Hi mate,
well the short answer is that I still haven't lost that goofy grin yet
You probably know by now that I'm not the best at flowery answers with lots of hifi jargon, but I'll put down as much as I can below.
[/quote]
Well my friend, now that you have lived with the Refs for a while, in a system that has a similar flavour to mine.....i'd be intrigued to hear what you think (ie.In the context of your system):
-
If someone offered you a straight swap for some Scalas, would you take it?
Hard to say, in some ways yes, other no. It was at least 9 months since I heard the Scalas so memory is not as fresh as I'd like for a judgement call like this. In terms of $, it would be hard to say no, they were perhaps slightly (very slightly) taughter in the bass & that tweeter a touch sparklier. Not that I ever had the chance to listen to the Scalas at home, but there was always a question about how big they were for my room. I think that the 205/2 is probably better suited to the room (front port & boundary compensation etc) & I do prefer the look of the Kefs much more than the Focals. You are comparing a 40K speaker to a 15K speaker so not really apples to apples. But no I probably wouldn't.
- What would you regard as their strengths and weaknesses?
I have yet to find any weakness' but TBH I'm not really looking for any. It's funny for me because I've moved from a situation where I was never really happy, to one where I am constantly happy & this skews my objectivity (in a good way). The obvious difference is strength & depth in the bottom end, but not flabby or boomy, lovely tight textured integrated bass. They are detailed & reasonably forward, but nowhere near as in you face as the Diablos, and whilst revealing I don't find them to be as unforgiving as the Focals either.
- Do you think they are all-rounders, or excel (or not) with certain types of music?
I have been trying to listen to a real variety of music since I bought them & would say that all rounder is a reasonable categorisation. Classical music sounds sublime, dub & reggae textured & warm, electronic & dance music deep & punchy, rock music suitably raucous, jazz smooth & flowing. Have yet to find a genre that sounds ordinary.
- Do you find them balanced across the frequency range, with no part being pushed forward?
Yes I would tend to agree with this, but again in the context of having moved from something that was very forward. It would have been nice to have had the chance to demo the Viennas as they would probably have been even further along the laid back spectrum. Not that I necessarily wanted anything too laid back (my old floorstanders were more like this), but just to have a comparitive measure & to confirm exactly how good the Kefs are.
- How well do you think they image?
Well you know, the blacks are blacker than the blackest blacks, veils have been lifted & I keep getting images of floating violinists!!!
So they must be good (annoying floating violinists)
- Do you feel they need a Sub with 2 channel, and how do you think they integrate with your room?
No not really. Yesterday I plugged the subs into the Primo RCA outputs, not that I've been feeling the need, more of an experiment. There was definitely an added dimension down low, but I would describe it as flabby & uncontrolled. Having removed the Bryston crossover there is a need to play around again with the sub settings to improve integration but TBH I don't think that I'll bother. If I can't get it perfect & it detracts from the detail & tightness of the Kefs it's not worth the trade-off.
- Would you consider them neutral?
I guess I would but not having listened to as many speakers as you have I'm not sure that I could give you an informed answer on this one. They are certainly more detailed than my old floor standers & not as bright as the Diablos, so in that sense they are more neutral to my ears.
- In the context of all the speakers that you've tried, where do they rank?
Number 1!!! :cheer: Unike Matt & Alex and other forum members my journey (at least in terms of speakers) has been relatively short. I just felt that the oportunity to buy these was natural & went with it (certainly influenced by your recommendations). If I was in the situation of being able to start again with money in the bank, knowing then what I know now, I might have taken more time to demo different brands & models. But because I wanted to trade in, my options were somewhat more limited. That being said I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever, over the moon with the newest members of the family.
Few other notes:
I gave that Dave Brubeck tune a run, but only had a live version of it not the album, awesome. Is it possible that speakers can be so good that they even cause me to start enjoying jazz?!!! They must be good :O
Put the floor spikes on over the weekend, hard to say exactly what effect this had because I mucked around with the subs at the same time. Can tell you one thing though, my back is still getting over the experience.
I'll not be moving away from the AMS gear now, no way. The silky smooth nature of the amp just seems to shine so much more now, loving it.
Sorry for all the questions, it's just I'm interested in knowing if your subjective judgement differs from mine....since you are in such a unique position to answer.[/quote]
No need to apologise, I have really appreciated your conversation, the non didactic nature of your input is valued.
Please say hi to Mrs Cno for me & promise me you'll buy her something nice for Christmas this year
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram