KEF History - The 1980s
Ten years of growth world-wide followed, peaking with a massive onslaught on the lucrative and influential US market in 1985 with the setting up of KEF Electronics of America, seen as the appropriate recognition of this important market place.
1986 saw more activity amongst the now world famous KEF Reference Series; the 104/2, always regarded as one of the world's truly outstanding loudspeakers since its 1984 launch spawned the 107, in reality an evolution of the 105/2 but with KEF's coupled-cavity bass loading, a system which positions the drivers internal to the enclosure, each separately loaded and firing into a third common chamber which delivers very tight and accurate bass to the listening area via a substantial front-mounted port. This combines the taut sonic character of a sealed box with the ultra-high sensitivity of a reflex design and succeeds in providing a huge boost to bass performance. Also came the 102 and the 103/2, both accepted by recording and broadcast engineers as ideal monitors.
KEF's reputation as loudspeaker engineers was set in stone.
As well as the coupled-cavity bass loading system, KEF Reference loudspeakers boasted such highly sophisticated features as a conjugate load network technique, which makes even a complicated loudspeaker design simplicity itself from the amplifier's perspective and a heavily damped midrange module which preserves low coloration and fine stereo. A Force Cancelling Rod, fitted between the vertically opposed bass units was an added introduction, eliminating the possibility for coloration caused by woofer vibrations exciting the enclosure panels.
Amidst all this excitement, 1988 also brought in the birth of the KEF Custom Installation speakers, a move made in response to new world market demands. The same exacting engineering standards were naturally applied to the range and the CR200F and its sub-bass partner, the CR250SW set new standards from in-wall/ceiling units.
Then, again in 1988, came Uni-Q®. A design process, painstakingly evolved by KEF over several years, by which a single point source at last became a reality. The HF units made use of a rare-earth magnet material.
Neodymium/Iron/Boron which was developed for the NASA Space Programme. 10 times more powerful than a conventional loudspeaker magnet, this material allowed KEF engineers to make a tweeter small enough to fit within the bass unit coil former at the precise acoustic centre of the cone. KEF's Uni-Q technology delivered well-defined stereo imaging over a much wider listening area without the need for the time honoured sacred "hot-spot" in the listening room. The 105/3 was a massive success, bringing together, not just Uni-Q (now in its second generation form), but all of KEF's magnificent technology - coupled-cavity bass loading, conjugate load matching, force cancelling rod, computer matched crossovers and drive units, even hand pair-matched veneer finishes - in fact almost everything by which KEF had made its name as the world's foremost loudspeaker engineer - in to one product. It was voted Best Imported Speaker by the Japanese Press in 1992.