Kef Reference 205/2: Anything to check before buying?

[TorqueDirty]

Hi folks,

I have the opportunity to buy a pair of Kef Reference 205/2 speakers and I wanted to check if there are any things to check on them before parting with the substantial amount of cash.

Are there any parts that degrade on these? Drive units, electronics etc or are they a pretty solid secondhand buy. These speakers will be a good few years old now.

This will be my first high-end second hand HiFi purchase so want to make sure I don't miss anything important.

Cheers
TD

[legzr1]

Nothing specific but worth having a look at the rubber surrounds on the drive units as with all used speakers.

The (much) earlier reference series had small issues with rubber doughnuts on the coupled bass drivers but I think this series moved away from the internal dual woofer bass system.

With music playing quietly get your ear up close to make such each driver is operating correctly - a blown tweeter on these means a whole new UniQ drive unit unless you’re very good with fiddly, easily damaged tweeters and mid drivers.

I’ve listened to the bigger brother 207/2s a few times over the years and they’re marvellous speakers - the 205s use the same mid and tweeters so if they don’t sound excellent there’s an issue somewhere.

[TorqueDirty]

Thanks for the tips. Will take a close look and listen before taking the plunge.

TD

[TorqueDirty]

Well the speakers are bought and back home.

They are VERY good!

Need to upgrade everything else now - particularly the cables.

This is going to get expensive.

Any recommendations for really good quality speaker cable? I currently use QED X-Tube XT350 and a step up from that is needed I think.

Trying not to spend silly money though.

TD

[legzr1]

What’s the rest of your kit?

You don’t need to spend a lot on cables for excellent results - Van Damme do excellent quality cables at a fraction of the cost of ‘boutique’ stuff.

[Crackie]

TorqueDirty said:

Well the speakers are bought and back home.

They are VERY good!

Need to upgrade everything else now - particularly the cables.

This is going to get expensive.

Any recommendations for really good quality speaker cable? I currently use QED X-Tube XT350 and a step up from that is needed I think.

Trying not to spend silly money though.

TD

Pleased to hear you're enjoying the new speakers.

I hope this post doesn't drag the thread of topic into another ' Does speaker cable make a difference?" doscussion. Please, please, please, don't spend any of your hard earned on different speaker cable............at least until you've made sure that the speakers are positioned in the very best place in the the room, relative to the boundaries and also to where you sit. Try to limit the effects of early reflections. Check that the drive unit screws are tight and that the spikes are level making the speakers as stable as possible. Getting these things optimised will make a significant difference...........great speakers that aren't set up optimally are likely to be outperformed by decent speakers which are set up optimally.

Changing the speaker position relative to boundaries can change bass response by 10-20dB, changing the toe in can alter HF response by a similar amount above 10kHz. Speaker cable's influence is negligible objectively...........the subjective differences have been done to death many times before.

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/optimizi...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b1W7QgqhR8

Edited by Crackie on Friday 1st November 17:28

[EViS]

legzr1 said:

What’s the rest of your kit?

You don’t need to spend a lot on cables for excellent results - Van Damme do excellent quality cables at a fraction of the cost of ‘boutique’ stuff.

Absolutely this! Van Damme Blue Studio series is what I use. Shop around for a 25/50m roll (or however much you need). Still expensive cable, but at least you're paying for quality without any marketing hype.

[TorqueDirty]

legzr1 said:

What’s the rest of your kit?

You don’t need to spend a lot on cables for excellent results - Van Damme do excellent quality cables at a fraction of the cost of ‘boutique’ stuff.

Current set up is as follows:

Musical Fidelity A308 CD player
Musical Fidelity A308 Pre and Power amp combo (upgraded by MF a few years ago)

Interconnects: Van De Hull The Bay 2 from CD to Pre amp
QED QUNEX 2 between pre and power amp

Speaker Cable: QED X-Tube XT350

I have played around with the speaker position quite a lot and have got a really great sound - but I feel that given these were £8k speakers when new they have more to give. Mid range and treble are excellent but the bass is a fraction less crisp, dynamic and punchy than it could be.

Don't get me wrong - the Kefs are a huge big step up from my Montitor Audio GR20s but there is more there I'm sure.

Anyone ever added a dedicated DAC to their system and found big improvements?

TD

[legzr1]

TorqueDirty said:

Current set up is as follows:

Musical Fidelity A308 CD player
Musical Fidelity A308 Pre and Power amp combo (upgraded by MF a few years ago)

Interconnects: Van De Hull The Bay 2 from CD to Pre amp
QED QUNEX 2 between pre and power amp

Speaker Cable: QED X-Tube XT350

I have played around with the speaker position quite a lot and have got a really great sound - but I feel that given these were £8k speakers when new they have more to give. Mid range and treble are excellent but the bass is a fraction less crisp, dynamic and punchy than it could be.

Don't get me wrong - the Kefs are a huge big step up from my Montitor Audio GR20s but there is more there I'm sure.

Anyone ever added a dedicated DAC to their system and found big improvements?

TD

I used the same 308 system for a few years with a number of big speakers (Kef 3.2, 4.2, celestion A3 and even some Martin Logan electrostatics)
Always enjoyed them, the amps especially were excellent but the CD tended towards a warm bass rather than a lean hard-hitting sound but splitting hairs really.

I’d really try some Van Damme, Mark Grant or Belden cables before spending a fortune. I went through Nordost, Kimber and Van den Hul over the years as well as Chord and Atlas etc etc and the studio grade or 6mm hifi cables from Van Damme really lose very little (if anything) to my ears.

DACs - Hmmm, ill be blunt and say I hear little difference in any competent well designed DAC. I’ve tried NOS boxes with ‘classic’ Philips chip sets up to ESS silly over-sampling designs. Comparing the extremes of design there are differences but I’ve settled for the DAC built into my CA Streamer - it’s sounds good and that’s all that really matters.

[P700DEE]

Speaker cables make minimal difference IMO. I used basic 5 am solid core mains for years and only went OTT when I managed to get Kimber 8TC runs at a bargain price. Dacs !! much bigger difference. I ran Marantz CD11LE for years then sold and went DVD transport with DAC64. Kept that for about 8 years and recently sold and swapped for Chord Qutest. Amazing improvement and only cost £200 over selling the DAC64
You can get great sound at a budget by using a DVD Universal player, I have a Denon 2900 I use as a transport , it only cost £40! It sounds good on its own and plays SACD, DVD-A etc. I've not tried a low cost DAC but its worth trying. The Qutest seems to be highly recommened if you are prepared to spend £1K

[TorqueDirty]

Thanks for the suggestions folks.

Did some more speaker positioning over the weekend and have found a set up that gives a very nice sound.

I'll leave the speaker cable for now but might have a look at DACs at some point. I have already spent way too much time looking at second hand gear on ebay that I really should not even be contemplating just now!

TD