KEF Q11 Floor standing speakers
The speaker systems KEF Q11, flagship of Q series, are four-way construction, enclosed in an elegant cabinet with smooth contours. Despite of the fact tat they refer to a budget level by the classification of the company, the quantity of original solutions, used here, will do credit to any expensive system. Although the finish of surfaces by vinyl film looks not so great like in speaker systems covered with natural veneer, it is made very accurately and you can find out vinyl only at close examination. Semicircular dust-proof mesh covers the entire front panel from top to bottom and hides three speakers, one of which is the branded coaxial KEF emitter, which sounds middle and high frequencies. The metallic dome of the tweeter shines in the centre of polymer MF-driver, all assembly is loaded on its own bas reflex, the semicircular port of which is adjacent to the speaker on the front panel.
Another remarkable feature of KEF Q11 is the use of an original speaker of oval form with polymer diffuser for playing of the lowest frequencies. The traditional round head with polymer cone answers for middle bass. On the back wall there is a vertical slotted bass-reflex port, which can be plugged by supplied foam plug if necessary. There are two pairs of connectors for connection of acoustic cables, mounted on elegant metallic plate at the very bottom of the body. In addition there are spikes in the set, which re very useful - taking the strong bass potential of KEF Q11, it's better to install the speaker systems on them.
I put the disk of Gary Moore in order to check the ability of KEF Q11 to sound recordings with deep bass range. Bass is perfect and strikes to the narrow4 the middle bass, however, needs a bit more speed, but this is quite fixable - it will be enough to lift the system higher. The real sensitivity of KEF Q11 definitely corresponds to the specified or even exceeds it - the volume level is significantly higher than average by the test. The vocal is given harshly and high frequencies slightly distort at high level of the signal, but this is a common problem of all coaxial emitters with long travel of the diffuser, heard by me.
As you might expect, the scene in KEF Q11 is very good. The piano in songs of Michel Sardou is true, the system confidently separates the voice of soloist from the accompaniment. However, the singing of maitre of French stage looks less emotional than in the performance of expensive speaker systems, but the basic intonations are clearly visible.
In classical music KEF Q11 demonstrates traditionally great separation of groups of instruments and the deep stage. The violin's tone is rich and full and at the same time is devoid of sharpness. The middle is quite good for the speaker systems of this class that makes the sound dynamic and open.
At playing of medieval exercise of Blackmore's Night the tendency to a bit relaxed sound of lower middle was found. Due to this female vocal obtains an additional softness and there is no hint of underlining sibilant consonants.
On the other hand, in virtue of the same feature, solo guitar of Ritchie Blackmore sounds too boomy.
However, the placement of the instruments in the space doesn't suffer from this and the reverb is passed brilliantly.
Some lack of attack in bass range becomes apparent on Deep Purple, and this also hurts the speed of bass guitar. However, overall the rhythm section sounds quite powerfully, and a perfect drive appears at high volume level.
KEF Q11 as if created for the lovers of those genres, where the correct transfer of space and localization of sound sources, particularly classics and jazz, is extremely important. High sensitivity and deep bass also allow the system to successfully play furious rock songs, but low frequency range slightly needs plainness.
