Search: “kef lsx”

Back in 2019, I posted a review of the KEF LSX Wireless Speakers which I fell in love with. Since that review, I had been using them with my record player and a few weeks ago I bought an SVS SB-2000 Pro subwoofer to pair with them. For some reason, my record player and the sub didn’t get along really well, when I’d stream music onto the speakers from my phone they sounded incredible with the sub, but when I played any record, I’d get a really low deep humming bass note that was just awful.

I couldn’t return the subwoofer (and didn’t want to honestly) so I decided to get a second pair of LSX speakers to connect to my main computer and the sub. I had been using my old Onkyo home theater amp connected to a pair of Bose Acoustimass 5 Series III speakers with my Mac and although they sounded a bit boomy sometimes, they weren’t bad at all, I was just looking for an excuse to get new KEF LSX speakers after seeing them on sale. When I posted about the KEF LSX back in 2019 they were selling for 340KD but, Xcite have been heavily discounting their speakers (I got my KEF R7’s for 50% off) and the LSX were now on sale for KD250, so I picked up a pair of white ones.

These are probably the best speakers you can get for your computer. You can read my original review where I discuss why they are so good, but the experience of using them with my Mac is so unreal. Although the speakers are located on the corners of my desk, the sound feels like it comes straight out of my iMac in front of me. On more than one occasion I’d bring my ear up to my Mac to make sure the sound wasn’t really coming from there. I think it has to do with KEF’s phase correction or DSP but you really need to hear it to believe it, I love it. Also just to add, the LSX alone already sounded great but paired up with the SVS sub and I started to semi regret not getting this combo for my gym instead of the R7 and saving a ton of money (but not really cuz I also love my R7’s a lot).

If you were interested in the LSX speakers previously but thought they were too expensive, check them out now. They don’t have many in stock right now and I think I got the last boxed white pair but worst case you could pick up a display model. Also, the Xcite website says they’re all out of stock but they aren’t really, my white ones were out of stock online but they still had stock in-store in addition to the display models. Just make sure you go to the large Xcite on the 4th Ring Road in Al-Rai or the Avenues location next to IKEA since these are the only two locations that carry them.

Update: 6 months later I have to say, my LSX 50 paired up with the SVS SB-2000 is such a great combo and can easily hold its own versus my much more expensive KEF R7 speakers. When it comes to bass, there is no competition, the LSX SVS combo beats the R7 easily so if you’re into electronic music, this is the setup to have.

A few weeks ago I ordered a new turntable (Fluance RT81) from Amazon since the one I had was from the 60s and sounded great when playing old stuff, but not so great with newer music. Once the record player arrived I decided I’d look for a new pair of speakers that I would just use with it. I ended up passing by Xcite and narrowing down my options to the KEF LSX and The Sixes by Klipsch. Both sounded great, The Sixes looked retro which matched well with my player but they were also fairly big and bulky. The KEF were a perfect size, but they didn’t have the retro look of The Sixes which I liked. In the end, I decided not to buy either one because the KEF cost KD340 and the Klipsch KD240. I already had my B&O Beolit 15 speaker which I wasn’t using, so I decided to connect that to the turntable instead and save myself some money.

No bullshit, a few days later I log into Reddit from my browser and noticed someone had sent me a direct message with the chat feature. I check Reddit from my phone daily but the app I use doesn’t support chat and so I didn’t know someone had tried contacting me. The message was two weeks old from someone at Xcite asking me if I’d be interested in reviewing the KEF LSX. I right away replied back with my phone number hoping I wasn’t too late. A few days later I headed to Xcite to pick up the speakers to review.

Full disclosure, I have a long-standing relationship with Xcite who provided me with this speaker to keep. They’ve been very supportive of the blog from the very early days and they’ve lent or given me a number of items over the years to review, as well as hooking me up with discounts. I’m a huge Xcite fan.

