KEF Q950 Floorstanding Speaker - Each (Black)

i bought the Q950's bc of the great reviews for them, and KEFs in general, but equally bc of the closed box nature of the floorstanders. i have what may be the accoustically worst listening space - an open design living room/kitchen/dining room/open staircase leading to open second floor landing, including 17 foot ceiling in the living r and variable 8-15 foot ceilings in the rest. and the front wall in the living r, where the speakers are, is pocked with five 2 foot deep, approx 3 x 4 foot insets (for exhibiting sculpture perhaps?). my old bookshelf speakers used to sit in 2 of those spaces, about 5 feet above the floor.the Q950's sit to either side of the front wall, the right one about a foot out from right corner, with one of those spaces behind it, and the left one in the beginning of a hallway formed by an angle of the front wall and the staircase. it's an impossible situation, but the Qs laugh at it and sing in a voice i never thought possible for this space.now I'm pretty old and my ears haven't been what they were since the 60's, but the highs, mids and lows are remarkable. and soundstage! how is that possible in this room?! the base may not be as deep as one may expect for 2 8" woofers per speaker, my old Advents seemed deeper, though they were 10 inch, and maybe they were just softer, the Qs are taut, but that is likely the trade off for closed cabinets, and it's those closed cabs that i attribute to the sound of the Qs in this room. they are set up in the only place i can put them, with very limited flexibility, even for angling them. if you have a placement problem, these speakers are the solution.i bought the Walnut. they are so pretty! i will probably get the grills just to limit the dust buildup when i'm not listening to them, but it may be a while before that happens, in part bc they are also awesome as front speakers in a 5.1 system for streaming movies. outstanding movie sound...rockets, ricochets, and dialogue quality. btw, my source is a getting old Yamaha tsr-7810 AV receiver, 95 watts/channel, usually playing thru a Bluesound Node. the Qs have given the Yamaha new life.a downside is that the Qs are as good as the source, so great with hi res amazon music, but not so with old mp3 files on a USB, and great for streaming movies, but not so much with Dish.so i will end as i began, the Q950s sound outstanding and appear to be very forgiving of room placement and acoustics. and they were on sale!

The 950s hit a sweet spot of value and performance. Of course the Kef R series sound "better" but that doesn't mean the 950s are bad. I moved my 150s to my surround position, picked up a KEF center, added these to the front and purchased an SVS PB1000.....amazing setup. The 950s need very little power so you don't need an external amp for these...but an ext amp does open these up moreAt $799 a piece (on sale) these are a no brainer. I'm running my entire setup off a Denon S760h and I get no distortion at higher levels. I do recommended having these out from the wall a bit and toed in if you can, even just a hair. Make sure you get your spacing right, I kept moving these inches at a time away from my center channel until it sounded right, my sweet spot was 25" away from my TV which is a 65" on each side

I’ve owned these about 8 months now and figured it’s time to write a review. First off, I am constantly amazed at how good these sound. They are simply incredible.I wanted to get away from my 5.1 system which was difficult to wire up every time, hide the wires, mount the speakers, adjust the sound, and never sounded quite right for music. Good for movies, but not music. So I decided on a 2.1 system with floor standing speakers. Did my research and settled on these as not only did the have good reviews, but they looked good too.I will say, they do like power. At first I used my 7.1 A/V receiver to power them with only 55 watts per channel. They sounded ok in the mids and highs but lacked bass. I eventually got a dedicated 2 channel amp, the Yamaha R-N803 with 145 watts per channel and WOW did it wake these speakers up. The bass was so good I almost didn’t need a sub any more (but I like lots of bass so kept it, just turned down a lot) and the mids and highs went to a new level. I love how everything is matched, it all meshes so well. Nothing is harsh, nothing pierces the ear or sounds muddy or is out of place. The bass doesn’t drone. Sitting in the middle of them I can close my eyes and sound stage is insane. Voices are where the should be, instruments are where they should be. And I have yet to push these speakers to their SPL limits but I have turned them up very very loud, they just don’t even seem to be breaking a sweat. Zero distortion.To sum it up, I do not miss my surround system at all. I hope to keep these for many years and will look at KEF in the future if the time ever comes again.

KEF speakers are QUALITY!!!!! You can even hear when a musician makes a mistake or nicks a finger over the guitar string. Don't have to turn up loud to hear all of the separation in the sounds. There are no holes in the back of the speaker to let the bass out to reflect off of the walls for a big sound. The woofer is contained and therefore is a tight bass. And lots of bass. Get what you pay for for sure! Lots of high end as well. Very well balanced sound. The Listenup Store that sold it to me on here know how to ship an expensive piece of sound equipment. They double boxed it so no damage. And you had to sign for it.

Wonderful speaker at this price range.Not bright. comfortable high and mid.I once heard you must pair a sub for this speaker, actually not bad.One thing for certain, you need to give it POWER.This speaker needs power power power to give you the best of it.If you amp can't give 100 or more, and you don't want to invest another amp or such, then don't buy this one. Look for the smaller model.Now I'm gonna finish the setting with mid and surround.The shipping part: The packaging was cool, but shipping was able to make a big damage on the box, and it was able to poke thru all layers and damaged the speaker surface. Like a dent on the speaker itself. Since this is the first speaker I buy thru online retailer, I'm gonna see what can they do.