Quad 21l vs Kef q35.2 intial view

toxic mango

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I recieved my quad 21l ex dem paid £300 for them. My current set up is

main room : denon 3802, kef q35.2 front, kef q95.2 centre, keg q15.2 rear, rel q150 sub.

second room set up: kef q35.2, arcam alphsa 7se cd player nad c350 amp.

I had picked up my speakers several years ago at discounted prices as the new kef q range was coming out so the old .2 series were at bargain prices. The above was my ery first homecinema/music purchases. I was very happy with this sett up.

After two years of saying I would, i finally decided to implement my plans of making the second reception room into a home cinema.

Originally I thought I would just pick up another kef q centre and a subwoofer. Anyway thanks to this forum I discouvered the quad L series were going for bargain prices. I remembered demoing a paid of quad 11l and being very mpressed but they were out of my price range.

Anyway after phoning around like a 100 shops managed to snag a quad 21l (black) £300, quad 11l (black) £190 and quad subwoofer £400 (rosewood) , which i recieved today.

I have not yet set up the quad 11l's or that beast called quad l sub, however i set up quad 21l with the arcam cd and nad c350 and here are my first impressions.

lookwise the Quad 21l's wipe the floor with the kef q35.2. That lacquered finish just looks so plush.

Sound wise my intial impression (within the first 10 seconds) was the quad 21were ok but they did sound that much more better then the kef q35.2. Anyway, I next hooked up the kef q35.2 for an extended listen of 5 minutes and then did the same with quad 21l. It is then that I realised the subtle difference between the two speakers.

The kef q35.2 sounded very muddled in comparision to the quad 21l. I was hearing individual instruments more clearly with the quad 21l, the bass although not earth shattering was tighter compared to the flat bass of the kef q35.2. Whilst the kef q35.2 is no slouch, it does sound inferior (in my ears) to the quad 21l.

I have not yet tested it with the denon 3802 set up. I am still scouring for a quad l black centre speaker. Failing that will probably use the quad 11l as a centre speaker and purchase two quad l-ites for the rear maybe even sell off one of the quad 11l's.

anyway so far I am very pleased with this purchase and I have tos ay this forums with all its various comments and posts has been very helpful.

I will let you all know how i get along with the rest of the set up whenever i set it up.




So far I am more than pleased with this purchase
 
The quads will sound much better after you have run them for 50-100hrs as the kevlar cones need time to loosen up.
 

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