Q150 Bookshelf Speaker

Some information so you know where I'm coming from. I was first exposed to these by my partner who uses them for a 5.1 surround setup. And that is amazing! Being passive speakers they require an external amp. But they can take plenty of power and pump out the volume. Watching Dune with these is an auditory experience! However, this review will focus on my own use case as a pair of near field desktop monitors. I picked these up on sale, to replace a pair of failing mackie cr5s. And let me tell you, it was worth the money. Physically they look amazing. I love the walnut as it gives them a bit more of a classy look compared to the black or white. They are also light but solid. I wouldn't want drop them, but if I did I don't think I would be too worried. The connectors are clearly colored and can use banana plugs or a screw-on connector. (Or you can cheat and just shoved speaker wire into the port). the little cover can be a little tricky to remove. But if you have decent nails it should come out with a little finagling. Being passive you are going to NEED a separate amp to use these. These are known to like power so if you want volume pick an amp accordingly. I am using a Schiit Rekkr through a magni/modi combo. And while it's not the most powerful speaker amp it has been more than enough to run these. On the Magni's 0db gain setting (Middle on the switch) with my computer volume maxed these speakers sit comfortably in the middle of the volume dial and they are crisp and clear no matter what music, game or podcast I've put through them. With the rekkr you can crank the volume and while loud, it's certainly not deafening like you might expect so it's likely a little under powered for the purpose. But it has served me nicely so far. After upgrading I have started to use these more than my HD 6XXs the only things that beats these out for me is my Audeze LCDXs and those cost more than my entire audio setup, so take that as you will. If you're in the market for new speakers and want to take the dive into high quality passive monitors. Grab these on sale and you will not be disappointed. Just make sure the rest of your setup is up to the task to run these power hunger speakers.

I don't normally write reviews for any product that I purchase unless they really stand out to me, but I felt compelled to write one for the Q150's within minutes of listening to them. I'll admit, I initially bought these because of the looks. The pictures don't do it justice because they look absolutely stunning in person. The perfectly sharp edges and aluminum woofer give it an elegant and modern look. Not to mention, the Uni-Q Driver Array. I'm a big Klipsch fan and while they sound clear and big, the Q150's have perfect imaging. It's almost like the speakers aren't there. Since the tweeter is placed right in the middle of the woofer, it doesn't matter what height or distance you listen to them because the sound comes from a single point source. Build quality: I previously bought a pair of Klipsch RP-500m's, but I had to return them because of the poor quality control nowadays. Out of the box, I could tell that these are expensive speakers. The vinyl wrapping of the cabinet is very sleek and sharp. I couldn't find any imperfections, especially at the edges. I will caution, however, that it can easily get scratched if not being careful. The woofer is assembled perfectly and looks sophisticated with the aluminum material and waveguides. The small KEF "name tag" looks very chic and unique as opposed to other speaker brands simply printing their logo on the cabinet. It's difficult to see in the pictures, but the "Uni-Q Driver Array" is printed in a dark blue color which I thought was black. Nevertheless, great build quality. Sound quality: Wow. It's really hard to describe how these sound because it's almost like the sound isn't coming from the speakers at all. What I can detail is how clear and crisp everything is. The highs are crisp and crystal clear. The mids are clear and warm. Then there's the bass. Do not believe in the frequency range numbers. These definitely go down beyond the claimed 51Hz. I was worried about having to get a subwoofer, coming from RP-500m's, but these produce an astonishing amount of bass for the size. Provided in the box are two bass port plugs with 2 stages: both foam pieces together or you can remove the inner foam piece for just a foam ring. My advice: put them in with just the outer foam because it tightens up the bass and makes it less boomy. All in all, these sound great. I like electronic music mostly and these are perfect for EDM or house music. Deadmau5 sounds amazing on these. Likewise, these will sound great with pretty much any genre of music. I'm powering them with a Nobsound TPA3116 100W mini amplifier and it's plenty of power. I did recently purchase an Audioengine N22 amplifier and while it sounded great with the KEFS, it unfortunately had unbalanced channels. So I'm sticking with the Nobsound for now. I'm sure these would sound much better with a high end amplifier, but it shows how forgiving these are of the power source. In conclusion, these are great for near field listening: punchy bass, warm mids, and crystal clear highs. These definitely need to be broken in because they will sound harsh during the first couple of hours. After that, they become mellow and warm sounding. It's easy to listen to and pretty to look at. Can't wait to see what KEF does in the future!

