Piano Black

Like the deeply lacquered mirror shine of a concert grand, the seductively smooth high gloss jet black finish accentuates the gentle curves of the Reference Series cabinets.

Satin Black

As sophisitcated and seductive as piano black but with a more understated and delicate sheen.

High Gloss American Walnut

Light to dark chocolate brown, occasionally with a purplish cast and darker streaks, growing more lustrous with age. The deep shine brings out the rich character of the slightly open, generally straight grain.

High Gloss Cherry

Prized for fine cabinet work and musical instruments because of its smooth texture, fine uniform grain and deep colour, cherry heartwood ranges from a warm burnt orange to rich red with occasional dark flecks.

Satin Sycamore

Creamy white to palest yellow, sycamore has a close, even texture with subtly interlocked grain and natural lustre. The preferred wood for violin backs, its natural lustre is brought out by a distinctive satin sheen.

Satin Walnut

As the lustre of high gloss does not appeal to everyone, the American Walnut veneer is also available in a satin finish.  The same rich character of the walnut with its chocolate brown, purpulish hue and straight grain but with a more natural satin finish.

Satin Cherry

The same high grade quality veneer as the High Gloss Cherry but finished in a more subtle satin sheen, Cherry is one of the finest woods for any cabinet.

Graphite (Metallic Dark Grey)

Grigio (Metallic Mid Grey)

Stardust (Metallic Silver)

Pale Gold (Metallic Gold)

Garnet (Metallic Dark Red)

Sapphire (Metallic Dark Blue)

Orange Sorbet (Metallic Orange)

Lime Sorbet (Metallic Bright Green)

Lemon Sorbet (Metallic Yellow)

Snow White (Gloss White)

Racing Red (Bright Red)

Racing Blue (Bright Blue)

Uni-Q

KEF’s latest Uni-Q^® driver array is the most natural-sounding yet. The tweeter at the centre of the midrange cone now has a vented three-magnet motor system and a unique new braced dome, creating a perfectly time-aligned point source whose directivity is optimised by the reprofiled cone. As a result, dispersion is wider than ever. Power response is more uniform. Multi-channel imaging is even more stable - and stunningly realistic.

Crossover

The Reference Series crossovers are computer modelled to optimise driver integration and response accuracy, and then fine-tuned by ear to ensure naturalness and a musically rewarding listening experience. Separate circuit boards are used wherever possible for the different frequency bands, with all components carefully laid out to minimise electro-magnetic interactions, and all boards are mechanically decoupled to isolate them from cabinet vibration. The quality of the signal path is maintained by taking advantage of the minimal losses in polypropylene capacitors and the linearity of air-cored inductors and the internal cabling is chosen for its accurate, neutral sonic character.

Faraday Rings

KEF engineers have succeeded in greatly reducing the distortions that affect moving coil drive units by adding twin, balanced, Faraday rings above and below the voice coil. The negative effects caused by flux modulation and the variation of coil inductance with position are virtually eliminated by these carefully designed, low impedance ‘shorted turns’. By generating a magnetic field that cancels the unwanted field from the voice coil, this innovation reduces harmonic distortion by as much as ten times (20dB). Extending the benefits still further, the physical prescence of the metal rings aids heat dissipation over the whole length of the voice coil, thereby improving the dynamic performance and power handling.

Cabinet

Precision engineered to eliminate every unwanted vibration, Reference Series cabinets are works of art in themselves. Massive internal bracing tailors the volume of each enclosure to the exact parameters of its drive unit. Extensive mechanical and acoustic damping, together with independent driver loading and KEF’s decoupling techniques, creates inert enclosures that eradicate any vestigial panel resonance, standing waves, stray reflections or box colourations.