The KEF’s turned out to be a perfect size for my turntable. They don’t overpower it and although they don’t look retro, they did fit in looking very cool on my cabinet. The speakers come in five different colors but I opted for black since it would match my space better. All the colors are clad in a fabric made by the Danish contemporary textile designer, Kvadrat so the speakers look and feel very premium (they’re also pretty heavy).

Each one of the KEF speakers has it’s own built-in amplifier so I had to connect each speaker to a separate power outlet. The reason for this is the speakers can be used wirelessly and placed in different areas around the room so they each need their own power supply. The KEF has four sources of input, Bluetooth, WiFi, optical input and a 3.5mm auxiliary input. I connected the record player through the auxiliary input and as soon as I played one of my records I was completely blown away. I didn’t think records could sound so good or clear, that partially had to do with the fact I had previously been listening to records with my vintage record player but it also had to do with the fact how good these speakers sounded. For their small size, the speakers were crystal clear and fairly loud. I could hear so many different layers of instruments and even at max volume, they never distorted or sounded muddy. In fact, the speakers sounded so good I started researching KEF speakers for my home theater.

For those of you who are interested in wirelessly connecting to the speakers, other than Bluetooth they support Airplay 2 and have Spotify and Tidal built-in. Although I’m using it with an analog connection to my record player, I do have the speakers connected to my WiFi network so I could connect to it with the KEF app. The KEF app allows you to manage all the settings of the speaker including the volume control, input port as well as various detailed sound options.

Speaking of the volume control, there are some downsides to these speakers with the main one for me being the lack of a physical volume knob. The only way to lower or raise the volume is with the included remote control or through the KEF app. I guess that’s practical if you don’t want to get off the couch, but with my vinyl player I tend to spend a lot of time up next to it swapping records and flipping them over, so I want to be able to reach out and raise or lower the volume without having to pick up the remote. The other negative is the lack of deep bass. Although most reviewers online state the unit has good bass, that really depends on the music you listen to. I wouldn’t listen to electronic music with these speakers, not unless I attach them to a subwoofer (it has a subwoofer output port). But since most of my vinyls are composed of old music from the 70s or MTV Unplugged sessions, the speakers performed really well without needing a subwoofer.

At KD340 these speakers aren’t cheap, but then again you wouldn’t be looking at KEF speakers if you wanted something cheap. The best way to really appreciate these speakers is by listening to them in a quiet environment because no matter how many YouTubers say these speakers are great, you’re not gonna know what great sounds like unless you hear them in person. Personally, I think these speakers sound incredible, so much so that I’ve been trying to figure out how to make more use of them since I don’t use my turntable a lot and I really want to listen to these speakers more.

If you’d like to hear the speakers, they’re on display at the large Xcite in Avenues and their Al-Rai location. The speakers are also available on their website.

When the M1 iMac came out back in 2021, I bought one with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. It was fast, especially after moving up from an old Intel-Mac iMac. More than 3 years later the iMac was still great, I never felt it was slow and really didn’t have any issues with it except for two things:

• The color no longer suited my apartment. I went through a major redesign last year and the green iMac wasn’t working in my space.

• The second issue I had was with the hard drive, 1TB wasn’t enough anymore and I kept running out of space. I couldn’t solve it with an external drive since majority of the space was taken up with my Photos library. I thought about moving it to an external drive but I read I would end up with issues which I didn’t want to risk or deal with.

I was also honestly looking for an excuse to pick up the Mac Studio, I loved the way it looked and just wanted to have one. I kept building a Mac Studio hoping I’d eventually pull the trigger but I kept hesitating and eventually knew I was too late to buy one since it was due for an M3 or M4 upgrade. I stayed patient and then the M4 Mac mini was announced.

It looked like the Mac Studio, but was a lot more smaller and much more cheaper. So I pulled the trigger and bought one.

