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KEF 103.2

alanbeeb

alanbeeb

pfm Member
Just obtained a pair of these, they must be 35 years old or thereabouts. But they sound magnificent. Shoot me if ever buy a pair of new speakers again.

I've tried to search through here for any threads on these but the search function doesn't like KEF 103.2!

The person I bought these from reckons they could be improved with internal rewiring and new crossover components - anyone know of any information on how to get at the crossovers and what components are needed? thanks.
 
Really excellent speakers. Super all-rounders. I had a pair recapped with like-for-like set of caps at 2% tolerance from Falcon. If you do recap make sure you get at least this tolerance as their performance has a lot to do with the pair and component matching undertaken at production. My pair were minty fresh and if I'm honest, I didn't notice an improvement when they were recapped, though it presumably extended their life somewhat.
 
try searching pfm for:

"KEF reference 103.2"

For me that returns a whole list of results.
 
To get at the crossovers you need to un-mount the woofer. I had a pair with clip terminals connecting the woofer to crossover, but the later pair were soldered. The crossover is mounted on the bottom panel with some pretty sticky sticky pads.
 
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What amps did you try with your 103.2's and what worked best? ta.

I currently have 200W of Lyngdorf SDA2175 class D going up mine and they seem to be enjoying it, but maybe there's something even better worth trying.
 
I've been using 103.2s in the main system for a few years now, after finding a pair on ebay and paying £50 if I remember correctly. The only thing they needed was the crap connectors replacing wit proper posts (an easy reverse if necessary) and a good clean up.

I would never part with them now and they have seen off Kans, Kabers, ES14s, SP2s and more. They just do everything amazingly well to my ears.

They seem to like my NCC200 dual mono.
 
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These do have a increasing reputation as a bit of a sleeper. Never heard a pair, but I’ve never heard a bad word about them either.
 
I used a nicely modified Quad 405-2 with a valve preamp for most of the time I had these. I briefly heard a nice Sony ES amp into them which worked well. The big surprise was that they were also driven fine by my 25W Pass amp. I had expected them to present a much more difficult load. I thought they had many of the qualities I've heard in Harbeths, but with a little bit of 'soul' sacrificed in order to cope with a broader range of music.

I expected to keep mine a lot longer, and indeed would have if I had the space, but I decided to pursue the Tannoy thing.
 
Does anyone know what the RRP of the KEF 103.2 was when it was a current model in early 1980s? Mine have just shown the door to a pair of modern ATC SCM19s.
 
alanbeeb said:
What amps did you try with your 103.2's and what worked best? ta.
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I've used a Cyrus 1 (which I bought with the speakers for a princely £100 in 1994), an old Rotel integrated, Audiolab 8000a and currently Exposure 1010. I really enjoy the effortless, detailed sound of the Exposure but have enjoyed the sound from all of them.

Truly magnificent, and under-rated speakers. The do everything you ask of them and they really do pack a punch for their size.

Look at what was on eBay recently!

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=372095467189
 
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alanbeeb said:
Just obtained a pair of these, they must be 35 years old or thereabouts. But they sound magnificent. Shoot me if ever buy a pair of new speakers again.

I've tried to search through here for any threads on these but the search function doesn't like KEF 103.2!

The person I bought these from reckons they could be improved with internal rewiring and new crossover components - anyone know of any information on how to get at the crossovers and what components are needed? thanks.
Click to expand...

The old kefs from the 1970's are just brilliant, particularly the reference series, and the best bit of all they can be bought very cheaply :):)
 
What was wrong with the B200? One of the things I'm most enjoying from these is the quality of the bass.
 
I just bought a really tidy pair of these, they were pretty close by and I got them at a good price so it would have been rude not to.

First impressions are that they're extremely good speakers at a bargain price! I'll be giving them a good workout over the next week or so :).
 
What kind of stands do these prefer? Mine came on those little trolley stands but they were too low so I've currently got them on solid wood stands (still a little low tbh), but I wonder if they'd prefer 'open' stands.
 
I had mine on heavy Target stands which worked well, but I'm sure they'd work well on Something Solids or similar - might shape the bass up a bit. What are you driving them with?
 
eastone said:
I had mine on heavy Target stands which worked well, but I'm sure they'd work well on Something Solids or similar - might shape the bass up a bit.
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Cool, so perhaps not too fussy on stand type, I'll initially just bodge something to raise them up a bit.
What are you driving them with?
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Quad 33/303, seem to match up pretty well. I understand that they can enjoy a bit more power, but I doubt I'll be changing amps again for a bit.
 
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