adam.ribbands

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $0.00 from martins

Summary:
I am reviewing the New reference !!!!!!! Mark 2

They cost £3200 odd.


These, kef`s have alot to live up to, and by god they do.

I have been a B&W fan for aslong as I can remember, but as I am getting used to better quality hifi, KEF have really made there stand.

In direct comparison with B&W`s 803`s, the Kefs stand taller wider and and firmer on the ground, the image is bang on and the soundstage is HUGE. Vocals and midrange are crisp and spot on and the bass is Perfectly matched between. Seriously deep punchy and pure, there is not a HINT of boxyness with these, (what I found with the B&Ws).

Treble is a bit exaggerated, and this really spoils the scene, (maybe copper cables?) it can come close to ear piercing at very high levels while everything remains balanced.

Strengths:
Image, midrange, deep pure bass, easilly adjusted spikes.

Weaknesses:
Crappy visable binding posts, sharp midrange, need alot of power and a big big room.

Similar Products Used:
You name it !!

buton6

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $3150.00 from private

Summary:
WOW I was totally blown away, when I hooked these up to my ADCOM 5500 amp the speaker is just music great looks and music. So rich and detailed, I was constantly swapping my CD collection to see how every song I love sounds.

I paid a total of $3150 with shipping for these, not sure if I'll keep them since I have 7 sets of speakers at home and wife who is not too understanding of my hobbies. I haven't even moved them to my living room yet.

Anyhow, I bought these becase the new line is much more expensive somewhere around $10,000 that is completely ridiculous if you can get these used at $3000 get them you won't be dissapointed. The new ones don't have Hypertweeter and they are just very slight desin changes between them, something you won't even hear or see except for hypertweeter.

Strengths:
Great KEF imaging, definitely better than the 104/2 that I have also, I don't know if it is much luder than 104/2 but I am aftraid to run 104/2 at full Adcom volume because the replacements are hard to come by. The bass seems tighter too but not that much. Overall looks great, I just wish I could have bought Cherry but you can't find these easily. Maple is good but doesn't go with our finish. Oh love the bullet hypertweeter

Weaknesses:
Speaker so perferct I have to keep my kids away from listening room. I just wish they were kid proof since I spend lots of my time with kids (is that even a valid request) maybe I'll put a 6 foot fence around my audio equipment this way I could enjoy it more.

Similar Products Used:
104/2, IQ3, polk lsi, cerwin Vega, JBL, Bose B&W

Ironskull

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.86 of 5, 7.00 votes

Price Paid:  $2500.00 from online discount

Summary:
Pros: The Kef 203 is unsurpassed. The British can be proud. Cons: I sometimes get a ringing in my ears after listening to hi-pitched material. I replaced my Polk surround sound speakers with: Kef 203 reference mains, Kef q2ds surrounds, Kef KHT-9000 surround back, Kef 202c front center, and a Velodyne SPLII-1000 sub. All sound sources:Dish-811 hi-def sat box, Samsung HD-931 dvd, Pioneer PD-F407 cd player, and last but not least a Mitsubishi hi-def 73" tv, are channeled directly through a Pioneer VSX-59txi THX Ultra2 receiver via optical cable. Polk builds a good speaker for the money - however more money generally means better build quality, better esthetics, and a better sound. With a freq range between 55hz and 55Khz Kef excels in the mid to high frequencies and Velodyne effectivly takes care of the thunder, bass guitar, and train wrecks. I could go into crossover networks,etc, but you can read the specs and get all that. A THX rating is one indicator that Kef's build quality is second to none including that of B&W and Martin Logan. Don't get me wrong; Martin-Logan speakers are the real deal if you have a ton of money and a 4-6ohm amp that will punch out 200 watts per channel.

Strengths:
mid and upper frequencies are clean and tight with no color

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
Polk, B&W,

Price Paid:  $3300.00 from R-T-K, Frankfurt, Ge

Summary:
Bought these babies at a local dealer after an extended cross-check between various B&W's, HGP ("Mandola" - horrible!), Dynaudio (Contour 3.3), Sonus Faber, Martin Logan, and two different KEF's (201 and 203). In the end, I bought the KEFS - all four of them. :) The only other speakers that produced roughly the same "quality" of sound were the Dynaudios, but they are more the analytical, transparent type. That's what I had before (JM Lab Cobalt 826), so I was looking for something different. I knew I wanted a warmer, mellower sound, but powerful enough to project large orchestral canvasses ... and the occasional Meatloaf. The B&W's (up to the Nautilus 804) have an extended midrange, in fact it's so extenden they all sounded like ALL-midrange. Which is great for voices, but terrible for anything else, which quickly put them out of the picture. The sound of the KEFs instantly captivated me: they aren't shrill (despite having both a tweeter and a hypertweeter!), they aren't boomy, the don't smudge details, yet they're not analytical. In short: They're musical. Voices are projected with just the right amount of natural balance, orchestral music gets an impressive but not overblown soundstage, the music effortlessly floats above and beyond the cabinets (especially so with the smaller Ref 201), and they easily filled the 40 square meter showroom - even the smaller 201s. So if you're a classical and/or vocal music listener and you're looking for a warm, non-technical sound, look no further. The Reference series is awsome, down to its smallest model. I am now running the 203s and 201s as A and B systems, later to integrate them into one multichannel chain. I totally agree with the reviewer below that the Kef Reference 203 needs a powerful, warm-sounding amplifier. I tried several: a Vincent/ShengYa tube/mosfet amp (too analytical), an Electrocompaniet ECI-4 (wonderful, but too weak in the knees), my own Chinese Highend transistor amp (Audcom - also too analytical), finally the Emitter, which has plenty of power and sounds just as lovely as the highly praised Electrocompaniet. Once you have chosen a warm-sounding amp, the CD player won't make much of a difference. I auditioned a dozen different players with the Kef-Emitter combo, and the differences were very, VERY minor. I settled for an Arcam CD 93T in the end, which fits in just nicely. I think these speakers will stay with me for a long time (and me, I'm just the kind of guy who routs his entire hifi chain every 2 or 3 years).

Strengths:
Wonderfully, effortlessly "natural" and warm presentation of different kinds of music, impressive soundstage, great detail; very appealing design and built (especially in cherry). Can hold their own against the very best of speakers on the market.

Weaknesses:
Not the kind of speaker you would choose for heavy metal, techno etc. And it would be a waste, too. ;-)

Similar Products Used:
Kef Reference 201, JM Lab Cobalt 826, Infinity Kappa 8.2i, Infinity Reference 61i, Energy Point 1e.

Price Paid:  $5000.00 from Reference Audio, Göt

Summary:
I have had this speaker for more than one year now so I know this speaker quite well. This is a speaker with a natural and even tonal balance. It requires a good matching of the surrounding equipment as this is a very transparent speaker and the sound very much depends on the signal you feed it with. In the wrong setup this can be a quite boring and flat sounding speaker as it does not add or subtract anything of its own. I have noticed big differences in sound character when changing cables, CD-players and amplifiers so a carefully matching is a must. I think the key to success is a high power amplifier with a slightly warm character and powerful, punchy bass. My value rating is not based on a true comparison between this speaker and other speakers on the market, the three star is more an indication that you need expensive electronics gear to get the most out of this speaker.

Strengths:
Extremely good build quality. Nice looking speaker. Transparent, neutral, good focus and sound staging

Weaknesses:
A little lack of punch and drive.

Similar Products Used:
None