Kef's Cheapest Bookshelf. Is the Q150 worth your money?

Written review/data can be found here:

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[AbsoluteFidelity]

Still the best objective reviewer on yt and more. Presents the data and lets the viewer decipher the data while giving hints. Absolutely wonderful Erin!

[MrCommunistGen]

I purchased a pair of these shortly before your review came out. I was blown away by the soundstage! I'd (apparently) never heard speakers with good soundstage. I'm a very data driven person and I absolutely appreciate all you do in your reviews.

[heavyweather]

I just bought Q150 for 400 Euros, this are great bookshelves speakers, so happy with it. The sound stage is incredible for the price. Thanks for your very professional review.

[tshdBZNWS]

I’ve been using q150 since last year and i really like it. Like erin mentioned, the soundstage of this speaker is very good. The only down side is i can hear distortion when you ramp up the volume so it is good for desk-fi with lower volume. I’ve tried 3-4 speakers around $300 price range and this one has been the best speaker for me

[NirreFirre]

great points being communicated throughout this review, newcomers to acoustics and sound reproduction soon have a library of videos in your channel! And us nerds that have been in the thick of it for some time and reads the website always enjoys the video pacing, thoroughness in editing as the icing on the cake. Cheers!

[FOH]

I always thought one of these KEF offerings would be ideal to implement into a all matching, mid-field, multi-channel rig, ie., wides, heights, over heads, surrounds, physically aligned...(opposed to DSP distanced), that'd be a fascinating system, at quite the moderate expense.

Pick up 11, or 13 of them, that'd be fun.

Coax drivers lend themselves to application like this... so you're not dealing with driver orientation compromises of typical multi-way cabinets (creating nulling etc).

I guess 13 powered LS-50 Metas would be the next step...

[AllboroLCD]

Very glad you rushed this one! I have been really curious about this model for a while now!
Thanks Erin!

[cveyfbc]

I wish I understood what all this meant more easily. Audiophile stuff is intense haha. Seems thorough, keep up the good work.

[kevinbehnke]

Great review! I've actually had the Emotiva B1+ and Kef Q150. It was a hard decision between but the KEF'S won on Soundstage and imaging. There are just so many good choices under the $300 range!

[scanspeak]

I suspect the midrange resonance is due to the bass-mid driver surround (the frequency matches the diameter of that driver).
It might be worth investing in an accelerometer so you can easily measure enclosure resonances.

[wal]

I've been wanting to check these out and at the current price seems they are worth a try. Thanks for the detailed analysis!

[scdude]

Hope you get a chance to take a look at the KEF Q350 as well some day. Thanks for your videos.

[scottbennett]

You mention how much you like the soundstage and depth of this one. I bought it on an earlier sale, but I ended up reselling them because they seemed to make all drums sound like snare drums. After seeing your review I can see possibly why because of resonances. Thanks for the review.

[ChrisHersh]

Hi Erin, nice review. I ordered these like 4 hours before you posted your video. Excited to give them a try

[Ephel]

I use these speakers with a Martin Logan Dynamo 400 sub. You can listen to them without a sub, but after listening with a sub, it's hard to go back. To reduce bubbling, I closed the phase inverter holes.

[qua]

"Treble heavy" may mean perfect for off axis listening. No need for tow-in.

[EverythingisFire]

Hope to see a comparison review of the upcoming successor to these :) The Q1 Meta. Q150's are getting clearanced out.

[ItsElvis]

I have watched a few videos now and it feels like I have found the Gamers Nexus of speakers. This is incredible. I will be picking up the Kef Q150.

[kevinusta]

This speaker regularly goes on sale. Accessories4Less has Kef Re-Certified and open boxes all the time. I got these as open boxes for $249 with a 5 year warranty.

As for sound comparison within the Q series (I have the 950, 350, 150). Obviously they sound similarly, but I felt that the 150 was better at imaging and detail retrieval, whereas the 350 gave the soundstage a bit of fullness with the bass. You'd think that the 950 towers would do better in every category but in my small 12x10 room they were not enough at lower listening levels, then too much at higher.

I'm in the process of setting up a much larger (25x25 L-shaped) room. Not ideal, but the space should lend an even playing field when I test each speaker with a sub.

Though their bass isn't as prominent, I'm guessing that with a sub, the bookshelves will sound much better than the 950 alone. To me, they imaged better 3 dimensionally.
The tower's bass is tight and fast, but even with room gain, it didn't get that deep, nor does it have the middle slam as the bookshelves.

[keepingupwiththejones]

T-shirt game is so strong. Thanks for the review and observations.