I bought these in white for Father's day when they were on sale for $300. I also bought Q Acoustics 3020i's ($300) and Jamo S803's ($200) around the same time to audition them and see which pair I wanted to keep. I ended up keeping the Kef q150s (and the Jamos). All three are very good speakers which I think anyone would be pretty happy to have. All three look really good, which actually matters a lot to me- but I think the Kefs are the prettiest. Build quality is similar across the board, I don't have any issues with any of them. The Jamos are certainly a step down from the other two, but they still look really sharp and nothing was concerning to me. Q Acousitcs may have a slight edge in cabinet construction over the Kefs, but all are pretty good. The Jamo S803's are great- they have a dynamic signature that bumps up the highs and the mid-lows a bit. This is great for apartment-level listening, as I can have the speakers at a moderate level that won't bother my neighbors and still find the speakers fun to listen to. I found the Q-Acoustics very flat- to the point of being comparatively boring at the volume levels I prefer. The Jamo's don't play as deep as I was hoping- subwoofer absolutely needed. The Kef's actually got deeper than the other two by quite a bit, which surprised me because the driver is smaller if you don't count the massive surround. Anyways, the Jamo's give some energy to the higher bass, but fall off too quickly to satisfy me at least. Also, the Jamos are way less efficient than the other two pairs- they need more power. On the other hand, I have an amp rated to 20 watts per channel RMS that was capable of driving the Jamo's beyond a comfortable listening level for me in a mid-sized room. They are inefficient, but you don't need anything special for them to work. The Q Acoustic 3020i's are also very good. I like the rounded corners. They are bigger than they look because these speakers are very deep. I think I like the proportions of the Kefs the best, but again, all three look nice and sound good. The 3020i's have a pretty flat sound signature and are certainly a bit more refined than the Jamos. Imaging and sound stage were similar between the two, however. Again, I kept the Jamos and not the Q Acoustics because I simply enjoyed listening to music using the Jamos more than when using the Q Acoustics. The 3020i's are probably "better" but I personally recommend the Jamos- even if they were the same price, but especially since the Jamos are quite a bit cheaper. I was actually blown away to hear for myself how much better than the other two the Kefs are. In every way. I could truly hear the difference that the Uni Q (concentric) driver makes. The difference was apparent immediately - nothing sounded wrong or bad when I listened to the other speakers, but everything had more depth, space, and clarity coming through the kefs. Plus, to my surprise, these speakers got noticeably deeper than the other two. I still need a subwoofer to suit my own tastes, but these are much closer to the point where you don't need one, and for many genre's these would be perfect on their own. Still, I think the imaging is the real standout feature of these speakers that makes me really love them. The speakers start to blend in to the background and it feels like the room is just making music when you play a well-recorded track with these positioned well. My brother in law has LS50's, and these get impressively near that experience for a fraction of the cost. The LS50s are better in every way, much the same as these Kefs are better than the other two pairs- but the Uni-Q driver is not just hogwash marketing malarkey. At the sale price of around $300 (which these also hit during black Friday and much of the Christmas Season) the decision is easy. But at $550, it isn't clear cut whether the difference is worth the cost. That is going to be a personal decision. I would probably pick the Jamos for the best value. All three pairs of speakers are very good, but the q150's were the clear winner in my comparison. Note: I tested these speakers in a living room, but I am going to put one pair on my desk eventually. However, for now I can't say anything about how the speakers compare near-field.

The un-spoken rule of loudspeakers is that bigger is better. Absent some expensive neodyium magnets and cost-prohibitive cone treatments, big drivers outperform medium and dominate small ones. These are mid-sized cones. They sound good, but they do not sound nearly as great as my floorstanding bargain-priced Infinity speakers. I'm driving them with a thousand dollar Marantz receiver with adequate but not abundant power. I'll try to elaborate a bit more on the sound. The Q150 do not sound crisp and sibolant like Klipsch. They do not sound muddy, but nor do they project startling realism or soundstage - at least not to me. They are noticeably inferior to my friend's LS50 - those really rock hard - and are priced accordingly. The Q150 are above-average speakers. I did about twenty hours of research before buying and unboxed them with rather high hopes. They are good speakers. I recommend them, but I did hope for "more". It may still be possibe. It's probably due to rule #1 - bigger is better but may be due to statute#2 - Give your speaker twice the power it needs and you'll get better quality sound. If you top out comfortable listening at about halfway to max volume on your receiver, you'll enjoy the results. It's like a big engine powering a light sports car. Disclaimer: to call upon the wisdom of pirate captain Barbossa - these are not inviolable rules - "more of a guideline really". They look like quality.