Initially I wanted to get the Mac mini with the M4 Pro chip, but after realizing how much upgrading to 2TB was going to cost me, I decided not to go with the Pro. I never had a speed issue with my M1, and from what I read about the M4 Pro, I wouldn’t really benefit much from it anyway so to save some money I decided to stick to the “regular” M4. I ended up upgrading the RAM from 16GB to 24GB, and the hard drive to 2TB. The hard drive upgrade cost me $800! That’s more than the cost of the Mac mini by quite a bit. It’s crazy, but I guess that’s how Apple manages to set the entry price of the Mac mini so low, they make up for it with the upgrades. $200 to go from 16GB to 24GB RAM, and $800 to go from a 256GB hard drive to a 2TB one. $1,000 worth of upgrades on a $600 computer!

But, overall it was still a lot cheaper than the Mac Studio I had been building on the Apple website for months now which is why I still pulled the trigger.

I ended up buying the Apple Display from Xcite since they were selling it for KD499, similar price to apple.com not including tax or shipping. Once you include tax and shipping the price shoots up much higher than Xcite. You can find the display cheaper on Amazon but even then, once you add tax and shipping the price ends up being similar to Xcite.

Now that I have everything installed and running I really love my new setup. The Mac mini is really small and doesn’t take up much space on my desk. The Apple display is big and beautiful as well, it’s not much bigger than the iMac screen (24″ vs 27″), but it does give me much more room to have two windows open side by side comfortably. It also expands my USB-C ports by an additional 4 ports, and has a Mic built in which is great since the Mac mini doesn’t have a mic.

Having 2TB is probably the biggest relief since I don’t have anxiety about running out of space and this should last a pretty long time with me since I don’t really store any large video files or anything of the sort on my iMac, just my photos which are around 600GB, and work and blog related files which are less than 300GB.

The only negative I have with the Mac mini is that the headphone jack is on the front which means if I want to physically connect them to my speakers I need to have a wire running out the front. I have KEF LSX speakers next to my display and with my previous iMac I ran them over Bluetooth. But it isn’t very reliable as in every few days the speakers lose sync with the video on my Mac and I need to disconnect and reconnect to get them to sync again. With the Mac mini I was hoping to connect them with an optical out or audio out but from the back. I have a USB-C to headphone jack adapter but decided to get a USB-C to optical out and ordered one from Amazon. But I now have another issue, the adapter I got doesn’t support volume control from the Mac so that’s around 15KD wasted and I either need to find another optical out that supports volume control, or just give in and use my USB-C to headphone jack and connect the speakers that way.

But other than that I don’t have any complaints, and no regrets with my purchase either!

This week I started watching the series Disclaimer. I’m three episodes in and it’s ok so far. One thing I liked without spoiling anything is the fact if you have surround speakers, the series takes advantage of them with one of the main characters inside voice. The first time the voice came on I thought Alexa came on by mistake.

Other than that I started watching the movie Trap last night. I’m more than half way in and it’s entertaining but some of the acting is soooo cringe. But I’m still looking forward to finishing the film later today. I also tried watching Love is Blind Habibi, but I couldn’t make it past the halfway point of the first episode.

Yesterday I also picked up the SVS PB-2000 Pro subwoofer from Xcite to use in my living room. Their website was showing it was out of stock but they actually had a brand new one at their Avenues branch. The past couple of weeks I’ve just been splurging on myself upgrading various tech around the house that I use a lot. Last week I got the 65″ TV, the Marantz Cinema 60 AV receiver, and now this week added the subwoofer to my home theater system. The PB-2000 Pro is definitely overkill for my small living room, and I had a bit of buyers remorse after getting it because I really didn’t want to spend that much on a subwoofer, but I tend to live with my sound systems for a very very long time. I still have my Jamo X870 speakers I bought after moving to Kuwait from uni back in like 2001-2002. So they’ve been with me for over 20 years, and although I’ve now replaced them as my home theater speakers with the KEF R7‘s, I still use the Jamo’s in my gym room. Xcite had other cheaper subwoofers, but I have the SVS SB-2000 Pro connected to my iMac and KEF LSX speakers, and I ] really really love it, so I wanted to get the PB version for my home theater. Both SVS subwoofers will probably stay with me for the rest of my life so not a bad deal when I look at it like that.

