KEF iQ1 Bookshelf speakers
Anyone, who is casually acquainted with Hi-Fi acoustics, will recognize the products of the English company KEF from the first sight. The branded coaxial driver together with well-rounded original design can't be confused with anything. A new driver with MF/LF-unit with diffuser made of composite material, in the depth of which a traditional tweeter with the aluminum dome loaded on a small horn is hidden, is used in KEF iQ1 - the younger model of the updated series. The bass reflex port is located directly under the double-type speaker. The body of KEF iQ1 is finished so qualitatively that you can easily mistake its covering film for a wood veneer, and only close viewing allows you to understand what is what. The terminals for cables are amazingly beautiful, but not very practical. The matter is that jumpers are thick pieces of tinned copper wire, which aggravate the access to the contacts. Therefore you can connect an amplifier to KEF iQ1 only by means of the connectors with cleared ends or openings of "banana" type, but it is difficult to insert even these for their designed holes.
As usual, KEF acoustics builds an excellent scene with surgically precise location of artists. Acoustic instruments sound brightly and catchy, but a bit sharply - the speaker systems obviously need a longer warm-up. However, there is no any thick detail in HF range and the vocal of Candice Night is clear like mountain spring. But an evident deficit of low-frequency power is felt here. This most likely affects the manner of playing the hits of AC/DC - drums are completely lost, although the guitar, despite this, "howls" fervently and loudly. I note the same manner of handwriting at the listening to classical blues performed by B.B. King and Eric Clapton. Masters' guitars appear in fine feather and the sharp attack of each note never develops into excessive brightness. Vocals are ideally localized in the space, but they need a bit more warmness. Taking such gust of the monitors in HF-area into account, you should see about the absence of any reflective surfaces, otherwise the sound will be overly obsessive.
Nice to see how the best technical decisions are moving closer and closer to the initial price category and are becoming available for the most part of buyers. Limited in depth bass of KEF iQ1 is not the highest fee for the opportunity to touch an expensive sound.