I got my Q150's for a bit less than $300. They were listed by Amazon as Used with damaged box and possibly some cosmetic damage. Fortunately, the box didn't look at all damaged and there was no cosmetic damage to either speaker. It was definitely a previously opened box, though. At anywhere near it's normal $350 asking price, this speaker is a steal. I say this because the price can shoot up to $600 at any time, just as it did earlier this year. And at $600 there may be some legitimate alternatives. These speakers have a non-fatiguing, but detailed sound. They image well and sound much larger than their size would indicate. The low end puts on a pretty good show, but gets really boomy at higher volumes. That element was so annoying that I used them with the provided foam plugs in the ports from about the first 20 seconds onward. Not only do the port plugs eliminate most of the bass boom, but they also help with tightening up the midrange, which suffers greatly when the little 5-1/4 inch driver is asked to go far lower than it should. As I plan on using just the drivers from these speakers in order to build a 3-way full range speaker system, I won't be asking these drivers to do more than they can. But, if you want to get the best sound possible from these you will need a sub. And I'm not just saying that for these, but for any small driver bookshelf speaker. Without a sub and some kind of pre-amp or integrated amp that has a high pass filter for the sub, any 5 inch driver will distort and smear the midrange while it's trying to play low frequencies. NOTE: That comment about a high pass filter is ultra important if you are using any small bookie for a dedicated audiophile stereo system. Most users end up having a combination music/home theater system. High pass filters aren't a big deal in home theater applications, but in dedicated 2 channel music systems they are an absolute must. Without the high pass filter, you are sending every ounce of low frequency energy to the main speakers, which doesn't relieve any of the distortion problems caused by a small driver being asked to produce low frequencies. So, read your manual, if you're integrated amp/receiver doesn't specifically have a setting for the high pass filter function, it only has the low pass filter, which is a waste since most powered subs have their own low pass filters anyway! So, to summarize, these speakers are definitely better than the $291 I spent. They are audiophile grade at lower volumes and even better with a correctly paired sub. I tried these speakers with three different receivers, in one small room and one large room. They did great with all those situations and I could easily hear the differences in the upstream equipment chain. And, I think they look just fine for their price too!

Many reading this are probably in the same predicament they find themselves in when the Q150 and Q350 frequently go on sale for $300 and $500 respectively. I too found myself on that see-saw of trying to decide which to buy and if the Q350 was worth the extra $200. I scoured the internet for any comparisons or comments and found very little worthwhile info. From the bits I did gather, there seemed to be a general consensus that the Q150 had cleaner treble, but the Q350 sounded bigger, warmer, had better mids, and more bass. That unless on a budget, one should just spring for the Q350. There’s also speculation that the Q150 is inherently superior because it uses the same size driver and similar size enclosure as the LS50. So, which is it? Let me touch on build and dimensions real quick for those unfamiliar. While I personally find the black iteration of both of these among the most beautiful bookshelf speakers out there, the build leaves something to be desired. While the binding posts might be the cheapest I’ve encountered and the cabinet is pretty hollow, I tend to quickly forgive these factors as long as it sounds good. The matte black vinyl looks great and I’m THRILLED it's not the black ash abomination that finds its way onto so many speakers. The edges are very sharp and clean; a great contrast to the round, centered drivers. There are no grills included, but I would have never used them. Plus, the ones you can buy look cheap and don’t cover the entire face of the speaker. Why KEF didn’t even bother making a grill cutout for the logo of an upcharge grill is beyond me. I’m a huge fan of KEF and their coaxial drivers, and the LS50 still remains my favorite speaker (with subwoofer assistance). I also previously owned the Q150 a few years ago and preferred it in direct comparison to the CCB-8, UB5, and Denton. The Q350 is new for me and I was hoping it would build on what I