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New KEF Reference 5 speakers

After many months of auditioning speakers (and probably testing the patience of several salesmen) I finally decided to get the KEF Reference 5s.  I just loved the wide sound stage and almost holographic imaging, among other things.  They were delivered in February and I’ve spent many hours listening.  At first I was disappointed.  They just didn’t produce the same imaging at my house with my equipment as in the store.  Also, they sounded bright and harsh with violins and high end music.  The dealer came to my house along with the regional sales rep from KEF to provide advice.  They urged me to allow more break in time (at that point they had been played about 100 hours). After many more hours, I am becoming more acquainted with them.  They are still improving with time.  Them break in period seems to be very lon. They’ve played several hundred hours and are still improving. They are extremely source sensitive—meaning that a poorly engineered record or CD will sound terrible and a well recorded one can be great.  I suppose this is a good thing with the KEFS-that they reveal flaws so well says something about their accuracy. Unfortunately there seem to be more bad recordings than good ones so I’m finding many of my CDs and records very difficult to listen to.  I am still experimenting with speaker placement, learning which recordings are really good and which aren’t and other tweaks.  Not totally convinced it’s love but we are at least in like and the relationship is moving in a positive direction. I’ve delayed posting anything until now because I didn’t want to share any premature conclusions.  
fast

Showing 7 responses by audiotroy

audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,599 posts
 
Avanti come on man your statements are just over the top

The REF 1 come off as metallic and un-natural. If the REF 5s are voiced similarly I can understand your hesitation.  
The REF 1s were hugely over priced even at a substantial discount from original MSRP.  
Strongly consider exchanging them for something more natural sounding.  

The Ref Ones have won many awards for their sound quality and the LS 50 are similar sounding without the superior resolution and holographic sound of the Ref 1s, so if you like the LS 50 you should love the Ref 1.

As per being overpriced again man compared to what a $9k pair of Focal Sopras, or an $8k pair of Vivids or any of the zillion $7-10k monitors that are on the market. The build quality of the Ref 1 is off the charts.

The Ref 1 are hardly unnatural sounding they sound like what you use them with which means they are truthful and accurate. Let me guess what is natural to you could it be an overly colored loudspeaker?

Fast you need to evaluate everything you are using with the Ref 5, we have sold them with Naim gear and the sound is stunning. 

The Ref 5 are amazing loudspeakers but must be used with the right gear which is the same issue you are going to have with any suitable high resolution low coloration design.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Kef REF and Blade dealers


audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,599 posts
 
D2 girls Grow up man!
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,599 posts
 
No Contuzzi you don't read well do you. We were saying that the KEF Ref 1 are priced comensurately with any of the other major contenders.

I don't hear anyone talking about the Focal's being overpriced, they are not overpriced but again none of these other speakers are either. 

We sell the Paradigm Persona as well as the KEF's and both of these speakers are very well made and priced fairly for the build quality and driver technology as well as sound quality. 

Now we could have another discussion of $7 or $8k monitors that use off the shelf parts that cost a fraction of the price and then we might have something. 

Value is inherant in what you perceive it to be in.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ


audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,599 posts
 
The fully tweeked up setup we had done at Fast's place sounded amazing and in terms of the marriage between the components, the room size and configuraton, as well as his taste in music, yes his system in our opinion did sound better than a local dealers YG Sonja setup with a Naim, DR 500 series amp and a Berkly Dac and Nordost cabling. which was a $300k rig.

What we added  a set of Isoacoustic Ghia Footers under the Ref 5
                           two set of Wireworld Platinum Interconencts
                            a Wireworld Ethernet and USB cable
                            a Innuous Zenith server
                            a Aqua Hifi Lascala MK II Dac 
                             two sets of Stein harmonizers
                              an Audio Magic Power Conditioner and an Isotek Syncro power cord
                              Audioquest Hurricane power cord for dac and server
                              ( the ARC gear had captive chords)

What was very interesting was the addition of another set of ears from the President? of the CA audio society who also heard the improvments that the Aqua dac and the Stein Harmonizers brought to the system. 

We have found that the carefully application of the right, components, cabling, and accessories will elevate the performance of a system tremendously. 

What wa clear is that as each piece of the tuning rig was added the system became more and more life like, which was really enlightening. 

The moral of the story system setup and synergy is what is crucial. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,599 posts
 
We just did a demo last week of the Persona 9H vs the Blades.

The Personas are more transparent, image with greater precision. Those Beryilium drivers are just extraordinary also the room correction system allows you to get great tight bass no matter the room.

Howerver:

The Kef Blades have deeper puncher bass and throw a bigger soundstage. They do not disapear as well. 

There is a used pair in need of a paint job in Florida for a ridiculous price 
for such a low price I would get those Kef Blades and invest in some really good electronics and digital. The damage is on the back and sides of the speakers you could get them repainted and save a fortune. 

A well setup pair of Blades are pretty awesome.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ KEF Blade and Paradigm Persona dealers


audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,599 posts
 
Good morning Kren,

Here is our take on the Paradigm vs Kef shootout, both of these are great loudspeakers.

Kef throw a huge soundstge, very clean and natural midrange, good treble detail, very tight bass. 

Paradigm, more holographic soundstage, greater clarity in the treble and midrange, very tight bass. 

In a direct shootout we would take the Paradigms, however, the Paradigms require a bit more system matching. The clarity of the Beryillium drivers is amazing but does require a wamer voicing before they sound magical, vs the Kef which tends to sound great on a wide variety of electronics.

The T+A gear is spectacular on most speakers, the T+A sound is slightly warm in the midrange, smooth top end, a very wide and deep soundstage, excellent information recovery, tight but a bit on the warmer side of bass, extremely well designed, beautifully made with usually an upgrade path 

Hope that helps.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Kef, Paradgim Persona and T+A dealers
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,599 posts
 
Yystantabarbera what Fast said is accurate, there are no sales on any other models of the KEF line only the two finishes Rosewood and Walnut are being closed out. 

As the dealer who helped FAST the OP with his room and getting his system to sound truly fantastic, we agree with his assesement the combination of FAST's room size, and furnishings combined with the white and blue cone color of the Foundry edition looks absolutely stunning and should be in an ad for Kef. 

In our opion Fast's orginal setup with 20 year old ARC gear sounded more like real music than a local SF dealers $50k YG/Naim, setup which was about $200k with the cabling which was all Nordost, and the table.

The KEF designs are very impressive, if you read the white paper on the Reference series it is clear that KEF's engineers looked at every facet of how to reduce or eliminate distortion in the Ref series. 

You have to go to a $15k monitor such as the Vimberg or TAD ME 1 before you can truly best the Kef Ref 1. 

We had the Blade in one of its first demos in the East coast at the New York Audio show in 2012, our setup all Chord Reference amps, Esoteric Dac, and such sounded as good as a $400k plus setup down the hall with Solution and YG Sonias, for way less money,

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Kef dealers


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