Warfedale Diamond 10.1 vs KEF Q15 bookshelf speakers

[RunOutGroove]

I recently bought a pair of Warfedale Diamond 10.1s, which I like OK but am not exactly wowed by them (I'm comparing them with my Elac Debut 6.2s) and I see that there's a cheap pair ($90) of KEF Q15 and I wonder what folks' opinions are. Am I likely to dig the KEFs more... because I could probably sell the Warfedales for what I paid for them and then not loose anything in the bargain (I got them for $100 on Craigslist)? What do folks consider the plueses/minuses of each, the tradeoffs, etc? I hear that KEF speakers (or at least some of them) are very nice...

I'd be running them with a Marantz 2270...

 

[bigx5murf]

I use a pair of Kef Q15 daily on my PC setup. I love them in this role, and I've gone through at least a dozen bookshelves before settling on these here. Caveats though, because of their age, they'll definitely need work. Ferrofluid change at the bare minimum. Otherwise highs will be subdued, and worst case they're ticking time bombs. Second the caps will need to be replaced, at least the 8uf cap on the tweeter. Otherwise vocals will have a slight reverb. The crossover space is very tight, and 8uf radials are hard to source. I ended up using a MKP 3% tolerance cap, which was huge, and took up the space of both caps, requiring me to remove the 10uf woofer cap and install it underneath the crossover.

I've never heard your speakers, but I did use to own the Elac debut b5. No comparison, the elacs seemed dark and boomy in comparison. The elacs needed to be angled just right, or vocals sounded recessed. It also had to be pulled from the walls a bit or they'd be even boomier thanks to the rear port. Kefs had no such issues, in fact placement did very little with them.

I'm powering mine with a Sony TA-AX6 integrated.

 

[RunOutGroove]

Thanks for the reply... In the interim, I sorted things out though. First of all, those Wharfedals that I wasn't too jazzed about seemed to get broken in (they were near new when I bought them) or my ears got used to them, because I got to like the way that they sound, The treble was maybe a tad grainy compared to other speakers that I've had, but the bass and midrange are really nice. The bass in particular, from such a small speaker was very good. Those things sounded great with string bass stuff in particular. Not a really flat seeming sound but colored in the right ways to make the music have some nice punch...

All that being said though, I sold those things to a friend, because I bought a set of Jamo c103 speakers (which I'm really impressed with) as my main set and then the speakers that I was using in my main listening room, Elac Debut 6.2 speakers moved into my bedroom office to replace the Wharfedales. Initially, as much as I liked the Elacs in my bigger room, I didn't think they sounded as good as the Wharedales in the smaller room and regretted selling the Wharfedales. The smaller Wharefedales may have actually been more ideal for the smaller room - closer listening setup that dealing with, but I've gotten used to the sound of the Elacs in the room and I'm good with it. I think that I'm finally good with what I have speaker-wise... at least for the foreseeable future.

I've never heard KEF speakers but I'm intrigued by them. I guess that they have a rather unique sound and they seem to have a lot of followers. I'm probably in the minority of folks on the forum though in that I have no plans to buy and them play around with all of the gear that I'm curious about, I just want a really great sounding system. I feel like I'm probably 90% there too...

 

[JimL1]

I have some Wharefedale 7 or 8's ? I don't really care for them even with new parts for the crossover installed. However, I do have the Kef Q15's and they are great. The Tweeter is actually built into the woofer so be careful not to blow them they will probably be impossible to source. I never cared for the Wharefedale's sound

 

[Blue Shadow]

@JimL1 The tweeter of the Q15 is a separate part and repairable. I’ve got three, two working, one is a parts orphan. I’ve had Q10s, sold, Q15s with a Denon 700-series integrated amp sounded very nice in a brief audition.

 

[RunOutGroove]

Thanks for the replies, though that all was a long time ago. I've went though several speakers since in that room: the Wharfedales, then some Quad 12Ls and most recently a set of Klipsch RP600m mkII speakers that didn't sound right to me bass-wise so I got a little M&K 10" subwoofer to go with them. With the sub, I'm more or less happy with the Klipsch speakers, particularly since I don't do so much listening in the room that they're in (they're remote speakers from my main system), but If I had to say, they aren't quite perfect. They're much more lively sounding than the Quads that I had before in that room, but they don't have the smooth midrange that those speakers had. It's like they're missing something in the middle. No real complaints though, and they do sound very good for certain kinds of music - better for rock than for jazz.