remembered from the superb Q150. Sadly, it doesn’t. To cut to the chase regarding the value proposition, if the prices were reversed with the Q150 at $500 and Q350 at $300, I’d still purchase the Q150 over the Q350. Unlike the bigger driver and higher price would lead you to believe, the Q350 is not everything the Q150 does but better, nor is it a Q150 with more bass and a bigger sound. It’s a complete side step at best, and in my honest opinion, a flat-out downgrade. I pulled my trusty Studio 570s off mains duty and listened to the Q350 for a few days. While there is always something special to be said about the imaging coaxial drivers provide, these just always sounded way too mellow, too laid-back, and almost muddy. They lack dynamics and never really seem to emerge from their slumber until I seriously crank the volume. At quiet to normal levels, forget it. All the times I was completely uninvolved with the music, I’d instead be constantly urging them to give me MORE. Bring forth the vocals! Bring out the details! Bring up the sparkle! They are indeed very warm, overly so. Almost like KEF experimenting with a Sennheiser or Wharfedale sound. They remind me of the UB5. No glaring faults, but just blah (I still remember liking the UB5 more). The urge to connect a power station and put a trillion watts into them so they can WAKE UP! Vocals definitely suffered because of this. While soft and gentle, they’re simply too muffled. Not so good for quiet, night time, or dialogue-heavy listening. Putting the 570s back in place and BAM, the veil vaporized and the injection of clarity and accompanied shock was like a splash of cold water. I hastily ordered the Q150 after becoming increasingly unhappy with the Q350 and the fact it was no match for the 570s. Hoping I’d at least be able to keep one of the KEFs (almost just for their appearance and coaxial drivers alone), I set the Q150s in the same location, on the same stands, in the same room. 6ft apart with my listening position also 6ft away. To my relief, they were exactly as I remembered them. They had the sparkle the Q350 was completely missing. Vocals, especially female, finally came alive. Everything sounded more realistic and believable. Fine details and imaging seemed more carefully crafted and didn’t get lost in the added midbass and laid-back nature like they did on the Q350. Most surprising was that the bass and extension were comparable, but cleaner and more defined on the Q150. The Q350 has more midbass and smoothness, but of what did it no favors. The soundstage and imaging between the two also sounded pretty indistinguishable and I’d likely fail a blind test. Had I not known of their prices, there is no question I would have thought the Q150 was the more expensive speaker as it has a cleaner, clearer, more balanced sound. But, it's clear to me that the Q150 and Q350 were cut from the same cloth regarding different aspects aside from their sound profiling. For one, the Q150 is also still difficult to drive and definitely sounds better when turned up. Although, they do not suffer from low power or low level listening as much as the Q350 due to their more forward nature and better treble. Both also require a tempered expectation when it comes to bass. If pushed hard, the bass will start to fall apart and become flabby. If you’re a basshead and like party volumes, I shouldn’t be the one mentioning you need floorstanders and/or a subwoofer. Lastly, I found it interesting that while my ear is actually 4-5 inches higher than tweeter level when they’re on my 28” stands, putting 4 inch yoga blocks underneath them to mimic a 32” stand (and become within an inch of ear level) revealed that they didn’t sound quite as good, becoming thinner and brighter. Goes without saying for any speaker, but definitely experiment with speaker height, width apart, toe-in, and distance from surrounding walls. Ultimately, the Q150 was the clear winner here in both value and sound. Many will buy them simply for the fact they’re $200 cheaper… and that’s the real final nail in the Q350s coffin. With that $200 savings, one could purchase a nice pair of speaker stands and still have cash left over. Not to mention, the Q150 is easier to maneuver, place, and experiment with due to their size and weight reduction. They’d work brilliantly on a desk and I anticipate the smaller driver would sound better nearfield. The Q350 is big enough that placement options other than dedicated stands would be limited. Everything said, I highly recommend the Q150 and think it would fit the bill for most people and in most cases over the Q350. But at the end of the day, it's all about the music… right? And that $200 you just saved.

