SpeakerTalk

[centaurus]

i see a lot of mixed reviews these days regarding KEF. i'm new the game, having bought a pair of 104/2 and KEF Calindas within the past 6 months. they are both incredible. from what my fellow audiophile says, KEF was some of the best there ever was, until they were bought by a (Chinese?) company in 1994. from this point, they have slipped considerably from their height at the top of high-end audio.

he says that while todays KEFs are not junk, they are not to the level of quality and sound of their classic designs. the 107,105,104/2, Cantata and older. he said while modern KEFs can hold there own, properly running 20 year old 104/2 would still put the smack down on many modern ultra buck systems.

thoughts? is my friend right?

thanks,
Robby

[terry]

I am always amazed at how much I am underwhelmed by modern speakers. After listening to other speakers and returning to my own old KEFs I feel that I am missing little if anything. Perhaps it is like owning an old comfortable pair of shoes - I am used to them and there are no 'rough edges' or unknown elements.

I have never put my KEFs 'head to head' in my own house with a very expensive pair of modern speakers and so I cannot definitively say that I would not appreciate any benefits of well made modern kit when attached to my system.

My KEFs produce a quality of sound which brings a smile to my face and really that is what it is all about.

Finally, I would agree with your friend that many old KEF designs are a match for a great number of relatively expensive speaker systems on sale today. Old KEFs still have much to offer.

[ColinR]

KEF, like many others in the lower sectors of the market such as Tangent and Mordaunt Short are now just brand names, not loudspeaker engineers.

Innovation in any other area than unit cost reduction is not really required, as the computerised CAD/CAM systems do most of the rest.
Cone material selection is a function of the target market selected to maximise profit.

Most modern speaker’s area little too shiny and bright for me, with most of the “high-end” kit doing a very similar job to my older birds.

Soon though I suppose, we’ll have a digital box that measures our ear’s response the listening room’s response and equalises any speakers to our individual Fletcher-Munson responses in real time depending on where we are in the room, so there’ll be no need to buy “high-end”.

[proffski]

Since the changes the ammount of personal help with the customer has dropped off to almost zero.
Some long established dealers who still know the few original employees at KEF have been known to work miracles.
The quality of support at KEF is nothing compared with what I used to get in the 1970s and 1980s...