KEF Meta Reference 1's? anyboy heard them?

Some of us have moved away from floor standers. I augment my Reference 1s with a pair of Velodyne HGS-15s with SMS-1 acoustic bass management, and high-pass them with a passive balanced Marchand filter that sits between the Ayre KX-5 Twenty preamp and VX-5 Twenty amp.  Primary source is Roon via Ayre QX-5 Twenty endpoint.  Setup sounds good to me

db

heard them the other day driven by a hegel H390 amp.  

recessed midrange, midbass coloration, poor bass depth and extension.  

at least the metallic treble was gone.  

not a fan of the KEF reference series and consider them some of the worst return on investment in audio.  

check out the Legacy Audio Calibre standmount.  blows the KEF away in every metric.  

@avanti1960 

Poor synergy of the combination. Don't discount the KEF, it's the Hegel. Just recently heard a Hegel integrated playing through a pair of Focal's. The Focal's sounded terrible. The Hegel is the common denominator!

BTW, heard a pair of the LS 50 Meta's thorough a Prima Luna integrated in a small room. I could not believe the bass that the little guys produced. We tested them against everything up to $5K, nothing compared!

I hope you are wrong about the Reference 1's, just ordered a pair!!

Ref 1 are primo, I owned a pair 5 yrs ago. Needed cash back, sold them a few months into it. Always regretted it. They're small but thunder with the right amp. 

I have only heard the Reference 3 but my thoughts align with avanti1960. Just shows you how important hearing things for yourself are. 
 

I would spend a little more and listen to the Focal Kanta 2. Or spend a little less and demo the Revel 226be (these would work in a small room close to a wall). I would run all of these with subs… If your open to use the Kanta 2/3, or Sonus Faber Olympica III would be in your price range and take up no more floor space then the Reference 1. A used pair of Wilson Sabrina is only a grand-ish more than a new pair of metas…

Nothing wrong with liking the kefs. I just felt they sounded hard (as in compression) and the bass heavily relied on the ports for output which made it sound “boxy” to me. I have a 20 year old Thiel 2.4 in my second system that outperformed the much newer Kef to my ear. One of my local dealers has Revels sitting next to the kefs, you would have a very hard time selling me the kefs. The Revels are cleaner, more open and play louder.