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.  
fast
The fully tweeked up setup we had done at Fast's place sounded amazing and in terms of the marriage between the components, the room size and configuraton, as well as his taste in music, yes his system in our opinion did sound better than a local dealers YG Sonja setup with a Naim, DR 500 series amp and a Berkly Dac and Nordost cabling. which was a $300k rig.

What we added  a set of Isoacoustic Ghia Footers under the Ref 5
                           two set of Wireworld Platinum Interconencts
                            a Wireworld Ethernet and USB cable
                            a Innuous Zenith server
                            a Aqua Hifi Lascala MK II Dac 
                             two sets of Stein harmonizers
                              an Audio Magic Power Conditioner and an Isotek Syncro power cord
                              Audioquest Hurricane power cord for dac and server
                              ( the ARC gear had captive chords)

What was very interesting was the addition of another set of ears from the President? of the CA audio society who also heard the improvments that the Aqua dac and the Stein Harmonizers brought to the system. 

We have found that the carefully application of the right, components, cabling, and accessories will elevate the performance of a system tremendously. 

What wa clear is that as each piece of the tuning rig was added the system became more and more life like, which was really enlightening. 

The moral of the story system setup and synergy is what is crucial. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
We just did a demo last week of the Persona 9H vs the Blades.

The Personas are more transparent, image with greater precision. Those Beryilium drivers are just extraordinary also the room correction system allows you to get great tight bass no matter the room.

Howerver:

The Kef Blades have deeper puncher bass and throw a bigger soundstage. They do not disapear as well. 

There is a used pair in need of a paint job in Florida for a ridiculous price 
for such a low price I would get those Kef Blades and invest in some really good electronics and digital. The damage is on the back and sides of the speakers you could get them repainted and save a fortune. 

A well setup pair of Blades are pretty awesome.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ KEF Blade and Paradigm Persona dealers


The Kef Blades have deeper puncher bass and throw a bigger soundstage. They do not disapear as well.

I always though the Blades were great at the disappearing trick, the best I have heard. If the 9H are even better than this then that is something to keep in mind.
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