Well well wellllllllll I finaly compared the PSB B25s to the KEFs IQ3s. Its funny the guy in the store seemed like he wanted me to get the b25s..
When he first set the B25s up I was like wtf? The speakers sounded soo Dull and mellow. I was thinking thier is no way people would give the speaker all this praise and it sound like this..Then the guy tells me its the room, and then hes like its my CD..Trying all these excuses on to why they sound so bad..HOWEVER--it was just the treble. He had it set to -6 and the bass was boosted up to +3
Easy fix...
So now everything is set to zero. Speakers sound 10times better.
PSB B25s..
Listen to some Staind, System, Linkin Park, Egals, Slip knot and Rage..the sound seemed very foward, after a while the sound stage widend. On the sloww acoustics the speakers were great. Dynamics were not bad either. However when the music got very fasttt and demanding they seem to struggle a bit. Like in slip knot--wait and bleed--It sounded good at the start of the track when hes just talking but as it progressed, with more drums and vocals..it felt lacking..like the speaker couldnt handle all the passages..
Rap/R&B sounded fine. Everything blended well. Bass was smooth and pretty deep..Nothing compared to the Paradigm studio 20s(again the guy in the store said it was monitors but i didnt see any monitor line on the website so im assuming its the studios) The thing that i liked most was that on certain freestyles and mixtapes..the speaker was very forgiving..freestyles/mixtapes are pretty much all poor recordings...These speakers really didnt show signs of it at all..
KEF iQ3s
On the same rock songs..these speakers showed absolutely NO signs of stress. I had this up LOUD too. He claims the amps(Sherborne) are giving around 250wrms to each side, these speakers handled everything with ease..it had a nice depth to the sound stage too..like when listening to Sublime-Santeria..it gave off that "live" impression..my brother, one who doesnt even listen to rock at all even said "damn that sounds really good". The kefs had sound that i really appricated. IT was natural, but at the same time it was warm. And when i turned it up it just got louder didnt hear any stress and didnt feel like i was "over doing" it.
Rap was perfect. Dre, 50cent, some ol school Ez-E..All sounded good. Seriously these would make great party/type speakers as well. The bass was their. Its not the boom type party bass though..its more clean and refined...just accurate smooothhhh transations from diff lows. I really liked the sound. I would reccomend a sub though--but thats just my preference, i would give them a listen first if i were you..
I sadly did not get to test any trance on either speakers because i forgot that cd at home. Both speakers were done on the same equipment, top of the line Denon cd player, huge NAD receiver, and sherborne power amps..No sub was used.
The Kefs to my ears, and my brother were a clear winner. They toook all the fast passages in my rock music as well as the low tones in my Rap music and played it back with ease. Really natural sound but at the same time warm and forgiving. The sound stage of course was great. The vocal clarity along with guitar strings are just amazing. It has a laid back sense of sound when listening ot acoustics, but when you want loud it does so with ease. I'm going to be getting these.
