Many years ago,when NAD was still Brittish,their gear was good...sometimes better than good.But this amp is very very bad.Flat,little definition,noisy as hell. There is,granted,terrific separation,but after that the amp fails on almost every front.Imaging is smeared(due mainly to unacceptable noise) Greenfield Towing Professionals

None . .

Owned these from new, and even have the original shipping boxes upstairs. Ran with a lot of amplifiers over the years, from NAD, LINN, Nakamichi, Denon, and every one has shone due to the quality of these speakers. Great balanced sound... with the right amp! A Rotel sounded a bit dull and a higher end Marantz sounded way too bright. Thats ans amp issue, not the speaker. As reliable as bricks, and a pleasure to listen too. One of my, if not my best, hi-fi purchase. Superb.

The bottom end lacks a certain 'thunk' for club mixes, but nothing a decent Velodyne sub can't cure.

I bought these Kef Q50s in 1995 when a friend closed down his audio retail business, so have had them now for 22 years. Never regretted the purchase. I love the clean sound, especially with vocals - someone like Leonard Cohen with his textured voice sounds great. Beautifully balanced sound and a great sound stage as other reviewers have noted, with clear treble and satisfying bass. Worked well as stereo pair for most of the years with a relatively basic Denon DRA365 stereo amp but a couple of years or so back upgraded to a Denon X3000 7.2 receiver. Added a Kef C6LCR centre, two in-wall Q Acoustics speakers for side/rear sound, and a Velodyne CHT10 sub to get 5.1 surround sound. They all work well together - I understand Q Acoustics, although a recent company, was established by Kef engineers who left that company, so the heritage is still there. I'm very happy with the Q50s as an integral part of my home theatre now and can simply switch to them for stereo sound when I want that. Have seen second-hand Q50s available at great prices and they would be bargain purchases now.

Is build for classic and jazz music.

I was looking around for a good set of speakers, and finally settled down for the KEF Q Series.
The Q5O. But I am totally disappointed with the UNI- Q tweeters. I have replaced the Tweeters
at least 7 times, where by I could have purchased another set of speakers. The Uni Q tweeter is a complete failure and would never recommend anyone to purchase the KEF brand. especially the Q Series.

The KEF Q-50 has been my stable companion as my main source of HI FI pleasure .. I just powered them with a vintage 1979 Kenwood KR 6050 and the became even better ,.. crisp highs delicate under passages and robust not mushy base find a pair before there gone,.. these have been working since 1993 when I got them new

I have always wanted to try a modern KEF Uni-Q speaker, and had a chance to pick up a used pair of Q50s in near mint condition, and am I glad I made the purchase.

These floorstanders consist of a 6-1/2" Uni-Q driver (mid/bass w/ tweeter in the center of it in) the upper section, which is sealed off from the 6-1/2" bass driver that is in the lower section of the speaker. The top section is ported in the front while the bass section is ported in the rear.

These speakers reproduce sound better than their price dictates. They have a very neutral sound, not warm or cool, not forward or laid back. They have the sound of a quality stand-mounted monitor speaker with better bass, and have one of the most musical highs and clearest midrange I have personally heard in a speaker, while the bass is tight and not soft or sloppy. Dialogue is very easy to articulate, while cymbals, bells, vibes and other instruments producing highs sound just so sweet. Sax and horns have no harshness and plenty of transients. There is no one-note bass from this speaker, but easy to discern bass runs. They produce a nice dynamic sound with 3D imaging with instruments positioned in a nice big airy soundstage. Finally, overall balance is easy to adjust by moving the speaker out from the rear wall or closer to strike a nice balance in bass reproduction. Some speakers take endless tweaking to find the balance, but not with this speaker.

What can I say, but I love these speakers - for music first and definitely movies as well with its clear articulate presentation. No wonder people hang on to these speakers for a long time before upgrading. The purchase of these floorstanding speakers is a keeper for sure, pushing other speakers I own into storage.

