Kef 201/2 your impressions and comparisons


Been listening to these KEF 201/2 at local dealer several times. I think they sound amazing. Also love the fact that it is a 3 way design. They were played on Cayin A100T which I also have at home and the sound was detailed,snappy, and dynamic.
I know these have been around a while so was curious to hear from owners. I am assuming when you bought them you loved em. How has your impressin held up over time?
Also what's better in the range.
I have in the past few years owned Paradigm S2 v3, Usher BE 718 (still have) , Paradigm S4 v.1, Dynaudio Focus 140. I think I like the KEFs better than all of them.
mofojo
The Cayin is 100W per channel. I had heard it pushing B&W 802N at the dealer with plenty of headroom and tight bass. Pretty balsey amp actually. Not real tubey sounding. Went ahead and bought the 201s. So far very happy with them. Love the detail. Lots more detail than my Usher BE 718 and edges out the paradigm in detail also. Mating with JL F113. Still trying to get them synced up a little better but for most music sounds excellent.
Just a note that my main musical taste is rock and metal and classic rock.. The Cayin is IMO better than any SS amp I have heard for this type of music. It's a fast little fucker and the dose of tubes takes the edge off and makes the guitars a little more crunchy while keeping everything well separated. I was running Odyssey Stratos plus on the Ushers before I got the Cayin. It's high current 150W per channel. The Cayin sounds more powerful than the Odyssey to my ears. I still have not tried the Odyssey with the KEF. maybe this weekend.

Ah, my error on the the Cayin power rating (I read the specs too quickly). I am not familiar with the amp, but your experience speaks well of it.

Good luck with the 201/2. I'm running a JL F112 with them. Keep adjusting and you'll get them synched with the sub. We too listen to a lot of rock and metal (including lots of live material). I use an external crossover and have the high pass to the 201/2s at around 120 Hz, to take the bass load off the 201/2s and free them up. At that XO, the 201/2 with the sub is delivering really strong mids and upper bass, and lots of slam, all the while delivering it clearly and sweetly. I do, however, wish the speakers had a bit wider dispersion, as we do not confine ourselves to the sweet spot.
My cayin does not have a pre out so i have the sub hooked up by the speaker wires. Basically put another set of speaker wires from the output terminals and splice in resistors and then splice into rcas and then into the sub. I have been trying to figure out a way to put in a external crossover but I do not think it will work without a separate pre amp. the cayins pre amp section cannot be separated from the amp stage. So that leaves me running the speakers full range. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. You can however use a different pre amp with the Cayin and bypass its own but I don't really want to invest in a separate pre amp.