terrific imnaging, excellent balance of all frequencies, contrary to other reviews I think the bass response is terrific, although my Sansui tends to be a bass heavy reciever. Build quality is good and frequency response is very well balanced... not colored in any particular range like so many others in this price range

don't really care for the cabinet finish, you will have to work on placement to tweak the sound for your liking.

The imaging is amazing for such a budget minded audio enthusiast speaker. I have a basic HDTV set up for casual viewing and home theater, these units were a perfect addition. The Uni-Q drivers are amazingly capable and whether you are just a casual listener of music or a home theater buff these will fill the room with sound as if you were standing on the street in the movie. Room size would no doubt play a factor and a full 5.1 system with these would make them even better, but they are amazing on their own. Since they are no longer available and are considered an old model you can find some amazing deals on them which make them a true "10" in the value department. Some reviews have mentioned the lack of bass response on them. I guess that depends on what you are looking for truthfully. If you want to feel it in your chest then go buy some CV 15's and put 500 watts to them. If you want a terrific speaker that is amazingly balanced and has a terrific range over all the frequencies then this is your perfect purchase. It took me the better part of a day to find the sweet spot for placement. Now they have an amazing amount of bass blended perfectly into the music or movie. A friend has a set of reference series Kef's and although there is no denying the superiority of the reference series, these are amazingly adept and a true value in the price ranges found currently.

Similar Products Used:

B&W, Klipsh

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Alot

Speakers sound muffled. No quality at all. Listen to some radio shack specials that sound better. Good thing I got them for free.

Incredible imaging. Very clear music.

none

It's funny how I bought these speakers, I fought for weeks trying to decide on which speakers to get and when I finally made my decision, I went down to Good guys to buy them. I had made my decision to buy some boston acoustics. While waiting in the demo room for the sales person to come help me I was playing with their speaker console switching to different speakers, then all the sudden I push onto one speaker that completely disappeared. Until that point, I could easily tell which speaker was playing the music when I hit the last button, I could no longer tell which speaker was on. It was simply amazing! At that point I finally learned what imaging meant. I instantly bought the Kef Q50.

Similar Products Used:

Kef Q70 Kef Q75 Kef Q30

Very clear, sharp sound. Audio positioning is stunning . Well balanced.

None whatsoever !

I bought a pair of Kef Q 50's from a friend, who is an extreme audiophile. He upgraded , and sold me his pair of Kef's in mint condition. My old speakers were Paradigm 7 se's . I played both speakers side by side . The Paradigm's ( which I thought were very good speakers ) sounded a bit muffled , compared to the Kefs. The Q 50's simply sound great. Crisp and clean sound saturates my living room, with pretty much any type of music. Walk around the speakers and sound quality doesn't change , regardless of where I stand in my listening room. I use a Yamaha RXV-495 Natural sound reciever , and a Nakamichi cd player. The treble, mid range and bass are very well balanced - the double woofers provide ample bass . The kefs look great, and sound amazing.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm 7se

Crisp, tight sound, very good highs and mids

Lacks low end punch, but that's what the sub is for

I love the KEFs. I've got a very basic system, purchased on a budget in 1994 and serving me very well to this day. I've got a Yamaha RX-V480 receiver running through a Mirage BPS-100 sub and into the KEF-50s (with KEF center speaker for theatre). Also running a Yamaha CD player. The KEF-50s are very tight and great for mid-to-high range. I found the powered sub necessary to get the low end I wanted. It's a great combination for me.

Balance, tone, depth

None

Perhaps I have KEF ears, since these speakers sound outstanding to me. I don't see how much bass I can extract from music, so I find these speakers to provide all the bottom end I need, easily excessive, if I would attempt to warp. The rest of the sonic spectrum is equally represented, and I find the music product to be wonderfully listenable, with great projection, outstanding imaging, and a perfect tonal balance.

I have no complaints concerning these speakers, and I will happily buy other KEF products.

Similar Products Used:

Many

Soundstage,depth

Trable,and box resonance

It is a good speaker for the price. I brought it second hand for only 10,000 baht(about 250$). For this price, this is the best speaker for me. It produce neutral sound. The sound is mellow. However, it has roll over with extremly high frequency and it cannot produce very deep bass. Another inferior is that the box of the speaker could produce resonance with low bass. The Uni-Q technology is great, it can produce accurate position of instrument. The soundstage is huge and depth. In my opinion, most of Uni-Q speaker produce similar sound. It is a real bargain to buy Q-50 against new Q-55 since it is a lot cheaper. For this price, you can buy monitor 1 gold. Although the treble is nice, but it cannot produce enough bass for me.

Similar Products Used:

None

I was shopping for a pair of speakers for quite a while. One day I finally, made up my mind and decided to purchase a pair of Boston Lynnfields. As I was in the listening room I was playing with the control panel to turn on and off different speakers. I was pushing different buttons blindly jumping from speaker to speaker when all the sudden I came across a pair of speakers that just disappeared! The whole room was full of speakers and before I can tell exactly which speaker was on. Now I was standing I the room and I could absolutely not find which speaker was the one playing the music. I told the salesman give me the speakers that the controller turned on. It turned out to be the KEF Q50. The best imaging speakers I came across so far!

I have had these speakers for about 5 years know. For the money they they are excellent speakers. I listened to just about every speaker in town and the kef's sounded the best.My only complaint is I listen to home theater about 80% of the time and these speakers are seamless. It is very difficult to figure out where the speker is with your eyes closed. I have the Q90 center channel and NHT zeros in the rear. I had an older yamaha dsp970 and an older sony cd player. I have since upgraded to a toshiba 2109 dvd/cd player which dramatically improved the sound of cd's. I also bought an onkyo 575 for the dd/dts. This unit is much better for home theater, but is slightly behind the yamaha for music. The Kef/Yamaha combination can not be beat for sound on music with a good cd player.
I personally decided to sacrifice the music for home theater. I bought 4 NHT Super Zeros and an NHT VS1.2A for the center channel. I mounted the Super Zeros LF and RF speakers on the Kef's and and have the NHT's running off the A speaker and the Kef's off of the B. This is an optimal setup for me. I don't fault the speakers at all because they are seamless. With the NHT's in dd/dts I look around when the rear effects are happening. Also the left to right effects are much better (my preference) with the NHT's. Overall I give these speakers a 5 star rating because they are an outstanding value and a great sound. I should also mention that my sub is an M&K mx-100 which does an excellent job with both sets of speakers.

none

Uni-Q driver. terrible midrange, weak bass

I owned these pieces of garbage for about nine months. Vocals sound like they are coming out from under a wet blanket. If you see a pair used, do yourself a favor and DO NOT purchase them. I bought them because I got a great price on them:Mistake #1. The Uni-Q driver: The next biggest inovation in audio HA HA.