Price Paid:  $400.00

Summary:
Used in my main system for ten years. Onyl when I bought Quad Pre/power/tuner did I really find out how good they are. Used to use them with early Cambridge audio equipment. Sound much more open without Kube, but lose a lot of bottom end.

Strengths:
Smooth sound, very open without Kube. Amazing bass extension with Kube, without sounding fat or slow.

Weaknesses:
Bas drivers can easily be overdriven when using Kube.

Similar Products Used:
JBL L88 Plus Quad ESL (only these really showed me the weaknesses of the KEFs).

Summary:
I must say that once I find something that "works" for me I generally stick with it because by nature I tend to surround myself with things I like and live with them for long, long periods of time. I've been using an old Fisher 500C for over twenty years and for the past 12 or so I've been listening through a pair of KEF 102 speakers with the "Kef Kube." I listen to 1950's and 1960's acoustic jazz almost exclusively and these speakers, which were about $800 new,are PERFECT. I remember hauling my 500C down to the local "Audiophile" store with a copy of "ART PEPPER MEETS THE RYTHYM SECTION" and asking the salesperson to hook up various combinations of speakers and CD players to my Fisher and after several visits and many hours (the sales person thought I was a raving lunatic) I settled on a Denon CD player and the KEF 102 speakers. They were actually on the "low" side of the amount of money I set aside for speakers, but they sounded better than stuff that was 40-50% more money.

I must say that the KEF 102s are LOUSY if you intend on listening to ROCK music, so my advice is to go for the KEFs if you are an aficionado of acoustic music, especially bebop and "progressive" (Coltane, etc.) jazz.