About three months ago I was basically looking at exactly the same genre of speakers. Around $500 for the pair, good dynamics, neutral to slightly warm, great clarity but definitely not overly detailed or clinical or harsh. I actually bought five pairs of speakers off Amazon to demo (all of which had free return shipping) and one off Crutchfield which was only $10 to ship back. 30 days to try them out and though it’s not practical to truly break them all in for the most accurate comparison, it’s better than no home audition at all. I tried the NHT SuperOne 2.1, ELAC Debut Reference, PSB Alpha P5, Monitor Audio Bronze 2, Wharfedale Diamond 11.2, and the KEF Q350. Very similar to what you’re looking at as well. The system I was putting together was for a friend that wanted a very simple set up that would allow for the integration of a turntable and Sonos streaming and ultimately we decided on a Sonos Amp for the cleanest, simplest option. This friend is not at all interested in venturing down the audiophile rabbit hole, so to speak, so the Sonos Amp works very well. Regarding the speaker demo though, I will say that a couple really surprised me. I had never heard any of them in person before but was very familiar with each model based on reviews and threads discussing them. The NHTs sounded nice but being a small, sealed cabinet they really need to be augmented by a sub in my opinion for rock/indie music especially. The cabinet finish with its very cheap plastic wrap was about par for a $100 each speaker. The Monitor Audio Bronze 2 was forgettable and I think the Silver series is where MA begins to have solid offerings. The ELACs were pretty beefy bookshelf speakers and definitely had a cool, contemporary look. I’ve owned the UB5 and think it’s a better speaker but the Uni-Fi line is not the easiest to drive and definitely benefits from better upstream gear. The Debut Reference was just ok in my opinion and that was surprising because I had expected it to be in the top 2. Honestly though, it really needed a proper amount of time for break in before I would write it off completely. ELACs offerings are really solid for the price. But at $600 the Reference needed to wow me a bit more. The two big surprises were the PSB Alpha P5 and the Wharfedale Diamond 11.2. The PSB is a pretty small speaker but the bass output was quite impressive and only bested by the Wharfedale and KEF speakers. It isn’t much to look at but I don’t mind the simple utilitarian look personally. The reversed arrangement with tweeter in bottom is aesthetically interesting a common design for many PSB models but it also puts the tweeter quite low and on 24” stands (which is what we used) it’s not ideal. They would need to be on taller stands for most people in most set ups. Overall sound was good with them but they weren’t as refined or capable of extracting detail as the two best options I tried. This brings me to the Wharfedale Diamond 11.2 which was probably the biggest surprise of all of them. I demoed the Walnut model and was immediately impressed with the overall fit and finish for that speaker. Very nice cabinet design and wood veneering, bottom port location looks good and helps with placement options and damn is it a big, robust speaker! Nearly 20 pounds each and it feels like it. And the sound was equally impressive. It had great bass output for a bookshelf speaker, clean midrange, and was actually quite adept at retrieving detail as well. It was just a great all around speaker and I don’t think anyone would be disappointed with it for the money. I paid $500 for the pair but noticed it was just recently on sale for $400 for the pair. At that price there are very few options that can compete in the new market in my opinion. That is just a crazy good deal for a fantastic speaker. If I hadn’t tried the KEFs my friend would own the Wharfedales for sure. It wasn’t even close between them and the other four below them.
The Q350 was truly awesome though. It had the best and most authoritative bass of all six speakers we tried and it also had the best clarity and detail retrieval. Just a wonderfully well rounded speaker that plays about any genre of music well and maintains a balanced, neutral character. As clear and detailed as this speaker is it never comes off as harsh or fatiguing. I’m a big fan of the Uni-Q design as a whole and I personally own the LS50s, but the Q350 was really, really impressive to me and my friend. In her small-medium sized living room, which opens up to the kitchen next to it, the Q350s had no trouble filing the entire space with enough low end output to not really mourn the absence of a sub. That was probably the biggest surprise for me. Overall the Q350 sounded like a speaker that was a level up from the other options and based on price it sort of is. I think it’s worth every penny of the $700 asking price but the fact that I was able to buy it for around $425 new made it the obvious pic. For $600 retail, I’m sure the Q150 sounds similarly fantastic, although since it’s only $100 less than the bigger Q350 I’m not sure I would ever consider it. I think the Q150 would have to be $500 to be a real consideration. That said, it routinely goes on sale for half off and at $300 for a new pair there’s no other new speaker that is competitive in my personal opinion. Good luck in your search and hopefully this info helps a little bit given the plethora of options out there.
