KEF - XIO Soundbar - Gray

Great sound plenty of power. We should had a better menu.

I was completely let down by this soundbar. beautiful design except for the IPT switch that is located behind the power input connector. That was a silly design flaw, I tried to make sense of it. I cant. Maybe KEF can explain the reason for that placement of the switch. It weighs a ton and for the price you would think that it would blow you away with sound quality and set up simplicity. Unfortunately this was not the case, but before I continue I want to say that I love KEF speakers, I own two towers and center in my home theater for several years now. I love the KEF sound and I was looking to get a full sound in my living room, I did not want to do another whole 9.2 Surround system set up. Its a family room but sometimes we stay there and watch movies. I figured I would just get a top of the line sound bar and be done with it. As soon as I saw the XIO it was a no brainer. It was not plug and play in case you are wondering. The app is very basic and you dont control much of the speaker balance or equalizer. Its room sound configuration is very. different, it does not come with a mic for that configuration. Now for the sound, It was all over the place. I have high ceilings and the room is 20x28 feet. The sound was not filling, for a 2.5K price tag, I expected more. I used two brand new audioquest pearl 48 to connect to my Sony 8k tv. Using apple tv for movies. It did not perform as expected. the volume was very weak and voice not clear. The bass was not there, and no atmos was heard. I tried several action and atmos movies, Top Gun, Midway, Quiet place 2 etc. I completely understand that any system sounds great with a Sub hooked up to it. I get it, I did not connect it to a Sub because I wanted to see what it could do, I mean its almost 3 thousand dollars worth of equipment. I dont know if I got a lemon, but It sure felt like it. It was not room filling and it did not feel nor sound like a sound bar that cost $2,500 plus tax. I used two different HDMI cables just to confirm that it was getting its fair try and it wasnt under performing due to to faulty cables. Im sorry KEF I was let down. I lowered the sound bar to ear level, and moved it from above my fireplace, I still was not impressed with the sound, I also did the sound configuration using your app and still. I tried everything I could to get this soundbar to match its price tag to performance. It was basic, I even moved it to a smaller room, and it was mediocre at best. I would not recommend it to anyone, You can buy a great Bose soundbar for more than half the cost of this one. I love Kef products, but this was a total let down and it pains me to post this, but I hope it helps another customer in one way or another.

Very nice soundbar. Excellent for music. Very good for movies.

Quality cell bar, but not right for the acoustics of my room.

Really disappointed. Its shouty and irritates at loudish volumes. Waiting for the next firmware update and hoping it ll be fixed. At least it should be able to switch to different modes according to the source. For example it should shift to Music mode when youtube is played and movie when Netflix is like even a low cost AVR does.