kef concerto speakers

[John Mallett]

Hi I have a pair of Kef loudspeakers, the baffle and drive unit assemblies look exactly like the Concerto's but the cabinet dimensions are bigger 75x47x37 cm's hwd, they are also finished in cream leather with white grills and a crome surround. The b139's bass units have quite a wide alloy surround which i notice some don't have. I am hoping someone may have some information regarding these speakers. Many thanks John

[Spectral Morn]

Hi I have a pair of Kef loudspeakers, the baffle and drive unit assemblies look exactly like the Concerto's but the cabinet dimensions are bigger 75x47x37 cm's hwd, they are also finished in cream leather with white grills and a crome surround. The b139's bass units have quite a wide alloy surround which i notice some don't have. I am hoping someone may have some information regarding these speakers. Many thanks John

John


Marco has asked you after your Radford related post to pop into the welcome section of this forum and introduce yourself to the community that is AOS.

Please do this as soon as you can and no doubt after that community members will be more inclined to offer you the help you need.


Regards D S D L

[The Grand Wazoo]

Hello John,
I think Marco asked you when you were trying to sell your Radford amps if you would mind doing a few simple things to introduce yourself to us before continuing.
Perhaps you could do that for us now please?

There's a thread called Attention All New Members -that'll give you a few pointers as to how & why we like folks to introduce themselves.

You'll find it here:
http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=799

Cheers

[spendorman]

The KEF Kit 3 used the same units and crossovers as the Concerto. Drive units are B139, B110 and T27, with various versions of each, depending on age. The earlier B139 are as you describe.

In my opinion, the Concerto goes down pretty low and goes up high, but the three good units are not integrated that well and the midrange is a bit coloured.

It is interesting to compare the LS3/5a (which uses just a B110 and T27 in a tiny cabinet) with a Concerto. The Concerto wins easily on bass extension, but the LS3/5a is far superior on every other account, making the Concerto sound coloured and muddled.

However, I have heard Concertos fitted with modified LS3/5a type crossovers, and they were superb and have been meaning to try that myself.

[DSJR]

I LOVE the Concerto's and if they are placed on low stands (9 - 12 inches) off the floor, I think they'd still give a good performance. Like all B110 equipped speakers, the final results will depend on their state of these and the condition of the crossovers.

KEF-KIT's will depend on the cabinets they're in, but these sound as though some effort has gone into them, so may be wonderful :) Get the crossovers looked at and the caps replaced.

[Reid Malenfant]

The b139's bass units have quite a wide alloy surround which i notice some don't have.
These will be the earlier bass units as Spendorman mentioned ;) The driver parameters are pretty similar, the only difference in a more major way is the power handling. They might be happy up to a maximum of 50W RMS amplifiers, the later thicker chassis unit which was smaller & had slightly pointed corners (rather than being a true oval) would be happy with up to 100W RMS fed to the system as a whole.

[Rare Bird]

Hi I have a pair of Kef loudspeakers, the baffle and drive unit assemblies look exactly like the Concerto's but the cabinet dimensions are bigger 75x47x37 cm's hwd, they are also finished in cream leather with white grills and a crome surround. The b139's bass units have quite a wide alloy surround which i notice some don't have. I am hoping someone may have some information regarding these speakers. Many thanks John

:worthless:

If you could John bi big help

[theophile]

I surprised a friend recently.A love of music and hi-fi sound are amongst the interests we've had in common for over 25 years.I stayed at his house during a visit recently.I had taken with me a copy of the Opus 3 Test Record Depth of Image as a gift(I had months before acquired the only 2nd copy of it I had seen in my life).

My friend's system comprised of the Yamaha PX-2 turntable,Yamaha C2x preamp,Yamaha B-2 v-fet amp and a pair of KEF Concertos.Now by way of explanation,I knew the Yamaha components very well,having been their previous owner;The KEFs I had never heard before.

We listened to both sides of the Opus 3 record,which contains a richly varied collection of choral,organ,orchestral, voice and guitar,dixieland jazz,string ensembles,harpsichord and more(much more!!!).Everything is impeccably recorded and I have used it amongst my standard assessment recordings for many years.

My friend knows how fussy I am,but he was delighted when I told him that I really enjoyed the sound of that system.There's no way that it was ever going to have the immediacy and dynamic kick of my active Altec system,but there was a very engaging,pure rendition of the recorded performances which was interesting in it's own fashion.It was also a chance for me to hear those Yamaha components played through something different to my Altecs.I'd love to hear a more dynamic version of the same sound.

Would I buy a pair? Nope.I'm single and can listen at real-live musician in the room level whenever I want(with a nod to the neighbours between 9 pm and 9 am).My friend is married and needs to be more judicious about the maximum listening levels.My system suits my situation.His system suits his situation.I'd recommend them to anyone with a decent system who doesn't prefer high levels.

[DSJR]

The Concerto's and Cadenza's ended around 1977/78 as I remember, so should be regarded in the context of their time and place in UK audio history. Active speakers didn't exist back in 1972 or thereabouts I understand and high level monitoring needed to be done on huge and efficient speakers as I recall.

[spendorman]

The Concerto's and Cadenza's ended around 1977/78 as I remember, so should be regarded in the context of their time and place in UK audio history. Active speakers didn't exist back in 1972 or thereabouts I understand and high level monitoring needed to be done on huge and efficient speakers as I recall.

My Corelli's are have 1976 on the drive units, in my opinion they are much better in the mid and top end than the Cadenza, have those as well.

[DSJR]

The Cadenza came out years before the R104, which in effect was an update on the two-way-with ABR concept. The 104ab refined the crossover out of all recognition and I understand the Corelli was a smaller two way with the same drivers and crossovers as the 104ab, although I never took any apart to compare them.

Perhaps you could try 104ab crossovers in the Cadenza's?


By the way, at one time Wilmslow Audio used to make and/or market revised and updated crossovers for the Concerto/KEFKIT3. These were easy to replace at one time 'cos the crossovers were mounted on the front baffles behind the grilles.

[spendorman]

The Cadenza came out years before the R104, which in effect was an update on the two-way-with ABR concept. The 104ab refined the crossover out of all recognition and I understand the Corelli was a smaller two way with the same drivers and crossovers as the 104ab, although I never took any apart to compare them.

Perhaps you could try 104ab crossovers in the Cadenza's?

I had thought that, or even the Corelli crossovers in the Cadenza.

Trouble is that I found the Cadenza bass a little bloated.