HiFi Speakers

Now that I'm approaching my late 70s (at the time of this writing), I can say that I've been a KEF fanboy since the early 1980s. Over the years, I've purchased half a dozen higher end KEF floor standing models and loved them all. However, nowadays, my audiophile exploits have been relegated to budget priced gear, used in a desktop, near-field setting. The key is knowing what to buy and what to mate component-wise.

I've been using the KEF Q150's for over the past several years, and I've really come to love them. Pairing them with an active 8" subwoofer under my desk, I've spent many an hour listening to various classical and jazz music. I eventually saw all the ads about the new Q1 Meta, but I had initially assumed that there probably wouldn't be a big difference between them and the Q150's.

Well, I couldn't help myself and one evening while perusing the Audio Advice website, I saw the Q1 Meta's and thought, "why not..." They arrived the next day - talk about a surprise. The Q150's that I had been using were in the black color, but this time around I elected to get the Q1 walnut color (glad that I did, because it's an attractive speaker to be sure). I was also gratified to now see that the grills (which were an optional purchase for the Q150's) are now included in the kit. As for the Q1 Meta grills, KEF completely redid them in that they are now more open, allowing more of the sound-staging to take effect (great job KEF).

To help with my latest listening scenario, I'm using a Balanced FOSI Audio ZA3 Class D 3255 chip amp, with the highly rated Sparkos Labs SS3602 op-amps installed (instead of the stock ones provided by the company). I'm using various DAC's from different brands. My speaker cable is an 8 gauge version from World's Best Cables (WBC), terminated with banana plugs. All the other cables (i.e. USB, RCA, and Balanced) are from Audioquest, Blue Jeans Cables (BJC), and World's Best Cables (WBC).

Once I connected the Q1's, I began listening to various music that I was totally familiar with - mostly large orchestral classical, jazz, and big band jazz. I've come to realize that the more instruments you have in evaluating a given speaker system, the better idea you'll have of how they sound. Furthermore, I've got to say that the Q1 Meta's are far more dynamic than the Q150, with uncannily accurate instrument timbre of various instruments, superb sound-staging (and that's with the grills on), greatly improved bass performance, and what seems like a smoother midrange/tweeter arrangement. I was stunned (in a most positive way of course). Familiar music that I've been playing for years and have been using as a measuring stick, sounded brand new to me - discovering small instrumental details that I felt were missing previously. And please, that's not a knock on my previous Q150's, because they served me well, and I'm still using them in one of the bedrooms. But this new Q1 Meta - wow.

Several areas that immediately caught my attention was the perception of a greatly expanded sound-stage, and the music was not only more dynamic in nature, but the performance was brought forward a bit - making you feel like you are in the center of the performance - uncanny really.

You know, when you read various audio advertisements, most brands claim massive improvements with their new products, and on many an occasion, the end results were not exactly what was anticipated. But KEF was right on the money with what they stated in their ads - this Q1 is a remarkable improvement (in my opinion, of course) in a variety of audio parameters. In addition, they are highly immersive, that's for sure, and make you feel like you're right there with the musicians - well, isn't that what it's all about?

I can only give them my highest recommendation. Their quality music reproduction abilities put a big smile on this old face!!!!!