KEF XQ 5.1 System review

With 48 years of experience and dozens of awards in the bag, KEF is already a much-revered loudspeaker brand in the world of home cinema. And having spent some quality time with it new XQ series, I can safely say that its rep will remain intact.

Some might argue that the XQs are KEF's most innovative speakers to date, and we've assembled here the most desirable configuration, with three-way towers at the front (XQ40s), two-way bookshelf speakers at the back (XQ20s, a remarkably highly-specified centre channel (XQ50c) and a 12in subwoofer (XQ60b).

This setup will typically sell for around £5,000, but it's quite possible to build a more affordable system by choosing the slimmer tower speakers (XQ30s) and smaller rears (XQ10s) instead.

All six of the XQ siblings sport curved wooden cabinets without a right angle in sight. It might look flat in the picture, but try and balance a coffee cup on top of any of these boxes (as if you would) and it'll slide gracefully onto the floor. We've chosen the lustrous Piano Black lacquer finish, but Birdseye Maple and beautiful Khaya Mahogany real wood veneers are also available.

And crucially, they all use KEF's trademark Uni-Q driver array that puts the tweeter in the centre of the mid-bass driver. It's this arrangement that gives KEF speakers their effortlessly integrated sound, which is still apparent and even enhanced by the Tangerine waveguide of the XQs, which disperses the highest frequencies through a metal device that crowns each tweeter.

The tweeter itself now boasts a dynamic range wide enough to replace the odd-looking hypertweeters that KEF used to mount on top of its reference-quality cabinets.

Stand and deliver

The stars of the show are clearly the hulking XQ40 floorstanders, which stand chest-high on conical metal feet. Behind the magnetic grills are two paper cone drivers for the low frequencies and an aluminium Uni-Q driver for the high frequencies.

This three-way arrangement promises a particularly wide dynamic range with the big enclosure enabling deep bass extension and the hypertweeter reaching the very high frequencies.

It looks like no expense has been spared on these statement speakers; tap the front bezel and you'll notice the whole front plate has been engineered from a single piece of aluminium with holes machined into it for the three drivers and two air ports.

With the extra rigidity that this brings to the enclosure, combined with the absence of any parallel walls that could create unwanted internal standing waves, these boxes can muster a truly rich and resonant bass. You can further tune the cabinets to suit your room by stuffing one or both of the foam bungs into the front ports.

Even before unpacking the others, these two tower speakers were able to flood my listening room with their astonishing presence in stereo mode. Feed them a well-recorded vocal track like those of Air's Moon Safari album, close your eyes and you'll swear the singer is standing between the two XQ40s.

KEF has always maintained that the centre channel is the most important speaker in a surround package, and the XQ50c is as extravagantly manufactured as the front pair, with an aluminium bezel, acres of glossy black lacquer and a similar driver array.

It's not small, though, so you can forget about wall-mounting. Instead you'll need a sturdy support of the right height to bring it into line with the XQ40s. A rubber mat is provided to lay it on top of the stand.