Speaker upgrade

[Oldenbroke]

I currently have a set of original Kef eggs being driven by an Onkyo 875. Although the sound is fine for movies, I am frustrated by

the lack of musicality when playing cd's. Now there may be three reasons..

1. using a Denon 1920 DVD player or Panasonic BD35 to play them, or

2. the speakers are not up to the job

3. both.

I have been considering a speaker upgrade for some time, but funds never allowed it. However, enough is enough.

I would appreciate some pointers from 875 owners (or anyone with an opinion) as to likely contenders.

Budget is around £800 and I would be interested in gradual upgrade starting with front 2 or 3 then surrounds and sub later.

I have been advised that maintaining tonality all round would be best, so should consider Kef (have seen but not heard some XQ standmounters which the boss liked the look of).

Any suggestions for a sensible cd player also appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi!

Definitely BOTH!

Although both decks are perfectly reasonable at their primary roles, they are both terrible for music CDs! Thin top end, muddled mid and ill-defined bass? A change to something like a Rotel RCD06 would work wonders (not the Marantz tosh doing the rounds at the mo - take a denon cd chassis, change a the cosmetics and few components and call it a Marantz? No Thanks!). Also the KEF eggs are horrible all round IMHO. Compressed, harsh little satellites and a subwoofer with all the finesse of a lump hammer pulverising a quiche! You can live with them for action movies (after most people haven't heard a real explosion, or car crash as a reference have they?), but playing music is always a sterner test you'll have a good idea of how they should sound.

I'd avoid KEF in generally honestly, why not try some proper hifi speakers, say the french-made Focal 705Vs @£300 and the matching centre for £250 (I find it funny how WHF gave them a luke warm reception in the UK but in their french publication they came out really, really well...)? With a little extra saving you could get the RCD 06 (maybe cheaper now that the RCD06SE is coming out soon!) and enjoy your music again! In Direct mode (or Pure Audio if you don't want the sub joining in) the Onkyo is a balanced, performer on par with a good £300 Stereo Amp.

(p.s I recommend equipment on personal listening - I get on very well with my local dealer - and he is a dealer for pretty much all the "award winners" but the best sounding gear tends to be the stuff magazines gloss over/ignore. Must be some commercial reason I guess..)

 

[Oldenbroke]

Thanks for the reply, and pretty much as I anticipated. It's scary how you get so used to something it gets easier to justify keeping it.

I may opt for something larger at the front and ditch the now ageing Kef sub, something like B&W 684's or equivalent.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I live in a near dessert of decent shops to audition - Audio T in in Cardiff seems good (despite the manager getting the 'they are all ugly black boxes' speech while I was busy ogling the display equipment), or Sevenoaks in Bristol or Richersounds, so that may influence my decision.

Budget still up to £800, although less would be appreciated.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Well to ignore one manufacturer because one person says 'it's not hi-fi' is just plain daft. I'd fully recommend having a demo of the XQ's as I find them excellent speakers. Of course, opinions will differ on pretty much anything. Whatever anyone tells you about KEF, or whatever anyone thinks they know about the XQ series, ignore it and make your own mind up. The XQ's are exceptionally clean sounding, with a clear midrange, detailed but not excessive top end, and a very balanced bass, without overdoing it like many speakers.

Best thing to do is *** to a dealer and see what alternatives they have, and have an A/B demo.

Oh, and don't think you can get speakers that can negate the need for a sub, unless you want to spend about £20,000!! A big speaker, no matter how big it is, cannot reproduce sub bass - not within the pockets of the average enthusiast anyway. It's not what they're designed for.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry to go off topic, but what do you think of the Kef iQ 90's David?