Great dynamics, improves front staging.

If you want bass from a centre spend 3 times as much!

I sold this speaker when I upgraded to a Kef 100C, but I had to leave a review, to state how impressed I was with this little wonder. As with all the Q series it has a great sound, but it was what it did to my front soundstage that really impressed me. It made it sound so much more rich and alive. I would credit this speaker for being 90% of the 100C for half the money! A gem!

Similar Products Used:

Kef 100C

Wide dispersion. Tight midbass response.

Lack of warning sticker "Please run in small mode!".

System: Denon AVR-2801 KEF Q15.2 (F/R) KEF Q95C.2 (center) Velodyne CT-100 (sub) Speaker wire: 16/2 AWG, generic, no bi-wiring. Two words: small mode. That said, this is an excellent center for your midrange system (I spent $1400 for everything listed above) in a mid-size room (3000 ft^3 in my case). Matching is pretty good with the Q15s (white noise revealed subtle differences, possibly due to its sealed config. Nothing I can perceive during critical listening). Dispersion is excellent...no position on my 7 ft sofa is favored.

Similar Products Used:

Cresta (swapped up after 5 minutes use).

Clarity, dispersion (sound is excellent, sometimes even better, off-axis), build quality, easy placement on TV cabinet.

It is a relatively small speaker and may not be suitable for those who don't have subwoofers and/or whose home theater rooms are large

Over the past few months, due to the purchase of a large home with a 23x17x8 "bonus" room, I have been upgrading my home theater. The system now is: -Panasonic 47WX49 47" widescreen HDTV monitor, ISF calibrated -Panasonic RP-91 DVD player -KEF Q15 mains -KEF Q95C center -JBL N-24 rears -Paradigm PDR-10 sub At first I had three KEF Q15s as my front speakers. This system worked well in my old 9x9x8 TV room with 32" monitor. However, the squarish Q15 looked large and awkardly perched on the thin cabinet of my Panny RPTV. So . . . I decided to upgrade to the KEF Q95C since there were a few of them to be had inexpensively on the used market. The Q95C looks small and sleek on the monitor, and I was pleasantly surpirsed to discover that it sounded better too -- tighter, faster and clearer. This is due to its sealed design as opposed to the front-ported Q15s. Evidently the ported design, while boosting bass response, leads to a thicker, somewhat muddy midbass that is OK for music but bad for dialogue & special effects. Two additional comments: 1) The joker that typed in "asdlfkjsld" etc. and rated the speaker 1 is a fool. 2) The joker who rated this speaker poorly because of its low bass output should have tried running it as "small" on his A/V receiver and shunt the deep bass to his subwoofer (provided the moron has a sophisticated enough system to do so). That's how I run the Q95C and it is outstanding for my needs.

Similar Products Used:

Pinnacle AC Center, KEF Q15

Very Clear dialogue Rich full sound A very tight mid-bass

A very sleek and solid build. This speaker looks as good as it sounds. The build quality and percision boost its performance to another level. It looks small, but plays strong, and loud, and transparent.

Similar Products Used:

KEF Cresta series center channel

Clean, open full range sound

Not a fantastic cabinet, but nothing really.

Auditioned these against the Mission 77c1's. Despite what What*HiFi think there was no contest (but see my review of the Mission 77ds')

Similar Products Used:

Mission 77c1

This KEF center channel speaker reproduces sounds smoothly with warmth. This speaker is excellent when reproducing special effects sound tracks. This speaker is unassuming in looks, yet is capable of delivering all the sound pressure level one can stand without ill affects to the soundtrack or drivers. This speaker is currently the center piece of a A/V system which is being powered by a Onkyo TX-DS575 pushing 70 watts RMS at 8 ohms and 100 watts at 6 ohms. The KEF is a 4 ohm speaker rated at 10-100 watts. This speaker is a beast for its size and is made to keep pace with large floor standing speakers. The speaker is connected to the Onkyo with a Z-Series Monster Cable with MLock Bananas. Now hold on to your seats, but I am using four KEF Coda 7 bookshelf speakers for the front and rears: good for the price I paid at UBid, and it was just to get started. I am planning to push the "order" button on two KEF Q65 (fronts) and two KEF Q55 (rears). The little Coda 7 just can't deliver the fullest range. KEF, and others, mention that the positioning of the tweeter in the center of the bass driver increases the listener's "sweet spot". It does. I play mostly DTS DVD movies, as well as audio CDs, through a JVC XV-D701 DVD player and this speaker is great for all the soundtracks and audio.

Clearity. Smooth midrange.
Good looking furniture (discrete, neutral, not to big)
Magnetic shielded (ofcourse).

None - unless you plan to use it in a large room. Made for small/medium sized rooms.

I was lycky to get this speaker for 2/3 of the retail price (object of display but never used), but it would be worth every dollar even if I had to pay full price.

Crisp and clear sound gives lively movie-dialogs.
Used with KEF's Q55.2 as front-speakers and KEF's Q85s as surround-speakers you get a perfect sound balanse. An aditional active sub is recommended (like the Energy EXL-S10).

If you have a good reciever (like the Onkyo TX-DS575X) there is no problem turning up the volume without ANY distortion.

Similar Products Used:

None

Small with good clear highs

Cant handle high volume levels for movies and have absolutely no bass for special effects and male voices.

I am sorry to kill this speakers rating but I absolutely hate this speaker. I have a pair of Q55's up front and some Q15's in the rear. The Q55's are real nice speakers but for home theatre you just need a center channel with some balls. I can not run this speaker in full range mode or else it starts to distort at any sign of bass. Yes these speakers do sound good for music and female voices but unless the only movie that you watch is the Red Violin then you are missing out big time. I have even tried hooking up a Yamaha M-80 power amp to see if these speakers just needed more power or a higher quality amp but honestly I could not tell any difference with these speakers.
I give them a 1 for value because I hope that for $350 you could find a speaker that could play at higher output levels than your alarm clock. I dont see why this speaker I so expensive i mean I bought my q15's for only $225 for the pair and those have the same driver but in a slightly larger ported box. Why couldnt Kef make a center channel speaker with two 6.5" drivers for $350?

Similar Products Used:

Everything

I bought a pair of KEF Q35's a while ago, and unfortunately, the dealer did not have the matching center channel (Q95C) in stock, and convinced me that the pervious year's model center speaker (KEF Model 90) would be fine. I brought them all home, and during the pink noise test noticed that the center channel sounded quite different from the mains. During sweeping sound effects in movie soundtracks, I also noticed a tonal variation when the sound passed through the center of the sound stage. Took the Model 90 back to the store, ordered a Q95C through the Net and WWWWWOW what a difference! I have auditioned a lot of main/centre combinations, but I have never heard such a seamless sound stage than this KEF combo. Dialogue sounds rich and warm, and despite having such a small enclosure, handles mid-bass sound effects extremely well. Very happy with this entire set. Maybe in a year or so I'll put the Q35's as my rear surrounds and upgrade the mains to Q55's......

Q95C works perfectly in my system. Sounds are clear and in details. Highly recommended. Get 5 stars easily.