KEF home cinema - any good?

[richatnort]

The house I'm buying the owner has asked if I want to buy the speaker system he has in place for £550 but never heard of them. Wondering if anyone else has and what they are like and worth the price. He bought them back in 2015

KEF E305 Home Theatre System https://uk.kef.com/products/e305-home-theatre-spea...

Thanks

[cs174]

They are great speakers, my mate has them all through his house and they sound amazing. Whether they are worth £550 to you though only you can decide. I'd suggest no more than half the new price.

[richatnort]

Good to know thanks CS, i think they are £1100 new, can't see any on ebay either annoyingly to compare!

I have a sonos beam so i'm thinking i just stick with that rather than take their speaker system £550 seems steep to me but not sure!

[paralla]

The KEF system is speakers only so you will need an amplifier to drive them which should factored into the cost (and space requirement).

The dedicated subwoffer and discrete satellite speakers will sound much better than a Sonos Beam. Probably better off getting a couple of Sonos Play 1's and using them as surround speakers

They are from 2013
https://www.whathifi.com/kef/e305/review

Available to purchase new for £600
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0857J7SR2?tag=georiot...

[Sford]

To quote paralla, the Kef's will be far better than the Sonos beam. They are a proper surround sound speaker system. You will need an amp to drive them (new circa £3-500, second hand as low as £100 on things like Facebook Market place and ebay) but a proper surround sound system will outperform a sound bar every day. Not to say the sound bar is bad, the quality of sound will be greater than built in speakers but to have actual sources of sound around you will be a much more immersive experience; you;ll hear things behind you and lasers/aircraft go around you.

[Tulip1974]

I have some of these combined with a Sony amp. Really impressive sound quality. As I remember they were expensive enough when new for the shop owner to ask if I needed a "wife receipt". :-)

[richatnort]

Thanks guys, I will keep it under consideration! I have asked them if he's leaving the Amp as i do remember there being an amp there with it.

He also offered his sony 65k tv he bought last year for £1100 to me for £750 so looking £1300 for the whole set up. It's a big living space so I was wondering if the beam is enough.

This is the lounge in question

[Sford]

Low ball him £1k and go from there. Use the excuse the move has wiped you out a bit but you're interested.

It's all nice kit and I would. Nothing against Sonos but the beam is no substitute for proper surround sound. It's a good speaker, just not surround sound.

[darreni]

Thats a nice set up (i have the kef 5005 speakers with a BK sub). if there is no amp included, add the sony dn 1080 & enjoy!

[richatnort]

Thanks, he did come back and say no negotiation in the price so don't think i can do that!

[Autopilot]

From my own experiences of building my own Home Theatre (5.2.1 Atmos Set up with amplifier and devices installed remotely in another part of the house), it's the installation of all the cables etc that is ball ache. If you don't take him up on his offer, all you need to do is buy some speakers and AV Receiver and literally just plug it all in, so about an hour or two's work.

One of my friends paid £300 for the B&W equivalent second hand, so you can achieve a similar result and spend much less.

[richatnort]

Thanks Auto pilot that's actually a really good point and something i might do in the future.

The amp wasn't included and asked for an additional £250 for that so i've decided to pass on the speakers & take the TV for now and use my beam and try and upgrade in later months.

Thanks for the help!

[RammyMP]

I’ve got Kef speakers with an Onkyo amp, it’s a great system, had it for 11 years and it’s used everyday, never had an issue with it (I’m going to regret that statement now aren’t I!)