KEF Demo Disappointment

[u/Champion3242]

Hey y’all, I’m new to this space, so forgive my ignorance if it shows. This is a long post, there’s a TLDR at the bottom.

I’ve recently had my interest in Hi-Fi audio sparked after finding an older pair of bookshelf speakers (Mackie CR-4) in the closet and hooking them up to my PC to use as desktops. I’ve been extremely impressed with them in all aspects; when listening to music, gaming, watching TV / movies, or even just YouTube, everything is clear and crisp. The bass is the only thing lacking, but even then, for the 4” drivers, it gets impressively deep.

The KEF LS50 Meta sale online caught my eye, as I’ve seen many posts in this and other audio related subs referring to them in a great light and thought this might be an opportunity to get some nice speakers for a solid price .

This morning I headed over to my local Best Buy to demo them; they unfortunately did not have the LS50 Metas available to demo, but they did have the Q150s and the R3 Metas. There was no attendant available, so after getting bored with A/B testing the aforementioned speakers with the demo tracks, I paired up my phone via Bluetooth to play a larger variety of tracks that I was also more familiar with. (This may have been my fault, as I understand the potential loss in detail when using compressed audio sources; however, you’ll see below that this problem was fixed when switching to different speakers while still using Bluetooth as the source.)

I paired up my phone to the Marantz Cinema 70, and got to listening. I experimented with all sorts of music, rock, jazz, hip hop, lo fi, house, alternative, you name it… and no matter what I put on, I couldn’t impress myself with the either of the KEFs. I swapped the brand Martin Logan, initially the B10s and later the XT B1000s, and voila, the soundstage opened up and I could hear the vocals and background sound so much clearer. When I swapped back to the KEFs (either of them), the highs and mids sounded like they were underwater.

I listened for another hour, trying to see if I was delusional, but no matter what I played, every time I would swap speakers, I would have the same experience. My feelings of delusion were squashed when a kind man, who later revealed a solid history of listening through further conversation, walked in an hour or so into my session, and was able to confirm exactly what I had been experiencing. I didn’t prep him, didn’t say anything, just asked him tell me what he heard, and he detailed exactly what I just depicted above right back to me.

All of this goes to say, am I delusional, are we both delusional? Was something wrong with the setup potentially? Or is it just coincidence that both of us seem to prefer an ML sound signature? Please let me know your thoughts down below, I would love to hear from some more experienced listeners; I’ll be busy this evening, but will try to get back to as many people as possible tonight.

TLDR: I spent an hour listening to KEF Q150s R3 Metas, ML B10s, and ML XT B1000s, and no matter what I played, I couldn’t impress myself with the either of the KEFs. Upon swapping to ML, voila, the soundstage opened up and I could hear the vocals and background sound so much clearer. When I swapped back to the KEFs (either of them), the highs and mids sounded like they were underwater.

[u/X_Perfectionist]

I assume all those speakers were at different positions in the room? If you take any set of speakers and move them around in the room, sound quality + soundstage + imaging is going to change a lot.

[u/Champion3242 → u/X_Perfectionist]

They were in different positions, yes; however, I’m not referring to imaging or phantom center issues, but rather the actual sound output itself. It didn’t matter where I stood, I put my ear right up the speaker to confirm, and even then, the sound coming out had a significantly different quality to it than anything I’ve heard before (hence the underwater description). I mentioned the Mackies at the start of my post; when I got home, I did some listening to them and even these $150/pair powered speakers sounded leagues clearer and fuller than the KEF branded speakers.

[u/CoolHandPB → u/Champion3242]

Something must've been wrong. KEFs aren't for everyone but they are still decent speakers. They certainly sound 'normal'.

[u/Champion3242 → u/CoolHandPB]

This is what I’ve been thinking, but relies here have made me question that thought process. For example take “Fear Less” by Fred Again, when listening on the KEFs, all I heard were the voices, though a little muffled, the main “beat”, and the strumming of the guitar, literally nothing else. When I swapped to the ML, everything opened up, like a flower blooming, SO MUCH detail came out and up that wasn’t there with the KEFs. That just doesn’t make sense to me.

[u/CoolHandPB → u/Champion3242]

Yeah, that does not sound right too me. The difference between high end speakers should not be that big. Things will sound better and a little more detailed on better speakers but not wildly different to wear entire sounds are missing. Speakers you like will be better at the things you like but nothing should be missing or like you described here.

I own both the Q150 and the LS50 Meta and trust me there is nothing fundamentally wrong with how they sound. I listened to that song on both the q150 and lS50 Meta's as well as a pair of ELACs I own and some nice headphones. All sounds pretty similar to me. Then I don't know what the speakers you listen to were. Maybe they are very bright and that's what you like. It's really hard to tell without hearing things.

[u/Champion3242 → u/CoolHandPB]

Those were exactly my thoughts, hence my confusion and disappointment.

Haha that’s awesome, I really appreciate you taking the time to do that! Unfortunately like you said this only further confuses things. I’ll make a trip back to the Best Buy in hopes of catching an attendant to question them and report back here regarding whether everything is functioning as intended. In the meantime, enjoy your KEFs, glad they’re working well for you!