I had these speakers for a little over a year now.. I am fairly new to this whole Hi Fi scene, but I learn fast.. I was in the market for my very first loudspeakers.. At the time I was still in college so I had a limited budget.. I found these speakers on eBay and got them for $220.. I had already owned the KEF KHT3005 HT speakers, so I wanted to stick with the kef theme.. Once it arrived I hooked it up to my Onkyo TX-sr606 and I was amazed by the sounds of these speakers.. very nice highs and mids, however the bass was almost non-existence.. The bass didn't matter because I was only using them for my HT (home theater) set up which already had a sub, two actually.. The cabinet and the finish were very nice, I had the black ash Q50.. Nice and stable, looks great with or without grills, mids and highs were nice and bright but not too bright were it was uncomfortable.. Overall I think the Q50 are pretty good but not great as well.. I am thinking of just replacing the bass woofer with a different brand and see how that works.. Listening room dimension 21ftW x 16ftL x 10ftH ceiling.. Well hope this helps anyone..

Home Theater
Kef KHT3005 HT speakers 5.1
Kef Q50 tower speakers
Kef HTB2BK subwoofer
Onkyo TX-sr606
Sony PlayStation 3 (love movies)


2 Channel Stereo
Krix Lyrix loudspeakers
Nad 3020 intergraded amplifier
Sony CD player PS1 SCPH-1001 (just wanted to try it)

I got a kickin system !!!

I got alot of love for Cyrus

And alot alot of love for KEF !!!

When it comes to sound,

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! British is best !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The police cmplaine too much !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'v had Q50's for the last 10 years, acompanied by a Cyrus amp and a Lynx one sound card.

As a bedroom system, christ alive i cant think of much better for the money !!!

You could pick my system up for £500 and the sound you will have, !!!! WILL compete with the likes of quad, naim, and verious others !!!

Customer Service

Never had anything go wrong !!!!

Similar Products Used:

Trio
Naim
Meridian
Quad
Alchamey
Roksan
Nad
Mission
B&W
Wilson Bensech

Nice sounds !!!!

TRUST !!!

Great imaging!

Fragile tweeters

I've read through all of the reviews here and agree wholeheartedly with the positive reviews of this speaker. For the price, this was indeed a heck of a bargain for the sound quality you received.

Getting to the point, I also noticed that a number of users purchased theirs through Ebay or some other "second hand" source. This makes sense as these speakers went out of production several years ago. On this note, let me say that these were some of last "good" speakers made by KEF. You see, the owner/founder of KEF died a few years ago and the company has been sold to a "Chinese holding company" as I've been informed. What's more, the once "high-end" status of KEF can be found not only at Circuit City, but even at Target. Obviously, KEF ain't what it used to be.

Okay, so let me put out my own little "buyer beware" about these speakers.Although I enjoyed my speakers for almost nine years, I discovered today that my tweeters were fried----not "blown" per se, just non-functional. I'm not a metalhead or rivethead who blares these speakers to full volume either! After talking with a few fellow audiophiles at the local dealer, I met another who had the same exact experience I had. Then, the sales manager piped in that this very speaker was the primary reason they dropped the entire KEF line. Too many customer complaints and too many repairs convinced the dealer to quit KEF forever (f.y.i. this dealer is supposedly the first North American KEF dealer and had carried them faithfully since the mid-1970s).

Since they no longer carry KEF they no longer service them. I was told that I could take them to a local repair shop that is well-known for repairing speakers, but that I should be prepared to shell out a cuople of hundred dollars. Forget it!!!!! I'm the proud new owner of a pair of B&W 602s.

Some might say that since I got almost ten years of use from these speakers I shouldn't complain. Okay, yeah right! I have a pair of vintage Celestion Dittons in my son's room (once they were my main speakers) from around 1973 or 1974 and they've NEVER been in the shop. My Spica Angelus' I bought new in 1989 and later sold to a friend are still in tip top shape.

In short, these are great sounding speakers but be mindful that they have a dismal repair record!