B&W CM7 vs KEF XQ30

[romantic]

i went to listen to several speakers and i end up having 2 speakers i really can't decide. i could get these with the price at about $2200. it's over my budget but nothing in my budget satisfied my ears.

anyone has any suggestion? i use these for 50 classical music/ 50 movies

 

[lsiberian]

i went to listen to several speakers and i end up having 2 speakers i really can't decide. i could get these with the price at about $2200. it's over my budget but nothing in my budget satisfied my ears.

anyone has any suggestion? i use these for 50 classical music/ 50 movies

You can't really go wrong with either, but maybe you should see if you can listen to the iQ5s. It's a much lower priced speaker with the KEF signature of sound.

 

[romantic]

You can't really go wrong with either, but maybe you should see if you can listen to the iQ5s. It's a much lower priced speaker with the KEF signature of sound.

i will go listen to iQ50 tmr. i will let you know what i think of it. thanks

 

[WmAx]

I find that the CM7 is the best sounding speaker I have heard in this price range for classical/acoustical type music. I usually despise all retail speakers in this lower price sector, but this actually sounded decent to me for those music types. As for my judgment method, I am just using my memory of real performances, as best as I can, to loosely compare. I always use a fixed reference device to make notes/comparisons - which in my case is a high quality modified headphone system with purist classical/opera/acoustic/piano recordings that I have used for years to always have a fixed comparison base. I adjust both speaker and headphone system to closest SPL possible, then listen to about 20 seconds of a selection through the speaker, then the headphone, repeating this process until I am satisfied with the number of samples.

For movies, you can use just about anything. Regular movie sound tracks are not the same fidelity/realism as purposed music recordings. You will need to use a subwoofer for movies, of course. You need to set crossover to about 70Hz with the CM7 to prevent LF from movies from entering the CM7.

-Chris

 

[romantic]

I find that the CM7 is the best sounding speaker I have heard in this price range for classical/acoustical type music. I usually despise all retail speakers in this lower price sector, but this actually sounded decent to me for those music types. As for my judgment method, I am just using my memory of real performances, as best as I can, to loosely compare. I always use a fixed reference device to make notes/comparisons - which in my case is a high quality modified headphone system with purist classical/opera/acoustic/piano recordings that I have used for years to always have a fixed comparison base. I adjust both speaker and headphone system to closest SPL possible, then listen to about 20 seconds of a selection through the speaker, then the headphone, repeating this process until I am satisfied with the number of samples.

For movies, you can use just about anything. Regular movie sound tracks are not the same fidelity/realism as purposed music recordings. You will need to use a subwoofer for movies, of course. You need to set crossover to about 70Hz with the CM7 to prevent LF from movies from entering the CM7.

-Chris

Chris have you had a chance to listen to CM7 with CM center? are they really matched with each other? i found some people saying the matching sound problm with the center channel from the FST technolgy. i'm planning to make this a 5.1 for ht in the future but getting CM center 2 will be overkilled for me with the size and the budget, so if CM center, which doesn't have the FST, has the matching midrange problm then i will have to consider sth else and might even be another company.

when i go for iQ tmr, i will listen to XQ30 again to compare with CM7.

 

[romantic]

i went to audit both iQ series, iQ50 and XQ again to compare both of them including B&W CM7 i did earlier and i just can't stand the sound XQ produce for waldstein piano played by Serkin. it's just like he actually played in front of me. iQs are not detailed as much and the wink sound with HF is much better but it still there. There's nothing wrong with B&W. it can't produce the sound this clear and crisp like the way i like with XQ.

i dont think i'm gonna go audit anything more after this. XQ is my answer and waiting to get one delivered now.

Thanks a lot for helping me out guys. i wouldn't have known which speaker i should go audit without you guys. Thanks again.

now just center and sub left. i will get center as soon as i have enough budget and will be on my hunt for good subs, but i guess subs will have to post in subwoofers so c u there

 

[lsiberian]

i went to audit both iQ series, iQ50 and XQ again to compare both of them including B&W CM7 i did earlier and i just can't stand the sound XQ produce for waldstein piano played by Serkin. it's just like he actually played in front of me. iQs are not detailed as much and the wink sound with HF is much better but it still there. There's nothing wrong with B&W. it can't produce the sound this clear and crisp like the way i like with XQ.

i dont think i'm gonna go audit anything more after this. XQ is my answer and waiting to get one delivered now.

Thanks a lot for helping me out guys. i wouldn't have known which speaker i should go audit without you guys. Thanks again.

now just center and sub left. i will get center as soon as i have enough budget and will be on my hunt for good subs, but i guess subs will have to post in subwoofers so c u there

KEF uses very high quality coaxial drivers which I personally love. I understand your opinion and would second your choice. B&W has excellent build quality, but I imagine this line of KEF does too. There is nothing that makes me as happy as a well matched hi-end KEF system for music.

 

[bigred7078]

if you like classical, i might throw in a wrench and say Vienna Acoustics. Classical is magical on these speakers