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Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
These are excellent budget speakers. They cannot have the bottom end of my Reference 105s with enclosures 8 times the size and bass units with 10 times the radiating area, but they do everything else right for the price. Drive units are a 5in coated polypropylene cone with phase plug on the voice coil in a thick polycarbonate frame and a 1in silk dome in a good heavy chipboard box with flared plastic reflex port on the back panel. The crossover is third order, amazing at the price, with three well sized iron cored inductors, three reversible electrolytic capacitors and two 5 Watt power resistors, the sections separated for bi-wiring, with screw terminals linked by jumper plates for single wiring. Frequency response is pretty flat with a wide flat plateau between 100 and 300 Hz and cutoff at around 70Hz. Time alignment of the drive unit coil sources is tilted slightly upwards because the tweeters are meant to be at the bottom, so the best listening position is at bass mid level closer and top of cabinet farther away. Horizontally off axis the response is smoother still so a little toe in is worthwhile. A budget amp like the Cambridge A1 will work but can go into protection if you play bass tracks too loud so the 25 or so watts are good enough for normal domestic listening up to 100dBA or so without organ music or bass torture tracks. A better choice might be a 40 watt Rotel or similar if you want to play loud but bear in mind a 5in woofer is NOT designed for party/disco levels. I have tried them on 150 Watt Audiolab amps (beyond spec) and cone breakup is a clear cracking sound warning you to turn down the level at once. I have always found Kef drivers to be very reliable but do not have much experience of the latest Chinese manufacture. Treble is smooth, detailed and not too bright, thus avoiding a too common problem with most speakers nowadays. Female vocals are excellent, male vocals are well balanced with well proportioned chest sound without too much colouration. Electric guitar is vivid and tight. Stereo image is well laid out with good depth. I use them on 24in pillar stands away from corners for synthesiser work. Bass can be increased by siting closer to the wall, but too close and it overpowers the rest of the spectrum and loses timing. Shelf mounting on a deep shelf should be ok as long as they are more or less at ear height. As with all well designed small speakers they can give the impression of a larger speaker if well sited and without a "one note bass" response. In conclusion, don't believe everything you read in magazines and make your own mind up, some of these reviewers really are deaf, they are great speakers for the money, particularly good second hand examples. I was wary of Kef now that they have been taken over but on these examples I needn't have worried. Recommended.Read full review
I like these little things for the clarity of the sound they produce in detail and I do not have any thing to say to dislike them as, it will be not fair. All I could say that not in all the cases size matters as these little things prove it.