Biwire KEF Q300

[admin_exported]

The speaker group test in the March edition of WHF magazine mentiones that the Q300 speakers perform best when biwired.

I recently bought a pair of these speakers, and would like to know if there is a vast improvement in sound quality when biwiring and should i go out and get me a second pair of cables.

I am interested to hear from someone who is running this setup and what their opinions are.

Oh forgot to mention,the speakers are run through a Yamaha A-S500 amp, using my pc's soundcard which has a built in DAC as source for my music.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Those 'quick-change' links at the back of the new 'Q' series, in my opinion are a great idea, but don't half 'rob' the listener in terms of sound quality......

After much listening, and blind listening, I insist you must hear these speakers bi wired, or bi amped....

I even ended up bi wiring the centre speaker, which gave good improvement to SQ too.....

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Cheaper way of seeing the improvement, is to cut a 10cm length off your existing cable, and use it as a link to bypass the knob at the back of the speaker......

Do both speakers, remembering to change the knob to biwired/bi amped mode (knob fully out so you can see the yellow line)

See what you think......

 

[Anonymous]

Cheaper way of seeing the improvement, is to cut a 10cm length off your existing cable, and use it as a link to bypass the knob at the back of the speaker...... Do both speakers, remembering to change the knob to biwired/bi amped mode (knob fully out so you can see the yellow line) See what you think......

Thanks for that information will do that and test the difference. will the difference in sound quality be the same with a 10cm cable compared to a second full length cable?

 

[Pistol Pete1]

To be honest I have just connected up my old Pioneer A605R stereo amp to my Q500's..... So far I have done the 10cm link version with some Chord Odyssey 2 cable.(After comparing Odyssey 2 with the Chord silverscreen speaker cable, I find the Odyssey 2 sounded much better, in my opinion.)

My next step is to bi wire with two lengths of Odyssey 2 to each speaker, so I'll let you know later this week......I'll be using Speaker A & B to do this, as the amp has that facility.

But I did single wire the centre (Q200c) initially, and when I tried bi wiring, the difference was an obvious one to my ears......detail, clarity, soundstage, dynamics are all improved. As I said, the quick change linking knob is a great idea, but robs the listener of what these speakers can really do..... Let me know how you get on with the link idea......

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that heads up Pistolpete will also do my test later this week and give feedback and am very curious to see your results.

 

[fayeanddavid]

To be honest I have just connected up my old Pioneer A605R stereo amp to my Q500's..... So far I have done the 10cm link version with some Chord Odyssey 2 cable.(After comparing Odyssey 2 with the Chord silverscreen speaker cable, I find the Odyssey 2 sounded much better, in my opinion.) My next step is to bi wire with two lengths of Odyssey 2 to each speaker, so I'll let you know later this week......I'll be using Speaker A & B to do this, as the amp has that facility. But I did single wire the centre (Q200c) initially, and when I tried bi wiring, the difference was an obvious one to my ears......detail, clarity, soundstage, dynamics are all improved. As I said, the quick change linking knob is a great idea, but robs the listener of what these speakers can really do..... Let me know how you get on with the link idea......

PP1

Spot on the money in your assessment, fully agree

 

[Anonymous]

I have completed my bi-wire eposode and like you, i can definitely hear a vast improvement in the sound and it is more balanced and mellow . I can with no doubt recomend all owners of KEF Q300 speakers to give bi-wiring a try.

 

[Excitable Boy]

John - what are you playing through the KEF's ?

 

[Anonymous]

Oooh, I got Q300's. Is this really worth it??

Just to confirm, wire two sets of cables to each set of posts on the rear of each speaker. But instead of using the biwire switch on the back, just use a short (10cm or so) length of speaker wire to connect the 2 posts together??

 

[Anonymous]

I have a Yamaha A-S500 which has as a A and B speakers out with a switch to either play A or B or A+B

 

[Anonymous]

I am using two sets of cables to the posts at the back of the each speaker.

 

[CnoEvil]

The replacement of the cheap links (on any bi/tri wired speakers) with decent stuff, nearly always brings about a surprising level of improvement. Always worth a shot.

 

[Anonymous]

Let me get this straight.

In the image below in the link its how the bi-wire using the small 10 cm piece of wire should be done?

http://imageshack.us/f/15/biwirekefq300.png/

Is that correct?

Thanks!

 

[chebby]

Yes.

Use jumpers with 'spade' connectors - on at least one end - so that you can still use banana plugs. (And it's neater.)

 

[Deliriumbassist]

Back when I bought some Kef Q500s from my local store, the Kef rep was there, and he told me to tighten the connecting link knob- that made a difference. I did end up getting some signature links, but tightening them was beneficial. Turns out they don't tighten them fully at the factory, and you can't overtighten them, so try that before biwiring if you haven't.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes.

Use jumpers with 'spade' connectors - on at least one end - so that you can still use banana plugs. (And it's neater.)

Thanks for the quick answer. Unfortunately, I don't have the cables with spades at the moment, so I can't connect banana plugs and bare wires in the same terminal. Will have to get some of those.

Until then, since I have lots of spare speaker wire, should I just use both A and B speaker outputs on my Onkyo A-5VL amplifier and connect the wires from A outputs to LF inputs on the speakers, and wires from B outputs to HF inputs on the speakers? That should in effect be the same as by-passing the built in bridge between LF and HF inputs right?

The Onkyo A-5VL does allow that sort of thing, at least thats what it says on the Onkyo web page, it says A and B outputs are meant for use with 2 pairs of speakers, or to bi-wire one set of speakers, so I guess its good to do. When I connect one speaker to A output, and other to B output, the both play normally when A+B setting is chosen on the amp.

 

[razvan4nba]

Hi everyone, I have a pair of q300 connected to marantz pm6004 through audioquest type 4 speaker cable single wire.

After listening for around 20 hours I bought a jumper cable - Chord Carnival Silver Plus with Nakamichi spades and banana.

First I realised that the noise when speakers are on (but no music playing) is louder than single wired. Is this normal ??

Second - there were only little differences particular for some instruments (mostly strings felt brighter) but overall it sounded the same. Should this be because aq type 4 is such a good cable?