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The little midwoofer doesn't sound so clear in the lower register of the male voice, making some guys' vocals sound a bit bloated or congested. Melodic bass lines tended to plod a little; electric bass notes lacked some of their characteristic growl and punch. An average person would think the T305 sounds great with music, but I doubt audiophiles would be impressed. I had always been reluctant to have a separate sub because most .1 systems I'd heard didn't sound natural, but this setup does.
The issue is not so much that that T-2 is lacking, but that the T301s are capable of performing out of their skin. The T101s would present less of a challenge, perhaps a better match, but the T301s have a significant extra SPL/dynamic capability that means a single T 2 is a bare minimum. If there is a weakness, it's that natural levels of mid range detail are slightly restrained, which can suck a little of the passion out of vocal expression. However, I found that the T 305s, yet again, enjoy the chance to stretch their legs with a bit of added volume and they open up quite nicely if you have the chance to listen at reasonable, if not excessive levels.
Review: KEF T305 speaker system Page 3
Assembly is pretty logical and I was up and running with all five speakers in about half an hour flat. It immediately struck me that mounted on the dedicated stands, the T301s are rather tall, standing in at a combined height of 140cm. This places the tweeter at a lofty 110cm above the floor whereas my, not exactly low, sofas place my ear at 90cm above the floor. Clearly the T101s would knock 17cm off that total height, but would still place the tweeter at the same level. To my mind, this is rather high - The stand could be a comfortable 15cm shorter to suit the average seated ear level, but there are upsides.
In that recess are a power ON/OFF switch, an AUTO ON/ON selector, a 0/180deg phase selector and a three position 'Boost' switch. That offers a +3dB, or a +6dB boost centred on 40Hz, or a flat/defeat position. That will be down to your AV processor which, because of the single input option, is all you can use the T-2 with. Speaker ads are getting to be as misleading as online dating profiles.
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As far positioning goes, the front and rear speakers sounded best toed in to point at the listening position, placed about 15cm out from the wall. Given that the T301s only add another 3.5cm of depth to that, the overall projection into the room is very little indeed. As the T 305 system followed some man sized floorstanders, the nett visual impression was of an empty room by comparison. If they were white, they would have been all but invisible. The centre stood on the top shelf of my rack with the prop stand set to tilt the T301c back.
No issues though, just the materials bending and flexing. The final piece of the system is the new T-2 subwoofer. Following the lead of the satellites, the T2 is a less than micro 37cm on a side, but is only 18cm deep. Further more, all cable connections, which means a two pin reversible mains lead and a single RCA phono connection, are housed in a recess on the base of the cabinet. 18cm deep in this case, means 18cm - Not 18cm plus cables.
Klipsch Reference R-625FA 5.1 Home Theater Pack, Black Textured Wood Grain Vinyl
My options seemed to be limited to over priced Bose, which I knew from actual listening experience was not what I was looking for. Or, one of the many small satellite systems that all kind of sound alike and have no mid-range. I did some research on flat panel speakers and narrowed my choices down to Definitive Technology and KEF. I really liked Def Tec's Mythos XTR50 surround system . However, they were almost 2x the price of the KEF T305's.
The Onkyo is kindof tricky when doing music and a 5.1 setup is even trickier because I can't just run a stereo signal and get left/right because left/right is 2 channel native, not 2.1. When I've found settings that work best for the music, I am very happy with the sound. Hardwood floors and plaster walls are great for jazz, and I love how clear the acoustic bass sounds in the mix. That may be the best test actually because that instrument runs a wide range of frequencies. I've run plenty of Coltrane, Stereolab , and live Yes through the system, and again, with the right processor on the Onkyo, I am very happy with the sound.
From KEF
But what marked the T Series out, was the excellent freedom aural location ie, the satellites pull off a real disappearing trick. Given these speakers' form factors, it'd be logical for KEF to engineer them more for home theater than for music. The system sounds fine for music; I put in many hours of listening to two-channel stereo CDs and always enjoyed it. However, it's not as involving as a serious music listener would probably want. The treble sounds a little soft, as if the tweeter starts to roll off above about 10 kHz; the acoustic guitars that begin Steve Earle's country classic "The Devil's Right Hand" lacked their usual sparkle.
I won't even get started on the PS3 games...as much as I want to. It was hard to justify the price because I'd never sunk more than about $500 in a home theater speaker system and most of mine have just been amassed over the years . The center channel is going to be the workhorse of any multi-channel setup, and with the accompanying sub it sounds great. I don't think it's necessary to get matching satellites so if you wanted to go for the smaller rear speakers, you'd probably be fine. Those don't normally handle as much as the fronts anyway.
The T-2 subwoofer offers a taught and tuneful foundation and is less exposed in the very deep bass than it is with action movie effects. Subwoofer demo disks will find it out, but up to and including the point where the T 305s reach their comfortable limits, it's well able to keep up. As mentioned, it seamlessly blends with the satellites, due to it's clean upper bass. That's far more important in the context of this system, than a few extra Hertz of extension.
The centre was also about 15cm from the wall, but of course was getting it's boundary reinforcement from the rack, to balance that provided by the stands of the flanking left and right speakers. The subwoofer sat to the right of my stand, alongside the right speaker and pointing sideways. There was no acoustic reason for this, other than it simply looked even more discrete. Finally, distances were set in my processor and the crossovers set to the suggested 110Hz.
I can see people being tempted, due to the T-2's slender dimensions, in sliding it behind a sofa. I feel that would tend to absorb some of the upper bass, that the package as whole requires if it's not to sound slightly hollow. So, it's best to take advantage of it's shape to make sure it's squeezed in up front and there's no reason why you can't position it sideways. That also saves you having to look at another bloody blue LED. It's red when in standby and blue when awake but I guess I'm getting used to being a lone voice on the AV beelzebub that is blue LEDs.
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