Ralph Mckenzie
Member
- Messages
- 57
- Location
- Hamilton, New Zealand
A while ago I bought an Onkyo 7.1 home theatre amp to replace our ageing sony unit.
The Onkyo worked fine as a 5.1 amp but a friend also had one but was running full 7.1 sound. Boy is there ever a difference :
The rears we were using were small Solid units ( made by B&W England), and these would do fine as surrounds.
This left me with a problem... what to do about the back speakers.While perusing the speakers section on the trade me auction I can across these http://www.kef.com/en/about/museum (click the 1980's link and look for Concord IV)I have always been a Kef fan since the early seventies. Very pricey way back then and I could never afford them. These are circa 1980 -81 and have 2 bass/midrange and one tweeter.
After looking at the specs I got to thinking that these units would perform better in a different style of cabinet and only one woofer would be needed.
I did a google on speaker design and cabinet characteristics and came up with the units shown. Taylored specifically for this particular 8 woofer and sealed rather than ported.
The cabinets are made from recycled 2 x 4 rough sawn New Zealand native "Rimu". The walls are 3/4 of an inch all round and the density is similar to that of MDF. I still have to make the grill covers, but we tested them today as fronts and they blew my 21st century B&W out of the water. By luck or design the sound image is perfect. My son and I auditioned them against the B&W's and no matter what we played the 25 year old Kef speaker were better in every respect. Shows how good a good cabinet and design is when coupled with a good speaker manufacture.
To say I'm pleased with the look and sound of them would be an understatement
Note first photo shows the original Kef and the third photo shows the B&W which are our main front speakers...the re-done Kefs will for now be used as rears until I decide what to do with the B&W's.
NB: The kefs I bought for $180.00 for the pair.
The Onkyo worked fine as a 5.1 amp but a friend also had one but was running full 7.1 sound. Boy is there ever a difference :
The rears we were using were small Solid units ( made by B&W England), and these would do fine as surrounds.
This left me with a problem... what to do about the back speakers.While perusing the speakers section on the trade me auction I can across these http://www.kef.com/en/about/museum (click the 1980's link and look for Concord IV)I have always been a Kef fan since the early seventies. Very pricey way back then and I could never afford them. These are circa 1980 -81 and have 2 bass/midrange and one tweeter.
After looking at the specs I got to thinking that these units would perform better in a different style of cabinet and only one woofer would be needed.
I did a google on speaker design and cabinet characteristics and came up with the units shown. Taylored specifically for this particular 8 woofer and sealed rather than ported.
The cabinets are made from recycled 2 x 4 rough sawn New Zealand native "Rimu". The walls are 3/4 of an inch all round and the density is similar to that of MDF. I still have to make the grill covers, but we tested them today as fronts and they blew my 21st century B&W out of the water. By luck or design the sound image is perfect. My son and I auditioned them against the B&W's and no matter what we played the 25 year old Kef speaker were better in every respect. Shows how good a good cabinet and design is when coupled with a good speaker manufacture.
To say I'm pleased with the look and sound of them would be an understatement
Note first photo shows the original Kef and the third photo shows the B&W which are our main front speakers...the re-done Kefs will for now be used as rears until I decide what to do with the B&W's.
NB: The kefs I bought for $180.00 for the pair.
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