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How much to spend to beat $1200 10yr old speakers?

i've had my KEF reference 102/2 stand-mount's(paid $1200 new) for about 10 years now and still enjoy them-but how much would i have to spend on new speakers to beat the ones i have in all or most respects- for example, i've heard alot of good things about the Quad 11L's for $600- is it possible to get more bang for half the price these days? or maybe 3/4 the price with say the Meadowlark swift? any other brand suggestions welcome, thanks
tdelgiudd97b
cellorover
417 posts
 
What type of music do you listen to? What do you want to spend? Do you want to stay with monitors? Finally, why do you think you need to replace the KEFs?
tdelgiudd97b OP
12 posts
 
i don't know if i need to replace them at all but i might consider it if the concensus is that speaker tech has come far enough in the past ten years that say $600-900 speakers will do everything better than what i have- i listen to acoustic jazz, classical, some pop and bluegrass. i'm just not sure what's out there now, but i'd certainly be ok with keeping my KEF's for a while- i like monitors but i had a chance to listen to the meadowlark swifts and liked them but it was a brief audition and not in my system- alot of the good dealers are about 110 miles away
cdc
1,785 posts
 
Quads look nice. Heard them with older Arcam stuff which is sort of flat sounding. Even so, I thought they tended to be bright. Read Brit-mag review and they said could be bad with bad recordings.
Hard to find but try ATC SCM 7's (I think www.flatearthaudio.com). Also B&W CDM 1 NT, DynAudio Audience 52's.
oplancqc565
2 posts
 
Hello, I'm not familiar with your speakers but I still use some KEF 104 from 1976 (with updated crossovers making them 104 aB). I face same problem...I have heard the Quad 12L with some NAD amplification. Quiet nice, dynamic a bit too brigth for me. But I still enjoy more my oldies KEFS for the music I listen to: Jazz, blues, rock.
So I don't know...I was advised to add a quality sub from REL (for example). Did you think of that option ?

Olivier
tdelgiudd97b OP
12 posts
 
Olivier-your KEF's are pre uni-q, which i beleive is a whole different animal- I've heard differing opinions on the KEF's with uni-q, from those who believe they are polite to others who think they are bright and foward- having never tried any other speakers in my system i'm not sure but i think they are a better match with my CJ amp than the PSB silver's that the dealer demoed the amp with 2 years ago- those were a bit too laid back with the CJ which seemed to "open up" when i got it home with my KEF's- so if KEF's are bright, bright is Ok with me- i hear the quad's have quite nice bass response for their size- something i could use a bit more of- how much are the 12l's anyways?
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