They are still relevant - thanks to eBay and Audiogon... I remember when I was a kid in college, early 80's, dreaming of owning a pair or 104/2s when I got that great job. Instead, I got married and got busy with life. After my divorce 3 years ago I finally got my first pair of KEFs for my apartment... some Crestas. And then a pair of 102/2's that are on stands in my bedroom. They are lovely. I don't know about their new speakers - I have never been overly impressed with what I've heard in the showrooms - but I still know I will eventually own some 104s, or something that sounds like the ones I heard 30 years ago. Hopefully they will have a KEF badge on them but, even if not, the sound is the thing. Whether they can still build speakers like the 104, KEF set the bar so they still are having a positive effect. |
This will echo a lot of what's been said already, but the one pair of Kefs I owned, the Reference Threes, were terrific speakers. I replaced them with a pair of Von Schweikert VR4 HSE's, and the the VRs certainly have more dynamic range, the KEF's can't be beat for the seamlessness of the sound; the mid-range was especially impressive. I don't know about the new KEFs, but older stuff holds up remarkably well. |
I own a pair Kef ref 203 towers for L/R front, Kef uni-Qs surround, and Kef kht-9000 back.
My front center is a Bohlender-Graebener 220i planar-ribbon.
The BG 220i sound is so much better that I intend to replace all the Kefs with BG Z-92 towers and Z1 bookcases. |
They do have a new speaker in their stable
The Muon...$140,000 list |
most of the speakers that create most of the chatter on agon are 'planted' or flavor-of-the-month....kef is not among those two groups. |
I just picked up a pair of Kef reference 205's and a 204c thinking I was upgrading from my definitive bp 2002 and 2500cc. Granted, the def's have sub's built in but I am not at all impressed so far. Sure they look fantastic, but I kind of think they sound one dimensional (all treble) and are not musical at all. Perhaps there is more detail but cold and harsh and fatiguing. I'm trying to make this work though, I feel like a fool. I love the look. I keep playing the def techs and looking at the kef's wishing for the sound of the def techs and the look of the kef. I'm running a b&k 200 watt amp and anthem pre/pro. Perhaps this is a better match, or should I have known? |
Now days we would believe that B&W are the only speaker brand made in england. This is due to the great promotion the brand has put on the media.
KEF is still on the market but may be they experimented the popularity of JBL and other american speakers made in the USA sold in the "USA" in the past.
And finally this is all about money..wheather we like it or not it´s just like this.
Try to hear the new maidstones and you will see that they still have strong arguments to sell their product, even if it is only in Europe. |
I'm definitely an audio enthusiast, but I operate on a budget. I have fairly extensive experience with Kef's Q line of speakers. I'm not sure what makes one speaker brand "relevant", but I really like the Q and iQ speakers I've owned and heard. For what they cost I am very pleased with them.
Recently I had the chance to do a fairly extensive comparison between the Q.2 series built on the 4th generation Uni-Q array and the new iQ series built on the 6th generation array. It was clear to both me and my listening partner that the iQ series offered noticeable sonic improvements over the older Q series. In my mind this is significant because the old Q series was good for its price. |
I might be wrong on this, but it seems that when ADCOM took over distribution of KEF in the US, everything went downhill...
No hard feelings about ADCOM-just an observation. |
It should be remembered that not all old KEF speakers were good.Todays KEFs are probably more consistent.Hi Fi World magazine has done group tests of speakers and have rated the KEFs very highly.The concept of mounting a tweeter in the middle of the bass/mid driver has great merit and the imaging/timing of these new KEFs is much better than old models,even if they may not be as tonally endearing.
JT |
If I'd be the CEO of KEF, tomorrow morning I would announce back the KEF 104.2 build EXACTLY like they were back then.
