The KEF XIO is the company's first all-in-one soundbar, designed to deliver both cinematic immersion and hi-fi musicality in a single chassis. Its 5.1.2 design supports Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio, and the brand claims their Uni-Q driver technology ensures a wide, immersive soundstage. With its premium design and focus on clarity, it's positioned as a stylish centerpiece for your living room.
Our Verdict
The KEF XIO soundbar is good for mixed usage. Given the physical limitations of its all-in-one design, it offers a spacious stereo image thanks to its side-firing drivers that extend sound beyond the bar while ensuring objects still track accurately from left to right. Its balanced mid-range and treble mean voices, instruments, and effects are reproduced accurately and with plenty of details. Fans of rumbly sound effects or kick drums may want to add a dedicated subwoofer. However, while it does a reasonable job supporting Atmos via up-firing drivers, DTS:X support depends on your TV. The companion app offers many options for customizing the sound, including bass and treble controls, but there's no true room correction feature. KEF's Intelligent Placement Technology (IPT) instead corrects for the orientation in which you place the bar. Still, for an all-in-one solution, it performs well.
Gets loud with minimal compression.
Remarkably low latency via eARC.
Stylish, all-in-one design.
Atmos drivers offer a believable sense of height.
No traditional room correction.
No satellites means limited immersion.
Lack of a dedicated subwoofer means low bass is a touch quiet.
The KEF XIO soundbar is great for watching dialogue-heavy content like TV shows. Its flat mids and treble ensure voices sound accurate and true-to-life, though the boosted high bass can make deeper voices sound a bit boomy. There's a Dialogue Mode to bring added clarity to voices if needed, but the default Direct Mode keeps people sounding clear and intelligible regardless of the content. Additionally, there's a dedicated center channel, ensuring voices retain this clarity even when listening to surround sound content. There's also a Night Mode, which compresses your audio's dynamic range, so you can still hear quieter sounds like whispers without having loud explosions disturb your neighbors. Finally, for an all-in-one bar, the reasonably good Atmos performance is a nice addition.
Gets loud with minimal compression.
Remarkably low latency via eARC.
Stylish, all-in-one design.
Atmos drivers offer a believable sense of height.
No traditional room correction.
No satellites means limited immersion.
Lack of a dedicated subwoofer means low bass is a touch quiet.
The KEF XIO soundbar is good for listening to music. Despite lacking a dedicated subwoofer, it puts out a good amount of low-end, so basslines feel full and warm. That said, hip-hop heads may miss the lowest thump of 808 bass drums, but that's to be expected in an all-in-one setup like this. Still, the bar gets loud with minimal compression, so the low-end it does reproduce is clean and clear. The boosted high bass can make vocals sound slightly muddy, but since the mid-range and treble are both well-controlled, this isn't too much of an issue. Voices and instruments alike sound detailed, well-balanced, and accurately placed in the stereo field. In the Expert listening profile, you can also adjust the bass and treble levels to better suit your preferences.
Gets loud with minimal compression.
Remarkably low latency via eARC.
Stylish, all-in-one design.
Atmos drivers offer a believable sense of height.
No traditional room correction.
No satellites means limited immersion.
Lack of a dedicated subwoofer means low bass is a touch quiet.
The KEF XIO soundbar is good for watching movies. Its frequency response is decent enough and represents most kinds of audio content well, but since it lacks a dedicated subwoofer, you might miss a little thump and rumble in the bass. That said, dialogue is intelligible with most kinds of content due to the dedicated center channel, and the bar does a good job keeping objects accurately located in the stereo field. While it does an alright job playing back Atmos audio, DTS:X support depends on your specific TV. Of course, since it lacks rear satellites, the sense of spatial immersion this setup can produce is limited, regardless of the formats. You're also limited to eARC and Optical as wired inputs, and there's no true room correction. That said, the bar gets more than loud enough for the average-sized living room and does so with minimal compression.
Gets loud with minimal compression.
Remarkably low latency via eARC.
Stylish, all-in-one design.
Atmos drivers offer a believable sense of height.
No traditional room correction.
No satellites means limited immersion.
