Price Paid:  $0.00 from ebay

Summary:
I bought these speakers as the beginnings of a Music only system. Up to that point I had been using a venerable pair of Tannoy.

After plugging the speakers in, I instantly noticed a crispness to the vocals, they really showed where the R3's were going wrong. The R3's now sounded muddy and clouded, where as the XQ5's sounded clean - but the bass in the XQ5's was muted and so the speakers sounded unbalanced. As the speakers burnt in - I noticed the mid and high range crispness deteriorated, but the bass became much more fluent and almost overbearing, because the top end had become less clear. after another couple of hours of burn in though, the mid and the high had improved - not to their original clinical finish (which was too much) but to a much nicer rounded tone. The bass also became much more controlled and the whole speaker started to come alive!

The speakers are hooked up to a Musical fidelity A5 CR pre-amp, and a Rotel RB-991. This system is an absolute joy to listen to! the speakers simply sing and I can't stand not to have them playing!

Strengths:
Clarity of vocals (downside is they make everything else sound muddy!)
bass (ok - so it's not like having a dedicated sub, but it is still very musical, and there is plenty of it)
Striking looks (not beautiful by any stretch but have a "look at me" attitude)

Weaknesses:
makes other speakers sound muddy (not really a weakness but an absolute pain when you go round to a friends house to watch the game on their TV with inbuilt speakers!!)

Similar Products Used:
Tannoy Revolution 3's
Kef iQ9's

Price Paid:  $1800.00 from Andersons

Summary:
My first impression out of the box the speakers sounded dull and I was disappointed . I new they would have to go through some break in time so I let them run 24 hrs none stop and they started to open up a little boy they sound pretty darn good I am Impressed can't wait until they fully break in I only had them for a day. I'm playing some rap as I write and they sound so open I finally got some speakers that sound good with rapppp the voices are so so clear. I also got the matching center to go with them. I love all kinds of music especially jazz, but I also enjoy rapp from time to time and these are the first speakers that do the job right. I had B&W 600 series before these no comparioson although the B&W 602 S3 are a great value for the money at 600 a pair pretty hard to beat at that price, but these are in a different league altogether. I almost got the B&W 703 series, but in all honestly they weren't all that better than the 602s so I started listening to other speakers and thought the Kefs were the best sounding for the money they have a titanium hypertweeter that really brings the highs out. These speakers aren't even broken in yet and they sound so good I'm looking forward to the future. I all ready give them a five.

Strengths:
hypertweeter is great and the speakers bass extension is tight and clean the mids bring out open clear voices the speakers are made of good construction and they look expensive.

Weaknesses:
a little shakey on their feet good thing I don't have small kids.

Similar Products Used:
Athena, B&W, Polks

Price Paid:  $2525.00 from Ultimate Electronics

Summary:
I have been living with these speakers for little over a month now and am very pleased with them. I did not know anything about KEF speakers until the salesman at the local Ultimate Electronics store recommended them to me. It's been a while since I've bought any audio equipment(high school!) and have recently got back into the audio scene due to the purchase of my Sony big screen TV. All of a sudden my Yamaha speakers were not good enough so I bought these speakers along with the XQ2 center and the Denon AVR-3805 receiver. The Yamaha's now serve as the surround back speakers. From an aesthetics point of view, they look absolutely fantastic. I really didn't notice the feet until I got them out of the box but the chrome really adds a classy and modern look to them. I got them in graphite to match my Sony TV which happens to have a similar graphite border around the screen. How do they sound? To my ears they sound as good as they look. More than anything they sound very warm and natural(Bi-amped to my Denon...thanks Audioholic.com!). My musical tastes are all over the place...I listen to smooth jazz, pop/rock, and classical on occasion. I bought a CD of Nora Jones whom I never listened to in the past but wanted something that had a lot of vocals to compare speakers with. Lately she's all I listen to! Talk about talented!..anyways hearing her voice in 2-channel mode with the XQ5's and also in 3-channel along with the XQ2's left me in audio heaven. I'm not an expert by any means but to use some audiophile terminology that I've learned this past month they lack coloration and have a better soundstage than the "Q" series speakers that was switching back and forth with. The only other speaker that I felt sounded better were the KEF reference 205's which are way out of my price range and hooked up to a sunfire receiver(they had the 207's but were not hooked up...I wish I could of heard these!). I wanted to listen to some 800 series B &W speakers but knew I could not afford them either so why torture myself? The salesman at ultimeate Electronics also put a cup over the hyper-tweeter to demonstrate the affect they had in the overall sound..it was subtle at first but became very obvious the more I listened to them. In addition, the quality of construction and the attention to detail won me over...there is a bit of a heft to them. In fact, they weigh just about the same as the reference 203's(much more expensive and sounded similar) which Ultimate Electronics no longer carries. Do yourself a favor and have an extensive listening session with these speakers...I don't think you'll be dissapointed.

Strengths:
Soundstage(imaging), Hyper tweeter & UNI-Q Array, quality of construction, aesthetically pleasing.

Weaknesses:
There are better speakers out there of course there but you're going to have to pay significantly more $$$ along with the upgrade $$$ in equipment.

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha bookshelf speakers(no comparison)
20 year old Onkyo air suspension speakers(not working)

Price Paid:  $2300.00 from Lee Hartman & Sons

Summary:
I've been out of home audio collecting for a while. I've been into Hi-End Prosound. I decided too build a killer home audio system . I traveled around too hear speakers . JM-LABS -- B&W --- just too name a few . My friend a local dealer called me and said the KEF rep. was there with a set of XQ-5's. I made my way too the store. The door was shut on the sound room. The bass was kicking !!! I thought they got a sub on. NO WAY !!! Just the XQ'S. We talked and played music for hours. We all were beat from a long days work. But we didn't want too turn the KEF'S off. I was sold and placed my order. You can take my word on this on. Give the KEF'S a try, you'll be glad you did.

Strengths:
Look and sound too good for the money. I put them up against speakers 3-4 times there cost.

Weaknesses:
None at this price level.

Similar Products Used:
B&W (sold them)
Tannoy
Klipsch K-Horns
Definity

Price Paid:  $3000.00 from House of Music

Summary:
They are absoulutely incredible! They image very well. The hypertweeter definetly makes my SACD come to life. Even my records sound superb. It is well-paired with the warmth of my McIntosh amp. The XQ5 have a buttery sound that seems to just spill out of the speakers. And, they have a modern, slim-line look to them. They don't look like the typical big-box speaker. They are very similar in sound to Kef's top of line reference series 203 and they're $2000 less! I could not be happier!

Strengths:
Excellent imaging, great highs and balanced bass response.

Weaknesses:
They may be a little bright, so make sure to pair them up with a warm-sounding amp.

Similar Products Used:
In the past, I have owned speakers from Tannoy, Moradunt-Short, and McIntosh.