Small Kef Q100 review

[Pistol Pete1]

Not much to be found on the Internet about these speakers, as the Q300's took the limelight at the time.

I have had to downsize from my Kef Q500's due to space and the imminent joy of my daughter learning to crawl and walk (doesn't take too much to knock these over I reckon!)

So I'm in the lucky situation of having both speakers in my lounge which gives me a chance to compare them. I realise it's an unfair comparison due to price and design, but I'm going to anyway.

I wasn't sure what to expect from these small speakers when they sat next to my floorstanders but I connected them up to my Marantz PM6004 and Marantz CD63 KI. Initially I wasn't impressed until I turned the volume up a bit. Sitting down and relaxing with various music I found these speakers very open but with a real punch to the bass. In fact it's the bass punch and definition as well as the clarity and detail, which is similar to my Q500's but on a small scale, that makes me smile with these speakers.

Reverting back to my Q500's and the differences in scale was obvious..... No surprise there! The vocals had more presence and depth, and the midrange was fuller with more detailed. But these Q100's offer the Q series sound at an affordable price. Even more so when I got these for under £250! They are second hand but in mint condition and have only been used for around 30 hours, so could improve further.

If your budget is around £400, then I think they are worth an audition.....assuming you can't

stretch to the £450 Q300's or find they are too big. Obviously the reason I bought the Q100's was because I felt they would be best suited to my other speakers. :cheers:

 

[Excitable Boy]

Thanks for the review Pete. Any idea if KEF have produced anything decent since the Q series ?

 

[Machinemessiah]

Good to see you are enjoying these so much! I have the same amp as you and have found them to be a very rewarding combination. I too would have gone for the Q300s but I just don't have the room to do them justice. I'm just in the process of deciding what to do about a front end upgrade to a streaming source that will allow me to use 24 bit downloads. The amp/speaker combo should be good enough for me to notice a difference me thinks.

 

[The_Lhc]

Thanks for the review Pete. Any idea if KEF have produced anything decent since the Q series ?

I think the R series could probably be described as "decent", the LS50, the Blades, I guess would qualify for that as well...

 

[BigH]

Thanks for the review Pete. Any idea if KEF have produced anything decent since the Q series ?

The Q series is still curent? The Q series is the budget range if you want something better then the R series or the LS50s will be the ones to look at.

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Thanks for the review Pete. Any idea if KEF have produced anything decent since the Q series ?

The Q series is still curent? The Q series is the budget range if you want something better then the R series or the LS50s will be the ones to look at.

I think your find the 'C' series is KEF's budget range...not the 'Q' series, both of which are current.

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Thanks for the review Pete. Any idea if KEF have produced anything decent since the Q series ?

I think that was answered above...

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Good to see you are enjoying these so much! I have the same amp as you and have found them to be a very rewarding combination. I too would have gone for the Q300s but I just don't have the room to do them justice. I'm just in the process of deciding what to do about a front end upgrade to a streaming source that will allow me to use 24 bit downloads. The amp/speaker combo should be good enough for me to notice a difference me thinks.

As time goes on, I'm more and more impressed with these Q100's. The clarity seems to be a touch better than the Q500's, and even the bass output is decent considering the size of them. It's testiment to these speakers that I'm actually thinking of selling my Q500's and using these for the near future. My initial plan was to store them, and once my daughter was older I would re-introduce them as fronts and then use the Q100's as rear speakers (assuming we have a bigger house by then?).

I do intend to wall mount them, so it'll be interesting how they sound in that situation. This is why I didn't option for the Q300's. I felt the small speaker design would be better in that environment, knowing the wall will enhance the bass somewhat.

We will see.....

 

[audipheonix]

I own the Q100 for more than a year, and it has grown on me. Initially the sound was not that clean ,it seemed a bit muddled, but over time it has changed . I dont know if it is break in or such, but it took a preety long time to sound it best.

Did you experience the same or it sounded good from the start pistol pete?

I tried the speaker in different position ,it is currently placed in top of a shelf . I have also tried some isolation at the bottom with some rubber and it acually had an effect on the bass as it became nuch more tighter. An also tried to bung the front port, though the sound was less bass but the clarity of the SQ enhanced a bit. As of now I am listening without the bungs after a month or so with the bungs. As I am writing this, the Q100 are playing 'The call of the Valley' a must listen Indian classic music the ambience it creates is excellent.

Just wanted to share my experience with this unnoticed beauties. Hoping to add some good quality source to enrich the experience.

Any suggestions.!! :cheer:

 

[Pistol Pete1]

I own the Q100 for more than a year, and it has grown on me. Initially the sound was not that clean ,it seemed a bit muddled, but over time it has changed . I dont know if it is break in or such, but it took a preety long time to sound it best.

Did you experience the same or it sounded good from the start pistol pete?

I tried the speaker in different position ,it is currently placed in top of a shelf . I have also tried some isolation at the bottom with some rubber and it acually had an effect on the bass as it became nuch more tighter. An also tried to bung the front port, though the sound was less bass but the clarity of the SQ enhanced a bit. As of now I am listening without the bungs after a month or so with the bungs. As I am writing this, the Q100 are playing 'The call of the Valley' a must listen Indian classic music the ambience it creates is excellent.

Just wanted to share my experience with this unnoticed beauties. Hoping to add some good quality source to enrich the experience.

Any suggestions.!! :cheer:

Did you get the Yamaha amp at the same time as the speakers? I demo'd the Yamaha with my Marantz amp and found it a bit muddled, thus my choice in amp.

These Q100's are second hand so I don't know how much use they have had. I was told about 30 hours and they really are in mint condition. In my case, I have only used them for about 20 hours and they have sounded great throughout. Mine are on a tv stand at the moment but I have just ordered some wall brackets so we will see how that affects them.

 

[Pistol Pete1]

Well, well, well......Had my keen home cinema enthusiast friend over tonight to listen to the Q100's. He is a keen KEF fan and has various speakers from that company (IQ5SE etc) connected to the Denon 3313 receiver/blu ray combo.

Put a song on and his first comment was, 'you got the sub on as well? :rofl:

I guess that says it all in terms of bass response on these little speakers. Still loving their clarity and bass response here! He was suitably impressed with them too!

 

[Edbo2]

I have a pair of IQ10s which are the predecessors to the Q100s. What HiFi rated these the best in the range. Could be said less is more.

 

[knaithrover]

I had the Q300's for a while and thought they were excellent...at higher volumes. What let them down was they sounded flat and lifeless at lower volumes which accounts for probably 50% of my listening so they had to go.