Tough job. wink

[Mr Peabody]

A friend is still working on an audio room, he had a set of KEF Ref 3's sitting in the box until it was done. I sort of half teasing offered to break them in for him. Well... he agreed! So now where my F52's were, sits the KEF Ref 3's, gloss white and believe it or not look really nice.

I was surprised at how good they sound right out of the box, it will be interesting to see where break in goes. They have a natural and detailed sound, I find them very engaging. Joke may be on me when I have to give them back. Hard to compare to the F52's, the sounds are different. Maybe more will come to mind as I get more time with them.

[JohnMichael]

I look forward to more of your impressions between the two very different approaches to speakers.

[Mr Peabody]

I'm letting the Ref 3's play durin the day and trying to get a bit of listening in evenings. At this point the bass drivers seemed to add some bloom and the treble doesn't seem all that extended giving a warm presentation with my Pass gear and to my ears makes the mids a bit recessed. They are still a good sounding speaker but the characters I mentioned are taking them more away from my taste. Maybe I'm just used to the F52 flat response, but I do appreciate how there is no overlap in frequencies. KEF did put some magic in the Reference series making them a very soulful sounding speaker. I'd love to hear a pair driven by Conrad Johnson, warm or not this combo could possibly carry you away.

[blackraven]

Sounds like my kind of speaker.