Monitor Audio Silver RX6 AV12 or New KEF Q Speakers?

pistolpete1

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Monitor Audio package needs no introduction......Award winner for packages +£1500 2009, and 2010 in What Hifi?........


Were I to purchase them (without sub, as I have my AE Radiance), I would possibly replace the rear speakers for something like the Radius R90HD's, as the rears are positioned at each end of the couch....


The alternative from Kef:


KEF Q500, Q200 centre, and the KEF 3005 se eggs as rears......(again with AE Radiance sub)


Going to demo them soon, but has anyone compared these set ups or similar......


Any thoughts/comments?
 
Tried the Kef Q500 series ans was unimpressed. The manager of one hi-fi shop I went to said the finish looked cheap and the very 80's looking.

I tried MA RX6 AV12 and they were very nice, though replacing the RX6 fronts with RX8s was a step up in quality, RX8 much more balanced. Also listened to the B&W 684 fronts and HTM62 (or HTM61?) centre. The surrounds & sub stayed the same (MA RXFX & sub). For the brief time I had with them they showed a really good balanced sound field across the front three speakers, though not as bright as the MAs. They sounded better than the RX6, but not the RX8s.
 
Thanks for your reply....

It's not about looks for me....I heard the KEF Q range at the recent Manchester show, and was very impressed with them, albeit in a 2 channel demo.......

The MA RX6 package has had rave reviews for ages, and my room will not need anything bigger than the RX6's (14'x12')

The B&W 684 package was another I was interested in, but I have heard them and they are quite 'bassy' in presentation, and with my new AE Radiance sub doing the business with my QA speakers at the moment, I feel the top end, and clarity in missing...thus the KEF Uni-Q and Monitor Audio idea....(both suggested as very clear and detailed....)
 
I would possibly replace the rear speakers for something like the Radius R90HD's, as the rears are positioned at each end of the couch....


The R90s only go down to 80HZ and as this is often the -3db point, you'd need to set a crossover above the 'standard' 80HZ for them. The R180s go down to 60HZ so would be far better.

Are the speakers going to be wall mounted? If so, would not the RXFX fit
the bill?

The same frequency limitations may apply to the KEF Eggs? I'm not sure what they go down to frequency wise.

I'd try to demo both the KEF Q sereis and the RX series as the smoother nature of the RX series over the previous RS series may give a slightly warm natured sound when combined with your Denon amp? The RX series seem to get paired equally as often with the bright and warm natured anps, so it's going to be a personal preference thing.

The KEF Q series is getting great feedback so I'd want to do a side by side comparison between the RX and the KEF Q, using a Denon amp.
 
Just been to a hifi shop today, and didn't realise how small the RXFX's are....so they may well work. The other factor was the cost of them. Thought £400 was a lot for rear speakers. The idea is to keep my QA 1010i as rear speakers for now anyway, then upgrade to whatever in the second part of next year.

The same shop have the KEF Q range in too, and in their demo room they are using the receiver I have, but they don't have the MA RX6 + RX centre, just the MA RX8's....and it's best to do an A/B comparsion...

Will be setting up a demo at Frank Harvey's soon, as they have both and the B&W 684+centre and M1's...
But my concern is the size of my room only being 14'x12'....the B&W might give too much of a big sound for the room...

The Kef Eggs go down to 70Hz (+/-3dB), so should be ok.....
 

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