Four decades of continuous development have long established KEF’s The Reference range as a benchmark for high-end loudspeakers and acoustic engineering and the new generation continues this legacy. The five models in the line-up, including two elegant three-way floor-standing speakers, a three-way bookshelf speaker, a three-way timbre-matched centre channel and a powerful twin-driver 1000-watt sub-woofer, benefit from the latest state-of-the-art KEF technologies offering high fidelity quality and complete multichannel versatility.

Clockwise from left: Reference 1, Reference 5, Reference 3, Reference Subwoofer, and in front The Reference 4c

At the heart of The Reference line we find the upgraded version of KEF’s most famous innovation: the Uni-Q point source MF/HF driver array. The tall three-way Reference 5 floorstander aligns four powerful, extremely linear 165mm (6.5 inch) bass drivers, with two above and two below this new concentric Uni-Q array which uses a new 25mm (1 inch) vented aluminium dome tweeter at the acoustic centre of a highly sophisticated 125mm (5in.) midrange driver.

KEF The Reference line in demonstration at Munich High-End 2014

Although the Uni-Q point source driver array may be KEF’s most widely know technology, there are many others used in the line. The Reference’s distinctive front baffle is made from laminated aluminum and resin composite which is formed in extreme temperature and pressure to add rigidity to the cabinet structure and providing acoustic damping. The powerful twin-driver ( 2 × 500 watts) subwoofer utilizes KEF’s ‘force-cancelling’ technology. Then there is also the unique ‘tangerine’ segmented waveguide, cleverly stiffened and optimised aluminium domes, sophisticated vented tweeters, constrained layer damping, Acoustic Compliance Enhancement, Z-flex surround, and the list go on…

• Available in Deep Piano Black, Satin American Walnut and Luxury Gloss Rosewood
• The “Kent Engineering and Foundry Edition” finishes include Blue Ice White and Copper Black Aluminum

Did you know:

When Raymond Cooke set out to perfect the reproduction of recorded sound in 1961, he set up his first research lab on the banks of the river Medway, in Tovil, Maidstone, Kent, in the garden of England in a wartime Nissen hut formerly occupied by Kent Engineering and Foundry. Hence the name: KEF.

Click on the image to learn about the entire 50 years of KEF history