The last thing I’m upgrading is my iMac. I’m replacing my M1 iMac with 1TB drive and 16GB ram with the just released Mac Mini. I got the regular M4, not M4 Pro but with 24GB of ram and a 2TB drive. I ordered it from the US Apple Store, but I ended up buying the Apple Studio Display from Xcite since they had (might still have) a sale on them. The Xcite price was pretty much the same price as if I bought it online and shipped it to Kuwait, might be a bit cheaper even. If you’re looking to get a used iMac, I’ll be listing mine on the classifieds page end of this month.

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
A Streetcar Named Desire (classic) (7.9)
Canary Black (5.3)
Cricket & Antoinette (6.2)
Monster Summer (6.1)
Piece by Piece (7.0)
Rebellious (6.8)
Red One (6.7)

Other Movies Showing:
Aftermath (6.1)
Cellar Door (N/A)
Elli and her Monster Team (4.9)
Panda Plan (6.1)
Smile 2 (7.1)
Take Cover (5.0)
Terrifier 3 (6.7)
The Silent Hour (6.0)
The Wild Robot (8.2)
Venom: The Last Dance (6.3)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

This past week I watched two movies, the original Planet of the Apes from 1968, and Wolfs starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Both were pretty great, Planet of the Apes I originally watched in the early 80s so didn’t really remember much of it. It’s actually had a great storyline and although the special effects are really dated, it didn’t bother me much. Wolfs was also a lot of fun, it has a 6.5 rating on IMDB but that doesn’t reflect the film accurately. It was very entertaining and had some funny moments, and thats really all I ask from a film sometimes.

I also started watching the series Agatha All Along which is meant to be the sequel to WandaVision. First episode was confusing but I’m 6 to 7 episodes in now and it’s pretty ok. I also watched the first episode of High Potential starring Kaitlin Olson from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Wife is loving the show, hopefully by the end of the season she’ll want to see more of Kaitlin and then I can suggest we binge watch It’s Always Sunny which she really hates.

This week I also decided to upgrade my TV life. I’m replacing my 55″ LG B1 OLED TV with a 65″ LG C3 OLED TV. I should have honestly gotten a 65″ back when I got the B1 but I didn’t for some reason, maybe cuz I didn’t want to pay more than I did. The C3 should be brighter and also supports 120hz refresh rate so curious to see how it turns out. I’m also upgrading my AV receiver from the Onkyo TX-NR686 to the Marantz Cinema 60. I was trying to decide between it and the Yamaha RX-A2A but then the Xcite lady offered me a 10% discount on the Marantz and I decided to go for it. Both should be delivered today so pretty excited about it.

Now I’m contemplating picking up an SVS subwoofer but need to pass by Xcite and see what they have in stock because the website isn’t showing much. I have the SB1000 Pro connected to my KEF LSX speakers and it’s incredible, so thinking of getting the PB1000 Pro for my TV room. Sometimes the Xcite website says something is out of stock but on their in store system it shows units, like my Marantz unit is out of stock on the website but there was 1 new piece in Avenues location according to system. With the subwoofer I’m hoping they only have display models left since they give you an automatic 15% discount on display items which is a nice little discount.

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
Aftermath (6.1)
Cellar Door (N/A)
Elli and her Monster Team (4.9)
Panda Plan (6.1)
Take Cover (5.0)
Terrifier 3 (6.7)
The Silent Hour (6.0)

Other Movies Showing:
Cash Out (4.7)
Joker: Folie à Deux (5.7)
Little Emma (6.5)
Robot Dreams (7.6)
Smile 2 (7.1)
The Wild Robot (8.2)
Transformers One (7.8)
Venom: The Last Dance (6.3)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

This is just a quick review of this really great tiny and cheap Bluetooth transmitter/receiver. I’m posting about it for anyone googling a solution for their Bang & Olufsen A9 like I did.

Back in 2013 (so over 10 years ago which is crazy), I bought a Bang & Olufsen A9. Not sure what had gotten into me, probably related to some trauma from my divorce back then, but I somehow thought it was ok then to pay 890KD for it. The speaker actually ended up costing me more than that because after setting it up at home and realizing it didn’t look as good in my apartment as it did in the shop, I ended up redecorating my whole apartment around it (true story)!

