KEF Q500 Floorstanding Speakers Black (Pair)

Product Information

The KEF R500 has been in place for long enough to see use in a variety of situations and with a fair amount of other equipment. In that time that have stood in my listening room attracting nothing but positive comment for their design and aesthetics. This is a handsome and capable speaker and one that is going to work well in a variety of spaces. The KEF Q550 floorstanding speaker is one of the newer iterations of the KEF award-winning series. The KEF Q550 features a redesigned cabinet, sleek new finishes, and an improved Uni-Q Driver Array.

Queue the KEF Q500 vs Bowers and Wilkins 684 S2. These were connected to a Marantz SR5010 AV receiver in stereo mode.

The tweeter used in the KEF Q550 utilizes a Tangerine waveguide to minimize interference between the tweeter and the midrange driver. The unique technology from KEF, the “Tangerine” waveguide system, helps the treble integrate more smoothly with the mid-range frequencies. It has also an additional damped tweeter loading tube which helps improve low treble performance and a new low-distortion inductor on the crossover which provides cleaner bass. This impression is deepened by the Q700s’ driver-count. The 165mm aluminium Uni-Q driver with centre-mounted 25mm tweeter is taken from the class- leading Q300 standmounter. It’s joined by a 165mm low-frequency driver and two 165mm auxiliary bass radiators. Remember, you're the customer and you can take charge of the demo (at any dealers worth doing business with). You should be the person that sets the listening volume, decides what to listen to, gets the dealer to adjust the position of the speakers if you think they're sub-optimum, plus you decide your listening position. Thankfully, this thing comes with a passive crossover. Although it is only a passive crossover, it still helps to prolong the lifespan of your passive speaker as it splits up different frequencies from an audio signal after it is amplified by a single power amplifier, so that the amplified signal with its specific frequencies can be sent to two or more driver types, each of which covers different frequency ranges. This setup results in more clarity to the sound. Within its elegant floorstanding cabinet the Q550 house no fewer than three additional bass woofers. One of these is powered and is dedicated entirely to bass below the mid-range unit. Working rather like a subwoofer, this enables the Q550 to offer consistent and reliable bass that's both deep and sustained. Improving this further, twin ABRs (Auxcillary Bass Radiators) utilise energy within the cabinet to further enhance and sustain the bass response.

The chassis of the speakers is made of die-cast aluminium which rigidly locates the high efficiency vented magnet assembly to prevent unwanted resonance while the enclosure features internal bracing to eliminate resonance and according to KEF provide 30% more volume in comparison to their predecessors. In addition to the 50mm voice coil that provides better power handling and the dedicated front-firing auxiliary bass radiators (ABRs) the Q500 manages to provide deeper and more accurate bass than ever before. The last to consider is that you need to have an amplifier to be able to use the KEF Q550 because it is a passive speaker. You need to have an amplifier with a power of 15 to 130 Watts RMS (Root Mean Square) and a nominal impedance of 8 ohms or a minimum of 3.5 ohms to be able to use the speakers. The KEF’s speakers are usually equipped with their highly touted Uni-Q driver handling the highs and mids. In the Q550 case, KEF placed the aluminium tweeter in the midrange cone to optimize the time alignment between the two drivers and minimize any phase issues you normally experience when using a traditional tweeter and midrange configuration. The KEF Q550 also has a great omnidirectional response, which means that the sound stage and frequency response stays consistent even if you move away from the speaker’s sweet spot.The Q500 utilizes a crossover frequency of 2500 Hz, ensuring a smooth transition between the woofer and tweeter frequencies. The tweeter is made of aluminum, contributing to the overall durability and performance of the speaker. Built to deliver powerful audio, it has an output power of 130 W. Overall, the KEF Q550 is built excellently. Its enclosure is also built with medium density fiberboard which is pretty standard in the audio industry. Its high-quality construction and components make an impressive floorstanding speaker that can last for a very long time. As on most of KEF’s speakers you will find their renowned Uni-Q driver handling the highs and mids of the Q550 – in this case a 5.25 inch coaxial midrange/tweeter. By placing the aluminum tweeter in the midrange cone you can optimize the time alignment between the two drivers and minimize any phase issues you’d normally get when you use a traditional tweeter and midrange configuration. This also improves the omnidirectional response which should mean that the sound stage and frequency response stays consistent even if you move away from the ‘sweet spot’. The tweeter also utilizes a Tangerine waveguide to minimize any interference between the tweeter and the midrange driver. The KFE Q550 comes with complete bolt-on plinths that offer excellent stability. The spikes on the plinths stretch out to provide the level of stability possible from such a slender speaker. It helps in reducing the effects of vibration from loud music as the speaker is likely to stay in its position.

In the R500 – and indeed its larger siblings – this Uni-Q driver sits between the two conventional drivers, This gives the KEF a decidedly unusual driver arrangement. Superficially, the R500 looks like a speaker that makes use of the d’appolito configuration – the classic woofer/tweeter/woofer arrangement so often seen in floorstanders. As the KEF combines two drivers into that central unit and has a three way rather than a two way configuration, this is not technically the case. The Q-series consists of six models in different sizes; the Q150 and Q350 bookshelf models, which can be used as either left and right surround speakers or as main speakers in a smaller listening room, and the Q550, Q750 and Q950 floorstanding models. The Q550 is the smallest floorstanding model in the series and measures only 926x299x310 millimeter (HxWxD) and uses 5.25 inch (130mm) drivers. The series also includes an active subwoofer, Q400B, although this model has not been revamped from the previous generation, but still looks good together with the new generation of speakers though. Design and Build QualityThe heart and soul of the loudspeaker series is the Uni-Q array, which provides the mid and high frequencies. The current version of the array resulted from engineering development during the company’s recent Concept Blade program. In brief, the Uni-Q array places both the midrange and tweeter drivers concentrically within the same mechanical structure to form a single acoustic source that’s coherent in position, directivity, and time. This is in contrast to the old “whizzer cone” drivers, which placed the tweeter in front of the lower-frequency driver, and not at the same acoustic point. Moreover, the manufacturer states that this alignment of the midrange (which provides many of the spatial clues in stereo listening) and the tweeter improves the tonal balance characteristics and broadens the listening area rather than limiting it to a sweet spot.