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.  
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Showing 2 responses by dbphd

dougsat, as a point of reference your experience with LS50s may not generalize well to Reference 5s.  I have six LS50s, two in a stereo setup and four used for surround.  All the LS50s were easy to place and none required extensive "break-in", although they are sensitive to the quality of the amps driving them.  Wonder if LS50 experience might generalize better to Blade 2s.

db
I was astonished by the improvement when I moved a pair of LS50s into a different room. Room acoustics are critical. I’m now using LS50s for HT and KEF 1s for music with excellent results. The Ref 1s are driven by Ayre 5 Twenty series digital hub, preamp and amp. Source is mostly Roon via ethernet to the digital hub, but an Ayre DX-5 DSD is also available. Beginning next week, the LS50s will be driven by a 300 watt NAD M22; they sure seemed to love the 400 watt Parasound JC 1 monoblocks.  I gave away my beloved KEF Ref 107/2s. I think the Ref 1s are excellent, and given my preference for baroque and jazz, I’ll use subs only for HT because the Ref 1s have adequate LF for the music I enjoy.

db