Fast forward to today, I got married again and so redid my apartment and the A9 is back in the spotlight again. It looks even better now with my new aesthetic, but because technology has come a long way since I bought the A9, I was having issues streaming music to it. The AirPlay would work on and off, sometimes I needed to reboot the speaker to get it working right and it was just annoying to use, and so it was there for looks only. I was then googling to see if the unit had Bluetooth and confirmed it didn’t, but then I came across some people asking if there was a way to get bluetooth installed and someone mentioned getting a Bluetooth receiver. So I started researching and realized that, if I found a bluetooth unit tiny enough and ran off USB power, I could potentially strap it onto the back of the A9 with velcro or something, and just like that I’d have Bluetooth on my A9.

After doing some research on Amazon, I eventually decided on the LAICOMEIN 2-in-1 Bluetooth Adapter. It was both a Bluetooth receiver and transmitter, it was tiny, could be powered with USB, and it cost just $30. Now that I have it I can’t believe how perfect this little thing is.

My B&O A9 has a small compartment on the back with a cover. Inside the compartment is where you connect the power cable, ethernet, and RCA inputs. But, there is also a USB port which was used to connect to the iPhone during the first time setup. The LAICOMEIN came with everything I needed to connect to the A9 and the set up was SUPER easy. I just had to put the switch on the bluetooth unit to receiver mode, I then connected the USB cable and line-in cable to it, and then plugged the other end of the USB cable to the back of my A9 and the line out into the RCA inputs. As soon as I plugged it into the USB port a red light came on to let me know it had power, I then pressed and held the power button down to turn it on and switch to pairing mode. That was it! The A9 automatically detected there was a device connected to the RCA input so switched to that, and then my bluetooth turntable saw the A9 and connected to it. The whole thing took less than 5 minutes to set up.

The LAICOMEIN is also so small that I didn’t need to figure out a way to strap it to the back, it just fit inside the tiny compartment at the back of the A9, and then I just closed the cover and you can’t even tell there is anything there. It’s perfect!

Speaking of my bluetooth turntable. I recently found a great deal on a Pro-ject T1 BT turntable on eBay. It was a brand new open box unit and I managed to snatch it up for $284 with tax and shipping (add another 30KD to ship to Kuwait). In comparison it costs $499 on Amazon without tax so I basically got it for half the price. But, the T1 BT has the WORST implementation of bluetooth I’ve seen on any device ever. The bluetooth module is a separate unit at the bottom of the player with a separate on and off switch. The plan originally was to pair it with my KEF LSX speakers, but I couldn’t get the pairing to work. There are no lights on the T1 letting me know if bluetooth is on, if it’s connected to anything, or if it’s pairing and I just couldn’t figure it out. Eventually I gave up on it, but as soon as I installed the bluetooth receiver into the A9, I turned on the bluetooth switch on the side of the T1 just out of curiosity to see if anything happens, and right away it connected! So now my record player is connected to my A9 and I think I like this setup now.

So yeah, at just $30, LAICOMEIN 2-in-1 Bluetooth Adapter is a great purchase and I’m now thinking of getting one for my B&O Beolit 12 which I also purchased 11 years ago and also only has AirPlay. If you want to get Bluetooth on an old device, I totally recommend this, here is the link to it on Amazon.

I’ve been using a 2013 iMac 27″ as my main computer since well, 2013. It was the entry-level 27″ at that time with a 3.2ghz quad-core i5 processor and I had upgraded the RAM to 24GB and the hard drive to a 1TB SSD. It was showing its age but it held up great over the years and honestly could have survived a couple of more if Apple hadn’t released the redesigned iMacs a few months ago.

