In my basement shop, I have a multi-speaker stereo system that has been missing a few speakers for the past couple of years. My son has been using a receiver of mine in his room, and has been borrowing my KEF K160 and K140 speakers, leaving me with the pair of K120 speakers, and some older 6X9 used car speakers mounted in boxes. Don't laugh...it was working. Anyway, he decided to buy his own speakers, especially after the surround on one of the used car speakers decided to let go, and I told him I needed a pair of my speakers back.

After about a week of searching, he found a pair of well cared for KEF Q55 speakers for the nice price of $125. The guy that had them is a hobbyist that buys used speakers, refurbishes them with proper electronics or repairs the surrounds and resells them for a small profit. These speakers originally sold between 1997 and 2000 for $800+ per pair. We went yesterday morning and checked them out. He had replaced the surrounds on one woofer, and cleaned the cabinets. The cloth had one or two threads that were less than perfect, but otherwise, the speakers were in great shape. I had gone with the intention of talking him down until I saw his shop, and the quality of his work. That's when I decided that for likely the first time in my adult life, I was going to approve of the asking price.

We got them home, and hooked them up to my son's Pioneer VSX-522-K. Never has this receiver sounded so clear since it came into the house. I promptly played Sufjan Stevens - The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! and was able to pick up subtle sounds of guitar squeaks that I hadn't known existed in the recording before. I then streamed Gary Lightbody - Chasing Cars, the acoustic version, and picked up more of the gems in his playing style. The music came alive through those speakers. These speakers have such a great sound, and do a wonderful job of recreating the sound to the ears. Bass isn't overwhelming at all, and the highs are super crisp.

I'm jealous...the sound quality blow away my pair of Cerwin Vega D7 that I use for music only. To my ear, I thought these were the best, then my son bought those.

Anyway, I get one pair of K-series speakers back in my basement later this morning.

Now he has the job of finding the right speaker for his center channel to match the side speakers. Unless he buys used, like most of mine are, he won't be able to afford one for a number of years...the closest timber matched speaker from KEF is in the $600 range...for one speaker.

I"m considering a low level search for good used pair of KEFs for the living room now. The K series that I have don't have the ability to throw the highs the way I like, so they won't replace the Cerwin Vega VE series I have in the livingroom for daily use. But, wow...those Q55s sound amazing.

Anyone here have KEF speakers? If not, what do you guys use and prefer?

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1987 560SL
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