Kef reference 3

Before they broke in, the Ref speakers sounded closed in, lacking dynamics, without the soundstage and imaging that impressed me in the store.  It took a few months before they sounded good. 

I auditioned tons of speakers in the price range and finally bought the Ref 3s.  Took a long time for them to break in and, for a while, I thought I made a mistake.  Once broken in, they opened up and now I love them.  Speaker placement is really important.  I finally hired an expert to do that and it took several hours. I don’t know wha Meta on the drivers means but my speakers are two years old and sounding great.  

OP: KEF has the Ref 3 in rosewood on sale for $9999 and the Ref 5 for 14,000.  Don’t know what price range you’re looking at but the Ref 5 is similar to the 3 with two more woofers and more bass. Rosewood looks beautiful.  

I should add the following to my earlier posting.  I was at a store listening to  multiple speakers and trying to figure out which I liked best.  The salesman commented that he was watching my facial expressions and body language while listening .  While  auditioning the KEFs, he said I was smiling and looked relaxed, which wasn’t happening with any of the other speakers.  I thought about this, listened some more, and decided he was right.  Ymmv.