As soon as I saw the new iMacs I realized I wanted one, in green, and ASAP. I ended up pre-ordering one from Apple online with 16GB of RAM and 1TB hard drive in addition to an Arabic English keyboard. When I had placed the order the iMacs hadn’t been shipped yet and so I basically ordered it blindly based on photos hoping it would look as good in real life. Well, it does. Now that I’ve been using the new iMac for a few weeks, here are some points:

• With the new iMac I decided to go completely wireless everything. I had a Kensington trackball which I love and had been using for 11 years but it was wired so I decided to get the wireless version of it for my new iMac. The wireless trackball uses a USB-A wireless adapter but the new iMacs only have USB-C. Luckily BEST sells a tiny USB-A to USB-C adapter and it’s not an issue. The trackball does work with Bluetooth but it was super laggy when I set it up that way.

• My KEF LSX speakers were previously connected to my iMac using the headphone jack but on the new iMac, the headphone jack is on the side which meant the cable would stick out. I decided to ditch the wire and instead connect the speakers via Bluetooth. Here is a tip, to stop your Bluetooth speakers from constantly disconnecting from your computer every time it went to sleep, turn off that energy-saving feature.

• Probably the main reason I got the new iMac is for the touch ID keyboard. I use 1Password to manage all my passwords and it’s a lot easier to use my fingerprint to unlock my passwords. In use, it’s been flawless, with a touch of a button I can wake up and unlock my iMac similar to my MacBook Pro which is super convenient.

• The webcam on the new iMac is great, not only is it a lot sharper and higher resolution than all my other Mac webcams, but I used to have an issue when video calling on my previous iMac because I have a large window behind me. During calls, the camera tended to adjust the brightness based on the windows and so I’d end up really dark and barely visible. I no longer have that issue with the new iMac.

• It’s fast, much faster than my older iMac and so far seems as fast or faster than my 16″ MacBook Pro.

Anyway if you’re considering getting one of these new iMacs and have any questions let me know in the comments. I’ve only seen two colors in Kuwait, blue and green. Gait in Avenues has a blue one on display and Xcite also in Avenues has a green and blue one. If you’ve seen any of the other colors anywhere mention it in the comments. The iMac upgraded with a 1TB hard drive and 16GB of RAM cost me around KD605 KD635 shipped to Kuwait.

Since I started working out at home I had been using my portable B&O Beolit 15 speaker for music. It was ok, but I felt I needed a bit more oomph to get me going during workouts plus I needed a CD player anyway. I still have all my CDs and there are some really great albums (like The K&D Sessions) that aren’t even available to stream. So I went out and bought myself a sound system and wanted to write about my experience in case anyone was interested in getting one, or just wanted to know what brands are available where.

There are three main places in Kuwait to get good audio system from:

Adawliah (Shuwaikh, Life Center location)
Brands: Bose, Jamo, Klipsch, Yamaha

Best Electronics (4th Ring Road, Shuwaikh location)
Brands: Denon, Definitive Technology, Earthquake Sound, Paradigm, Technics

Xcite (Avenues and Al-Rai locations)
Brands: AudioQuest, Bowers & Wilkins, KEF, Klipsch, Marantz, Onkyo, Polk Audio, SVS

In addition to the above, I also checked out Samma3a.com and Amazon.co.uk for AudioLab and Cambridge Audio brands since both sites would deliver to Kuwait. Samma3a had free shipping and Amazon UK although has expensive shipping, they remove the 20% VAT from the cost of the item when exporting so with the shipping cost the price balances out.

Like with everything I tend to buy, I do a ton of research first. I didn’t have a budget at first, I just found a nice setup at Best Electronics in Shuwaikh that had a Denon amp and CD player paired with Definitive Tech speakers and a small Earthquake sub for around KD500 which I liked. I initially decided I wanted to pay a lot less than that for my system, but, if I was to pay that much then I needed to make sure it was worth it. So I started the research process by looking at different brands locally and online.

