clear, brighter, more detailed presentation that I found with the Odyssey 2. Obviously I can totally understand why other's may prefer the extra midrange depth the silverscreen offered. Ultimately it's down to personal taste.....my ears must like a slighly brighter, detailed presentation. Luckily my wife and friends felt the same.... Enjoy...

I have just bought some odyssey 4 cable with chord & qed airlock plugs (2 x 3m) and a 1m length terminated 4-2 with chord plugs for my centre and i have to say you are completely right..the odyssey is far better and suits the kefs very well indeed, everything is crisper the bass is tighter and its like a veil has been lifted from the speakers..

I got a good deal on the cable only £110 for the lot.  :rofl:

I'm completely with you on this one.....that's why I did my own home demo (just lucky I had carnival initially, I guess).

I bought all my Odyssey 2 off ebay for very sensible money!!

Saying that, quite a few people insist that copper cabling is best for the KEF 'Q' series, and that silver cable offers too much of a 'bright' presentation.....

Best keep this to ourselves...

mums the word

Gorgeous setup.  I really prefer the new boxier look for the kefs.  I've never been a fan of curved speaker boxes.  Kef makes a great speaker.  I'm sure it sounds as good as it looks.

I'm curious why you went to KEF over the PMCs you had?

unfortunatly i got into a bit of finacial difficulty and had to part with my pmc's and naim xs (economic crisis what a bummer) after a whilst i got myself back together and kef are only around the corner from me in maidstone so i decided to give them a listen, i loved them from the first time i listened to them and luckily they were offering the front 3 with 20% off, i listen to alot of music from spotify and also love my movies so i thought these were my best option for getting the best of both worlds with the budget i had..

If i was going to listen to purley music i would of invested in some more pmc's but this set-up gives me everything i need, and im well happy with them

although i will probably add a decent DAC at some point..maybe when my ship comes in! although ive got a funny feeling it sunk years ago..lol

Enjoy Stig

cheers david

Upgraditus has stuck again and im now looking at improving the receiver i have, i definitely need a spotify enabled receiver with enough power to control my kefs,  and im in no rush as i want to get this right.

30% of the time I listen to a wide variety of music through spotify, all depending on my mood i listen to joe bonamasa,eagles,pink floyd,bb king,clapton,beth hart to 70/80s old school disco to new chart releases so the receiver needs to be a good all round musical performer.

40% is tv

30% is movies, all various types.

The way i connect my pc to receiver at the moment is 3.5mm jack plug to rca's which is not ideal, unfortunatly my pc does not have any digital outputs except LAN, i am curious how the new recievers connect to the internet?

with what i have in my signiture what would you recommend? ive hidden what i have already..

my budget is £1000 or less.

In my opinion Stig it's Yamaha all the way for AV, but if you need Spotify then I would do a home audition of an Onkyo TX NR1009 and if you like it see if you can get yourself a reduced price or display model.

Av receivers can connect to your intenet router via a Cat 5 cable. I don't know if they do it wirelessly yet?

Oh and Inconnect my PC running Spotify to my Av reciever using a Musical Fidelity V link.

It's USB to the v link and optical from the Vlink to the receiver. It Sounds great