Lack of a dedicated subwoofer means low bass is a touch quiet.
Changelog
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Updated Nov 18, 2025:
We updated the Audio Format Support: ARC/eARC section of this review to state that the soundbar does support DTS:X and DTS-HD MA. However, compatibility depends on your TV.
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Updated Oct 31, 2025:
We updated the Pros and Cons section of this review.
- Updated Oct 24, 2025: Review published.
- Updated Oct 16, 2025: Early access published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The KEF XIO comes in two color variants: 'Silver Grey' and 'Slate Black.' We tested the 'Silver Grey' variant, and this is its label.
If you encounter another variant of this speaker, please let us know in the comments.
Popular Soundbar Comparisons
The KEF XIO is a premium all-in-one soundbar, placing it in fairly rarefied company in the world of home entertainment. The soundbar plus sub plus satellites setup has come to dominate the more expensive end of the market, as it provides superior surround performance and overall immersion. That said, all-in-ones offer benefits of their own: they save space and can be more discreetly placed in living rooms. To this extent, the stylish and compact KEF excels. Compared to more traditional-looking all-in-one soundbars like the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX and the Sonos Arc Ultra, its design is both more pleasing and eye-catching, but its performance can't quite match its premium price. The Sennheiser offers a more controlled frequency response than the KEF without any large peaks, while the Sonos offers a wider-feeling soundstage. But the Klipsch Flexus Core 300 might be the best of the lot, offering low-end rumble and wide connectivity support in a compact package.
See our recommendations for the best soundbars, the best Dolby Atmos soundbars, and the best 5.1 soundbars.
The KEF XIO is a much more expensive soundbar than the Sonos Arc Ultra, and for most people, that extra outlay probably isn't worth it. The KEF's physical design is certainly more arresting, with a stylish, industrial-like look, making a welcome change from the all-black-bars that most soundbars take. But performance-wise, the Sonos offers a more accurate frequency response and wider-feeling soundstage. That said, the KEF does make Atmos content seem a bit more immersive, although since both bars lack dedicated satellites, there's only so much immersion you can expect from either setup. The KEF does have Optical built in, while the Sonos needs an adapter to support Optical, which uses up an eARC port. But for most people who just want a good-sounding bar, the Sonos is a better value.
The Klipsch Flexus Core 300 is a better all-in-one soundbar than the KEF XIO, with a couple of caveats. The Klipsch is able to put out more low-end rumble, which techno and action movie fans alike will appreciate. It also offers more sound enhancement features, including a room correction option, and a full graphic EQ and presets, where the KEF sticks to bass and treble controls. The KEF does pull ahead in a couple of places, though. First, it offers more immersive Atmos performance. Second, it has lower latency, although you're limited to eARC and Optical, where the Klipsch has a full HDMI In port, too.
The Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar MAX and the KEF XIO are both premium all-in-one soundbars. The KEF has a fuller-sounding bass, with more mid and high bass, although the Sennheiser does have a deeper low-frequency extension, so it can reproduce the lowest notes in a Hans Zimmer score, although they're not especially loud. That said, the boost in the KEF's high bass can muddy up voices, and the Sennheiser is more controlled throughout its frequency response. Still, the deciding factor may be that the Sennheiser is very large and heavy, so it might be tricky for most to place, while the KEF has a sleek, stylish design and doesn't take up much more space than a regular soundbar. On the other hand, the Sennheiser is usually a little cheaper.
The KEF XIO and the Samsung HW-Q800F both promise surround and Atmos support in fairly compact formats. But other than that, they're quite different. The KEF is a premium all-in-one bar with a sleek, stylish design, while the Samsung is a fairly run-of-the-mill-looking bar but adds an external subwoofer, which lets it put out more thump and rumble than the KEF. The Samsung also has a more balanced sound throughout its entire frequency response and offers more sound enhancement features like room correction, a graphic EQ, and presets. That said, the KEF inches ahead in Atmos performance, which might be important to you. In the end, the Samsung is the better value purchase, but if you desire the sleek, all-in-one design of the KEF, that's not an itch the Samsung can scratch.
Test Results
