Vintage KEF vs new Salk

Your Kefs have a very full, laid back sound.  They were and still are very nice speakers but I’d sell them and buy something like the Salks, which should offer more clarity, more of an open sound and possibly tighter bass.  
The problem I have with the kefs is the age of them and the cost of upgraded crossovers and surrounds.

If you have a beautiful pair of kefs with some really nice bookmatched woodgrain and you already like them, you can upgrade the crossovers and get new surrounds and they’ll be good to go for many more years and they’ll be better than new.  You’ll want to check ferrofluid in those tweets too.  Not sure if they use it or not.

Aren’t you the one we were saying needs to upgrade the dac?  If so, keep the kefs, upgrade the crossovers and get a nice dac... you’ll be very happy!

Thanks, Bubba. I appreciate the feedback about the Salks. Everything about that outfit appeals to me, even though I haven't heard the speakers themselves.

Yes, b_Limo, I'm the woefully inadequate DAC guy. I'm looking into that too, but for some reason speakers fascinate me and DACs are simply functional to me.

The tweeters have fluid, which someone must've cleaned and refilled by now, I'm thinking. Unfortunately, I didn't get these new and I don't know their history. 

The KEFs are a handful - 80 lbs each , we live in a home you have to navigate steps and ramps to get to, and I'm old(ish), so a commitment to bringing them in somewhere for refurbishment isn't something I'd take lightly. For that matter, I'm not confident I could find a craftsman I trust to make good decisions based on their evaluation. It would be like someone who's ridden a bicycle all his life going into a car dealership - (intimidating). And I'd need to end up with a guarantee of ending up with something substantially better than what I've got now to make that worthwhile. The pretty cabinets and sentimental aspects don't move me (but they're nice).

It seems (today) as though Salks are more of a sure thing, and would be the odds on favorite to sound the best as well. I like a clear, open sound with tighter bass than I've got. At first, the well-mannered English sound suited me. Now, not as much.

On the other hand, yesterday I was satisfied with the KEFs and closed all the audio-oriented tabs on my browser. Tomorrow, who knows?

I seem to be skewing my posts toward trolling for support around whichever end of this I'm currently dwelling in. Interesting.

Marc

Could I self-diagnose my speaker's problem and just bring the crossovers or whatever for replacement? That's an even scarier notion.

The crossover situation is actually easy.

e-mail kef and ask for crossover schematics.  They’re fgreat about that.

then e-mail the schematics to madisound and they’ll give you a quote.  
You can usually, easily, swap crossovers out yourself.

Still, if you like the idea of an open and clear sound with tighter bass, go new.  Salks are great and you can get an even better deal used.  There are a few pairs of used Salks right now for under $4k.  Any of them would probably suffice!

Wait time on a build from salk can be 6 months... ask hilde45.

Where did you see used Salks? I looked and didn't find any that would work for me.
Thanks.