WAKE UP KEF ... smell the money! |
My point, Studioray, was perhaps a bit off the mark. If you can find a pair of 104/2s, they can represent excellent value. I paid under $1500, including cost of shipping cross country from Manhatten to Santa Barbara. I listen to lots of speakers, but have heard nothing that has urged me to break out my checkbook. I concur with Jdcrox that the 104/2s are "simply beautiful sounding speakers." Mine are the later bi-wirable speakers.
db |
I almost bought a demo pair of 104/2's in '92. I took em home for the weekend. Simply beautiful sounding speakers. I should have bought them, I would probably still have them now.
In an effort to save some cash, I bought a new pair of Q50's instead. Uggghhhh. They lasted about a week before I returned them. The original Uni-Q design was certainly not ready for prime time!
Of course by that time the 104/2's were gone. |
Donbellphd, the fact that you are referring your 104/2's which were introduced in 1984 underscores my point exactly. And the 102/2's are 1990.
It seems that KEF is no longer a leader. And even if it's true that they are focusing their attention mostly on the European market, that fact alone wouldn't make them any less sought after by the rabid speakerholics here on the A'gon. Kefs are available here and the fact that they don't market aggressively would not keep anyone here away if they sounded as good or better than Wilson Sophias, Watt Puppies, Audio Physic, Magnepan, B&W, Von Schweikert, etc., etc.. |
The new ones are so ugly what with the top assembley that looks like the headlight pods from a White Mustang circa 1949! |
I have a pair of bi-wired KEF Reference 104/2s that I am very please with. I listened to the "Three Blind Mice" XRCD24 disc on my KEFs, then 10 minutes later to the disc on a pair of Wilson Sophias, then 15 minutes later again on my KEFs. I like the Sophias a lot, but the 104/2s stood up well in the comparison. In my audio system, frequencies below 80 Hz are shunted to a Velodyne HGS-15.
I also have four bi-wired Reference 102.2s that I think are excellent monitors.
db |
Yes! haven't been for years.... |
i own a pair of KEF referance 205 speakers. I auditioned several of the so-called 'top twenty', including Tannoy and I bought the KEF 205s. |
IKef still makes decent speake but to my mind isn't competitive at higher price ranges as now there are so many very good speakers that adjusted for iflation are like old Kef 104.But don't count thme out.Anothr company that was respected and fell shjort for a while was Snell.Now they have some hevayweight speakers that are extremely competive.Go tak e listen to what you canb afford and see for yourslef if j\kef stands up or you'd rather anothr.Probably I;'d reccomend staying with speakers made for Brittish domestic market like Harbeth,Spendor,B&W etc since I find that speakers are first made to appeal to doemsrtic markets and then "world domination".I characterisze them as say compared to Amnericanb oir acandian speakers to nbbe leaner and more neutral and some folks ddon't like it some do.Other speaker in that vein is Audio Physic from Germany.
Chazzbo |
I have very fond memories of building particleboard cabinets and soldering up crossovers for my collection of B139 woofers, B110 midranges and T27 tweeters. Kent Engineering and Foundry used to be at the top of the game as far as drivers available to the amateur speakerbuilding community.
I was very favorably impressed with the more recent KEF Maidstone speakers. Haven't heard any other KEF speakers recently, though.
The Maidstone's designer was Andrew Jones. Andrew has left KEF and gone to work for Pioneer where he designed the very well respected Model 1, which also uses a coaxial mid/tweet driver. I think that system is superb. So count me as an Andrew Jones fan.
I think it's not so much the company as the engineer that does the design work. I never would have expected Pioneer to build a truly first-rate high end loudspeaker, but they obviously found the right engineer.
Duke |
Some would say that they've diluted the brand by focusing at least their lower-end models to the home theater crowd (the Eggs, for example).
In addition, I get the sense that the Uni-Q concept was originally perceived as a bit of a gimick and backed up by mediocre reviews of the original implementations. However, their latest upper-end models (XQ and Ref lines) have been getting some good press.
Finally, as Aball has pointed out, Kef seems to have largely ignored the US market to focus on Europe. |
Kef is REALLY popular in Europe but it seems they are dismissing the US market for some reason. Maybe they will head back this way in the near future. |