Okay, so are these speakers incredibly amazing? Absolutely. PLEASE NOTE: these speakers are NOT FOR THE INEXPERIENCED. You have to know what you are doing insofar as your entire sound system design, acoustics, audio source, DAC, amplifier, Etc in order to get something DECENT out of these speakers. You WILL NOT like these IF: - Your audio source is low quality, - you have a noisy DAC, - you have bad room acoustics in your listening space, - you don't use EQ, - you don't have a subwoofer The Fidelity of these speakers is such that if your system has flaws, they will be HEAVILY magnified with these speakers. They are not very forgiving of a suboptimal amplifier, dac, or low quality audio sources. "Tinny". Other people who say that these speakers sound tinny likely have not used a eq, and I doubt they have a subwoofer either, and they probably have a poor quality dac, and horrible room acoustics. So of course they sound tinny ****IF**** you don't have those things in check before getting these speakers. As I said, these aren't for the INEXPERIENCED. You have to know what you're doing to get anything decent from these speakers. They can sound incredibly amazing if you get these things right. In fact, the sound from these speakers is so incredible that I literally forget that there are speakers in front of me when I close my eyes. The sound feels like it comes from every single Direction around your face, it's amazing. HOWEVER, it is amazing because all of the other aspects of a quality audio system are in place. It's going to SUCK if you don't have your system optimized. These things sound so amazing, it's phenomenal. It's otherworldly. Dare I say it is even magical. It's really that good, and honestly, my language here isn't doing it any justice, I suggest that you get your whole system in order FIRST........................., then get these, as you'll have a perfectly adequate Foundation to utilize these to their full potential. You'll hear things that you've never heard before with these speakers when used with a optimized system. If you use these speakers in a suboptimal system, they are going to SUCK, so don't be surprised if they do if you don't have a decent dac, amplifier, and a good audio source. You NEED to use a EQ. Equalizer. Digital EQ via the app that you use to play your music from. You need to TUNE your audio source via digital EQ so that it compensates for the UNIQUE frequency response curve that this speaker has, which is why most people say they sound tinny, when really they don't ****IF**** you equalize them. If you don't use an equalizer, these will sound HORRIBLE. That's right, they sound horrible if you do not use a equalizer, which is the case with MOST high-end speakers. Most high-end speakers do not sound great without equalization. If you don't know what an EQ is, do not buy these. If you don't know what SNR is, do not buy these. If you do not know what s i n a d is, do not buy these. If you do not know what acoustic treatment is, do not buy these. If you do not know what standing waves are, do not buy these. If you do not know what reverberation is, do not buy these. If you don't know what gain is, do not buy these. If you don't know what gain staging is, do not buy these. If you're coming from a cheap set of desktop speakers that are USB powered, do not buy these. If you have never heard of frequency response before, do not buy these. If you do not know what impedance is, do not buy these. If you do not know how much power your amplifier is capable of providing to a given speaker at a specific impedance level, do not buy these. I have heard parts of songs that I have NEVER heard previously on OTHER speakers compared to these. It's incredible. It's almost as if the speakers reveal another half of the song that is otherwise inaudible when played on another set of speakers. Amazing. Phenomenal. Breathtaking. Otherworldly. These things are so f******** awesome!!!!!!!

Replaced Klipsch 600MKII (pair) and Klipsch Reference Premiere RP-504C II Center Channel Speaker with these. to allow for a proper L | C | R channel situation as the RP-504c while a beast, was too big for my room and overpowered the 600MKIIs. While you might think this is a step down (it is, slightly), it served multiple needs. BIG BLACK SPEAKERS AND GIANT CENTER CHANNEL...I needed a very specific stand to accomodate the limited space on either side of the screen (and I wasn't re-hanging that sucker of a 77"). The only thing I could find was a bit cheap looking...dark gray/walnut'ish vinyl veneer, black legs with terrible ventilation and open face storage. It was just big, dark and heavy looking all around and ate up so much visual space. Once IKEA finally restocked thier ventilated doors (game consoles, A/V gear get toasty and I wanted a cleaner look), I jumped on the Besta stand (shown). This required a change of speakers. While the RP-504c (and EXCELLENT center channel) could fit under the screen, the 600MKIIs could not (at least not vertically and their design doesn't lend itself to a horizontal configuration). Enter the KEF Q150 Bookshelf Speakers. If you are looking at these you are also looking at the Q350s as I did. I don't fill a large room (upstairs apartment) and have dual SVS SB-1000 pros (you NEED a sub (s) for these. If sat further away, had a larger room, I would have gone with the Q350s. The Q150s can be placed verticall or horizontally without changing the sound dispersion due to their unique driver design. Note that the Q150s share the same configuration/some of the internals that the MUCH higher priced LS50 Metas do (the Q350s do not as they contain some revisions some audiphiles find wanting). Again, you NEED a subwoofer for these. With three identical speakers (I purchased two pair, so sitting on a spare) across the front sound stage there is no isolation of vocals (at first I did notice some, but I was coming from a mammoth 4 Driver / 1 Horn) what I got was a much wider soundstage. Decent mids and a nicer, more relax high than the mark IIs but cannot be played as high or as lound (which is fine). They are musical and transparent but for sure a step down from the klipsch in the music playback department; the other trade off is these look so much better.