OK chaps, here's the Gramophone review...
One of the best-known names in British loudspeakers, KEF may have a shorter history than the likes of Tannoy and Wharfedale, having been founded at the beginning of the 1960s, but since its beginnings it has done many things right. The early establishment of a relationship with the BBC helped no end, making the company synonymous with the famous LS3/5A small monitors, and from the outset KEF has been led by engineering and innovation, plus the ability to adapt itself to the needs of the markets in which it sells.
So while the company may be acclaimed worldwide for its Reference speakers, it's not averse to producing low-cost designs such as the well-known Cresta and Coda series, which introduced many first-time system buyers to KEF ownership. It was also one of the first manufacturers to embrace the fact that multichannel speaker systems needed to be domestically acceptable as well as sounding good, and its KHT - KEF Home Theatre - 2005 system started a line still at the forefront of the "subwoofer and satellites" trend in home cinema.
More recently, the company has extended that thinking into its KEF Instant Theatre range, making use of NXT flat-panel speaker technology to create the impression of surround sound from just two speakers not using signal processing, but by bouncing the surround channels around the room to appear to be behind the listener.
And for those wanting "real" surround without cables running round the room, the company has recently launched a wireless two-channel system able to carry the rear channels in a 5.1 set-up.
It comes in two versions - one designed to integrate with the company's KHT5005 speakers, the other a "universal" system to be used with other KEF speakers, or indeed those from other manufacturers.
However, one piece of technology is a hallmark of KEF speakers, and has been for two decades. The company's coincident speaker design, Uni-Q, places a tweeter at the centre of a mid/bass driver, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and is found in just about every KEF model. It comes in tiny versions in the KHT speakers, with the smallest KHT1005 speakers having a Uni-Q just 7.5cm across, and goes right up to a much larger 16.5cm in the likes of the Reference 207/2 - there are even Uni-Q drivers in the company's outlandish Muon concept speakers.
The idea behind the Uni-Q is simple - it time-aligns the two drivers, while getting close to the ideal of a point-source of sound. But that simplicity doesn't mean it hasn't been refined since it was first launched, complete with a neodymium magnet for the tweeter. A lot of work has gone into driver materials and design, and KEF has also constantly worked on the "waveguide" on the tweeter, which controls that drive unit's dispersion characteristics.
It's for that reason that the new £700-a-pair XQ10 speakers we have here, resplendent in their curvaceous cabinetry with real wood veneers and glossy finishes, use a new Uni-Q driver with what's called a "tangerine" waveguide. This places a series of radial fins, looking like the divisions between the segments in a small orange, in front of the tweeter, and is said to improve dispersion while at the same time protecting the fragile tweeter dome.
Also new for the improved XQ series is the removal of the old models' top-mounted "hyper-tweeter"; that's been made possible by the fact that the new 19mm metal-dome HF driver goes all the way up to 55kHz, while the 13cm bass driver in this smallest model in the range extends down to 63Hz, aided by a front-venting port. That's not a bad frequency spread for a speaker standing just 33cm tall.
PERFORMANCE
Unboxing the KEFs, I was immediately struck by the quality feel, which was all one might hope of a speaker design at this level. Nice touches abound, from the high-quality WBT terminals mounted directly to the rear-panels to the integral spikes on these stand/shelf speakers, and from the curved cabinet shape, designed for greater rigidity than conventional flat sides, to the concealed magnets holding the front grille in place.
The loss of that hypertweeter also gives the speakers a much cleaner look, while under the skin the XQs use comprehensive internal bracing to further stiffen the cabinet, and have a crossover design derived from the company's flagship Reference speakers. All in all, these may be anything but inexpensive "bookshelf" speakers, but they feel worth every penny -- and those good impressions carry through to the performance.
I've long been an admirer of the way Uni-Q speakers - and, I have to say, Tannoy's rival Dual Concentric designs - present music: there's a clear, focused quality to the way the soundstage is laid out before the listener, and the focus with which individual elements of a recording are located within the sonic "picture".
Most impressive is the way these speakers seem to achieve all this with a minimum of fuss about precise positioning and toe-in: you can park them in roughly the right place and they sound very good indeed, whereas other "conventional" designs need a lot of adjustment of position before the image "snaps into focus". With the KEFs, things start out very fine indeed, and a little tweaking just makes them even better.
Parked atop a pair of hefty sand-filled stands, and driven by a variety of amplification, the little KEFs demonstrated an immediacy and honesty that proved hard not to like. The obvious comment to make is that there is a lack of ultimate bass extension when compared with much bigger speakers, but the XQ10s are fast and agile, while still delivering a more than credible sense of weight and scale. Voices and instruments are fluid, detailed and natural-toned, and even when playing very hard these speakers don't thicken up or get messy: there's still that clean, precise soundstage picture, only louder.
This is a speaker design well-suited to the needs of the classical music enthusiast with a small to medium-sized room, and who wants to listen at sensible levels rather than room-shaking, "hair blown back in the gale" volumes. Its clarity and focus will get you to the heart of the recording, and create a credible soundstage without endless tweaking and fiddling, and the open-mouthed tonality and smooth but informative balance will ensure one never feels detail is being overlooked.
This is another one of those designs that's exceptionally easy to enjoy, yet presents a view of the music that's considerably more than "easy listening". Add in the gorgeous finish and quality of construction, and you have another fine design from the KEF stable. If all of the new XQ speakers are this good, KEF may well have a major success on its hands.
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