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Is KEF no longer relevant?

It seems to me that 20 years ago Kef was quite a respected speaker manufacturer. Granted I knew far less back then about audiophilia, but for someone just starting out, that was my impression at the time.

Although Kef still makes speakers in the $5,000 - $15,000 range, they never seem to be the subject of serious discussion here on the 'Gon. These discussions are dominated by a group of the usual 20 or so suspects that we hear about over and over again. And no disrespect meant against that group - they are mostly, if not all, great speakers to be sure. But Kef certainly at one time was a pioneering and extrememly respected brand. What happened? Is this because they lost their "sound" after Raymond Cooke died? (an accusation I remember reading somewhere) Or are they just perceived as a "yesterday's news" brand?

No doubt there are many happy Kef owners out there who may answer this thread telling me how great their speakers are, even by today's standards, and I have no argument with them - I am a former Kef owner and very fond of the brand - but they clearly are not "darlings" of this forum. What happened?
studioray
kef_america
1 posts
 
We are funded by our parent Chinese company but every single item that comes from KEF is birthed and designed by engineers in the UK - our main office is in the same building its always been in!! No difference.

Peter Madsen, Dr. Andrew Watson, Mark Dodd - they've been there for 20+ years designing KEF and Celestion products.
http://www.kef.com/resources/video/gb/tseries/video.html

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20023903-47.html#ixzz19PbG7Mog
deeppurple23
1 posts
 
I've read through most of the comments and find it all interesting. Here's what I'll tell you about my "KEF" experiences. The 104s were out of this world, but keep in mind that the CD had just come out, so you're comparing two different mediums, KEFs are great in the midrange, CDs not so much. Never owned the 104s BTW, listened to them a lot, I did have the 102s and loved them. Later, I did purchase a system that contained the Q65s. The bass was so good I got rid of my subwoofer. I then moved on to the reference 201/202c, with the hyper tweeter. This was the first KEF that I ever had that leaned to the bright side. That being said, you really had to watch your amp pairing, Bryston seems to be a really good match, I also have an old NAD and old PS audio that sound fantastic with these speakers. At the end of the day it's all about preferences and I love my KEFs. The next time I look for speakers they will be the first ones I check out.
mountain-high
62 posts
 
It's a nice Chinese made speaker.
jedinite24's avatar
jedinite24
1,503 posts
 
I really enjoy my KEF speakers both old and new. I have the newer KEF Q300 bookshelf speakers and they are made in China. They also sound great to me. I believe KEF is still very relevant. One of these days I'll move onto the R series of speakers.
oldcar63
145 posts
 
Mountain-high is right, in fact I have auditioned some 23 different speakers from many different countries and prices up to $14k. Also quite a few were the much praised homegrown brands . I ended up buying the kef r900. I had no previous experience with this brand. Its was the sound quality that I based my decision on but I did like the idea that they build their own drivers and had been around for 50 years. So that said yes they are for real and I wouldn't care if they were made on mars. Bottom line they engineer and build good products at comparatively better prices. Best
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