I read and watched a ton of reviews and the more I did the more confused I was getting. The problem was that everyone had a different idea of what good sound is supposed to sound like. Most audiophiles for example would find what I like very “musical” which is their polite way of saying not authentic and over-exaggerated, but I also couldn’t agree with their idea of what bass is meant to sound like. In the end, the best thing I did was listen to the speakers myself before buying them. I had basically narrowed my options locally to three speaker brands, B&W, Definitive Technology, and KEF. I went to the showrooms expecting the salespeople to be unhelpful and I didn’t think they would actually let me test out the speakers, but, surprisingly, they were all super helpful. I had such a great experience in the audio sections of Adawliah, Best, and Xcite, they were all just fantastic. The salespeople I interacted with had no issues picking up and moving heavy speakers from one end of the showroom to the other just so they could connect them to a working amplifier and I could listen to them. I usually don’t like dealing with salespeople but something about the guys working in the audio sections, they all seem to have a passion for what they do.

In the end, I mostly stuck around at the Xcite branch in Al-Rai (shoutout to Cezar) since I decided I wanted KEF speakers and they had most of them on display there. I already had a pair of KEF LSX speakers which I had been using in my main living area and I really liked them so I decided to stick with KEF. Xcite had the KEF LS50W which is the LSX big brother selling for KD400 which was half the actual retail price and I was very close to getting it until I heard the KEF R7’s. While browsing I noticed the KEF R7’s were discounted and priced at KD379. So I had the salesman hook them up and I started listening to some of my music and that was it, I fell in love instantly. They were everything I was looking for in a speaker and I couldn’t believe I finally found the speakers I REALLY wanted. So I decided to buy them. The salesman checked his system and told me they were the last piece. It was odd cuz I could see his screen said he had 2 pieces left so I asked him about it and that’s when he hit me with the bad news. Turns out the R7’s were sold individually, not as a pair. Meaning the KD379 price was per speaker, so around KD750 for the pair after discount (close to 1,500 before). I ended up leaving empty-handed and sad since they sounded incredible but also cost wayyyyy more than I wanted to pay.

I spent the next few days thinking about a lot of things. Music was always something I was really into while growing up and something I always spent all my money on. The last time I bought a decent pair of speakers was 20 years ago, I was fresh out of college and right after moving back to Kuwait I bought a pair of Jamo X870 speakers from Adawliah. They were also discounted around 50% off and I spent maybe KD200 on them. And that was back when I was broke with maxed-out credit cards. I still have those speakers today and use them in my living room. So if I could spend that much money 20 years ago when I was broke, surely I can spend more now, so I did. I went back to Xcite and ended up picking the KEF R7’s. I then passed by Adawliah and picked up the Yamaha R-N803 integrated amp which was also discounted down to KD200. A few days later I headed back to Xcite and picked up a Marantz CD5005 CD player which was discounted down to KD60. And finally, this past weekend I dropped by Xcite one last time and picked up the SVS SB-2000 Pro subwoofer which was discounted down to KD259 to connect to my KEF LSX in my other room. My total bill is absurd, but, it’s been a a hell of a year so whatever.

So just a quick review, it’s been over a week now since I got the KEF R7’s and I really really love them. The sound comes out so clear and the bass really deep. I used to think my Jamo’s were great but they just sound so muddy now compared to the KEF’s. I’ve started listening to music more now while at home. Definitely no regrets with my purchase. The Yamaha amplifier has also been great, it pumps a lot of power to the speakers and also has the convenience of built-in WiFi. Because of the WiFi, I’ve now set up the KEF R7’s as AirPlay speakers making it super easy to stream to them whenever I want to. I also have the SVS subwoofer connected to my KEF LSX speakers downstairs and those sound even better than they did before, definitely worth the money.

If you’re looking to buy a proper sound system then Adawliah, Best and Xcite are your best options. Make sure you visit the locations I’ve specifically mentioned since that’s where you’ll find the brands I listed, their other showrooms won’t have them. Also, not everything is listed on their websites. Actually, nothing I bought was listed on any of the websites. At Adawliah the employee had to search through his system to tell me what 2-channel integrated amps they had in stock, at Xcite everything was showing as sold out, and Best doesn’t even have any of the brands I mentioned listed on their website.

Got questions? Let me know in the comments and I’ll try and answer them for you.