It was designed and built by one of the most innovative speaker companies on Earth. The same mob who pioneered small drivers that could give off deep bass, and compact designs that combined two drivers into the space of one.
It will blow the merino wool socks off of anyone who loves a good movie night… yet it’s slender, attractive presentation would be missed by even the most judgmental mother-in-law.
Some say it plays actual music like a stereo hi-fi system—something almost no other soundbar can do—and the engineering acrobatics inside make it no surprise.
It’s called the KEF XIO Soundbar.
Now that KEF have shaken the world with the renowned “LS” range of wireless speakers, they’ve set their sights on home theatre…
And it has drawn quite a crowd. People the internet over are buzzing about this new venture from one of the world’s oldest speaker companies. So I had to take it for a spin.
Luckily, my colleagues had already set it up in “the apartment”—one of our listening rooms, designed to look and feel like a studio. It feels like the right space for the job, given the XIO Soundbar promises to be an 820-Watt movie theatre that fits on a shelf.
I didn’t have to set it up myself, but I’m told it was absolutely simple; all it takes is sticking in an HDMI and a power cord, and turning the key. For the handy, it can be mounted using a sturdy bracket that comes in the box. This would change the orientation of the bar, but not to worry—it has automatically senses the orientation and reconfigures the driver system to match it. Very flexible.
On that note, KEF have included an automatic calibration system to tune the soundbar based on room acoustics. Acoustics can spoil the sound of any audio product, so the importance of this can’t be understated.
The KEF XIO has the looks, and the brains.
Since the XIO Soundbar was ready to go, I could begin with the user experience. Delivering the modern goods, KEF offers an excellent app for controlling the bar; selecting sources, searching the music library, adjusting settings.
A lot of hi-fi apps are abrasive and sluggish, leaving you crosseyed after a few seconds’ use. But the KEF Connect app is nothing like this. It’s smooth, responsive, intuitive, and simply excellent.
I started my listening sesh with some light cinema. Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Last time I saw this I was on the 13-hour Honolulu to Sydney, with a complimentary pair of brittle, self-destructing earbuds. This time round I expected things to be a little more exciting. And they were.
Immediately I noticed sound effects during action scenes were wide. Very wide. The XIO Soundbar’s side-firing drivers were doing their job well, making the soundscape seem four times as wide as the bar itself. This made the musical score incredibly immersive as well, absolutely wrapping around the room.
The second thing I noticed was even more astounding. So much so, I had to double take… I looked to make sure no subwoofer was connected, and then I asked my colleague to confirm it. No, I was listening to just the bar. This device has phenomenal bass extension for a soundbar.
Third thing I noticed: some voices were a bit muffled. Some were clear, mind you, but in particular I found some male voices were deep and rich, but slightly muffled. I was able to follow the dialogue but some lines took me leaning in, so to speak.
Now at this point I’d been listening in “Default” mode. You see, every soundbar and electric kettle these days has sound profile settings. Movie mode for an evening in with the spouse. Night mode to stop the neighbors going bananas. Music mode if you want Earl Grey. You get the picture.
The KEF XIO Soundbar has sound profile settings too. After watching a few different scenes I threw it into “Movie” mode. Instant wow factor. The sense of magnitude was awesome. Lows and mids were richer, with upper mids and highs still centred and separate—and noticeably less muffled.
The “Movie” sound profile on the XIO Soundbar is the real deal: everything opened up, creating a sense of hugeness.
This really made me feel like my ears were sitting in a movie theatre, while my rear end was sitting in the lounge of a one-bedder with carpet and an induction cooktop.
At this point I had to flip through the other profiles. Dialogue mode brought everything down a notch, allowing the voices to stand out a bit more. Everything was gentler. Night mode on the other hand reduced lows way down and actually brought the vocals up, even more audibly than dialogue mode. This was a solid counter to the muffled male voices I mentioned before, making it easy to hear the actual words.
I’ve played with sound profiles many times and this is seriously the first implementation I would actually use. Movies, dialogue, night mode, all fit for purpose—and next I’d find music mode was worth it’s weight as well.
Okay, the KEF XIO Soundbar can handle movies—it’s meant to do that—but can it live up to the promise of great music?
Don’t Look Down by David Bowie is a great recording that exposes a system’s detail and soundstage. It’s a mix of reggae and pop with Bowie’s iconic voice front and centre.
Right away the XIO Soundbar showcased great separation between instruments and a wide soundstage that placed sounds around the room. Most of the track sounded pretty clear with a touch warmth and richness. The bass guitar line did have one note that seemed to land right on the trouble spot in the lower mids, where it sounded a little flat. That said I’ve never heard a soundbar that didn’t have trouble tones, and there’s usually more of them.
Kicking it into music mode made things noticeably livelier. It was hard to tell what changed—maybe a boost in the mids—but it was not hard to tell that something changed. And the sound was better for it.
Next up I tried When The Levee Breaks by Led Zeppelin. This sounded awesome—the commanding intro came through rich and very wide. I quickly decided the KEF XIO Soundbar’s sound nails this warmer style of music. It also had decent separation and detail on both instruments and vocals.
Things did meld together a bit more at high volume. But again, the small drivers in any soundbar have to work hard to push that much air.
Finally I played November by Danish instrumentalist, Trentemoller. This played really well with the wideness and richness qualities of the XIO. The main synth line gave off that feeling of hugeness again, making it feel like you’re looking up at some massive Norwegian glacier. A piano track with echo effects playing in the distance was well placed slightly to the right, as it was meant to be, and came though pretty accurate.
As a soundbar, the KEF XIO is excellent. It stands out for creating a movie theatre sound experience and delivering warm, rich, exciting styles of music really well.
It also definitely ticks all the quality boxes—build quality, app quality, functionality, looks.
It’s main downside might be in playing clean acoustic recordings to an audiophile standard—given there are some tonal weak points in the mids. It’s hard to imagine a slim soundbar product that can overcome this however. For pure sound quality, the KEF LS50 W2 would be better recommended around the same budget—it just doesn’t have the form factor advantage, or the cinema surround sound performance.
There’s also room for improvement in the sub bass. While the XIO Soundbar goes astonishingly low and can certainly give you deep bass without a subwoofer, the lower registers could be tighter and more controlled. Mind you, they’re not boomy either. They’re somewhere in the middle.
But essentially, to get the best bass performance you’d simply pair the XIO with a subwoofer (which can be done wirelessly using the KW2 receiver). Doing this would up the ante in two ways. One, you’d get very deep, very controlled sub bass from your subwoofer. Two, you’d then set the XIO to roll off at the subwoofer crossover point—which is easy in the KEF Connect app; you just select the subwoofer you’re using or enter the crossover frequency yourself. This would make the XIO’s job easier, and allow it to handle the lower mids better, since it wouldn’t have to cover sub bass anymore. The sound quality would improve across the board, including the tonal weaknesses.
All up, this is one hell of a soundbar.
If minimalism, style, and home theatre are on your mind, you might want to check it out. If you like to dance to your music, you also might want to check it out. And you like to keep things simple and convenient, then you definitely want to check it out.
Happy listening!
If you'd like to read more, check out these articles:
