Today I bought a pair of KEF iQ3 speakers. My boss has some high end active digital input KEFs with coaxial drivers as his PC speakers and they are wonderful speakers in my opinion. Way to expensive for my budget. So I watched for used KEFs and got these for a good price.
The speakers I bought sound nice as they are with my SET amp and some subwoofer help (playing full range and lowpass on the mono subwoofer). They are now next to my Lowther Hedlund horns and while sounding a bit more balanced, they kind of miss the sensitivity. That could be compensated with another amplifier. The Lowthers seem to be still a bit more coherent.
The speakers have biamping terminals, so I will try to measure if the tweeter is aligned with the woofer and can compensate with delay if necessary. Did anyone already try that with the Uni-Q speakers? I guess the active ones have newer and better versions of what I have. I hope the DSP can improve the already really nice speakers.
I got into coaxials when I heard for the first time Tannoy DC8 studio monitors. So the next in line to get and tinker with will be some of them🙂
Edit: The boss' speakers are most probably LS50 wireless.
The speakers I bought sound nice as they are with my SET amp and some subwoofer help (playing full range and lowpass on the mono subwoofer). They are now next to my Lowther Hedlund horns and while sounding a bit more balanced, they kind of miss the sensitivity. That could be compensated with another amplifier. The Lowthers seem to be still a bit more coherent.
The speakers have biamping terminals, so I will try to measure if the tweeter is aligned with the woofer and can compensate with delay if necessary. Did anyone already try that with the Uni-Q speakers? I guess the active ones have newer and better versions of what I have. I hope the DSP can improve the already really nice speakers.
I got into coaxials when I heard for the first time Tannoy DC8 studio monitors. So the next in line to get and tinker with will be some of them🙂
Edit: The boss' speakers are most probably LS50 wireless.
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I recently bought KEF R500 and I'm quite surprised with quality. Paid €800 for new and the sound and build quality are very good for the price. I suppose iQ is the older model similar to these.
I fixed impulse response using rephase and crossed to two subwoofers. The difference isn't radical, but prominent. Imaging became more precise and bass more weighty.
Kefs usually have good off-axis response and thus can be digitally equalized. Speakers having irregular off-axis response can sound harsh when equalized for smooth on-axis response. Kefs should sound well.
You may try the same: measure speakers nearfield using REW with frequency-dependent window. Export the measurements to rephase and design a phase correction filter. Use a convolver like EqualizerAPO to apply the designed FIR filter to the music being played.
I fixed impulse response using rephase and crossed to two subwoofers. The difference isn't radical, but prominent. Imaging became more precise and bass more weighty.
Kefs usually have good off-axis response and thus can be digitally equalized. Speakers having irregular off-axis response can sound harsh when equalized for smooth on-axis response. Kefs should sound well.
You may try the same: measure speakers nearfield using REW with frequency-dependent window. Export the measurements to rephase and design a phase correction filter. Use a convolver like EqualizerAPO to apply the designed FIR filter to the music being played.
Great. How much correction did it need? Mine are single 165 mm Uni-Q speaker in a small bookshelf bass reflex.
I will measure with REW, but make the correction in a DSP - I stream music fromn Chromecast Audio and not from a PC (a thin client from HP is on its way for building a Linux based streamer/dsp/crossover.
I will measure with REW, but make the correction in a DSP - I stream music fromn Chromecast Audio and not from a PC (a thin client from HP is on its way for building a Linux based streamer/dsp/crossover.
Great. How much correction did it need? Mine are single 165 mm Uni-Q speaker in a small bookshelf bass reflex..
I made a phase correction for mid-driver which had inverted phase and reduced a resonance at 3 or 4 Khz.
I also have room modes correction below 200Hz.