Speaker review? Odds on it's either going to feature prodigious bottom end or some sexy new high frequency driver. Whilst the industry and its customers remain obsessed with frequency extremes, people are forgetting that it's the mid-band that contains the vast majority of the musical information. Sure, the bass and treble are important but it's how they join to the mid-range that really matters. Despite its size and complexity here we have a speaker which is all about the parts creating a coherent whole. Don't be fooled by that muscular exterior, a sensitive heart beats within.

This story starts over 15 years ago, with a new model that marked a radical change of direction for KEF The 104.2 replaced the venerable 104AB with a then extremely unusual, slim (but boxy) floor standing enclosure containing no fewer than five drive units. With it came the flying baffle, coupled cavity bass loading, easy four ohm load and, above all, the efficiency that has characterised every floorstanding KEF Reference speaker until the appearance of the Maidstone. At a time when loudspeakers with pretensions to seriousness rated around 86dB, the 104.2s offered an almost unheard of 92! And remember, this was well before AV was even a twinkle in the Eastern sky or triodes made the biggest comeback since Lazarus. The 104.2 was so far ahead of its time it was like Jesse Owens in a lycra skin suit, and on the whole, people simply didn't know what to make of it. The final ingredient arrived with the 105.3. an even bigger floorstander which added the now familiar Uni-Q coincident driver to the 104 recipe. Here was a speaker with a thumping great box that traded bass extension for efficiency at a time when most other designers seemed intent on squeezing ever more woof out of progressively smaller cabinets. And I loved it! With 20 watts of JA30 on tap it was just what the doctor ordered. Taut, lean and fast, the 105.3 was devoid of the cuddly warmth that passes for bass in rather too many mini- monitors. It was, and still is, one of the most critically analytical speakers that I've ever used, and you know what they say; garbage in, garbage out. Hang it on the end of the mismatched hotchpotch of kit found in most dem rooms and you'll discover just how bad expensive equipment can sound. And as the hi-fi trade is just as likely to shoot the messenger as any other group of megalomaniac autocrats (just kidding guys), the 105.3 was never the success it should have been. Instead, it's insights were ignored, along with system set-up, and the music got trampled in the rush to shift more fashionable boxes. KEF were forced to think again.

Convinced of the correctness of their basic approach, they remodelled the Reference range, softening the bluff exteriors with heavy radiusing and adding a hefty slice of warmth to the bottom end, making the speakers far more system friendly and domestically acceptable. But whilst the new models One, Two, Three and Four were a great success in the A/V market, in hi-fi terms, and particularly in smaller listening rooms, they'd rather over-egged the pudding. Which brings us, finally to the leaner, meaner Reference Model Three-Two. But before we plunge ahead, let's take a moment to appreciate the foundation principles on which all these speakers rest. I guess we might as well start at the bottom:

Coupled Cavity Bass Loading.
This uses a pair of 8" bass drivers, each reflex loaded by its own sub enclosure, to drive a central, damped chamber which in turn, drives the room through the large diameter port in the speaker's flying baffle. Sounds complicated I know but just think of a driver at each end of the box, squeezing the air between them. Properly engineered this should lead to excellent low frequency efficiency combined with a very rapid roll-off. In the Three-Two, overall system efficiency is quoted as 91dB, with the -3dB point at 40Hz and the -6dB point at 36Hz. You see what I mean. The opposing drivers are linked by a massive extruded aluminium force cancelling rod, which goes a long way to reducing the influence of cabinet vibration on the sound.

Even 40mm Load
Despite abandoning Conjugate Load Matching, the Three-Two continues to offer a fairly benign four ohm load. Giving the driving amplifier slightly more to get its teeth into improves compatibility with Naim electronics, amongst others. Wide Dynamics The combination of easy drive, four ohm loading (twice the amplifier power) and good efficiency should improve overall dynamic range.

Decoupled Mid/Treble Baffle
The flying baffle enables the designer to physically separate the midrange drivers from the bass cabinet, reducing inter-modulation distortion and mid-range smearing.

Uni-Q Technology
The Uni-Q driver not only provides a coincident source across the upper octaves, the flare of its mid-range driver acoustically couples the tweeter output to the room, ensuring controlled dispersion characteristics from around 200 Hz upwards. Even the bass port mimics the effective diameter of the mid-range drivers. Thus, despite the fact that the Three-Two is a five driver, four way system, it should also be surprisingly coherent.

The Three-Two adds a couple of refinements to the original recipe. It retains the cast polymer base of the Three (which can be mass loaded if desired) but finally adds longer spikes to take account of the thick, gold-plated cosmetic feet that lock them in place. Better than the inadequate items that appeared on the Three and 105.3, they could still do with beefing up to M8, especially on a speaker of this size. It also gets a much needed new finish option, the beautiful Albina Burr of the review pair. Very nice.

But the most important change (from the 105.3) is hidden away. A reversible plug positioned inside the bass leg positive terminal of the cross-over allows the owner to alter the low frequency contour to compensate for near wall placement, making the speaker far more tolerant of the kind of small listening rooms which afflict so many British listeners, without compromising the performance in larger rooms (e.g. in the all-important USA). Because the coupled cavity rolls-off at around 160 Hz, which happens to coincide with the point at which rear boundary reinforcement starts to cancel, simply dropping the output from the bottom end by 1.5dB provides a simple, but remarkably effective compensation for bottom-end boom. In my admittedly well behaved room, the undoctored Three-Twos sit 57cm from the rear wall. Reverse the plugs and I can push them back to within 20cm without the bass getting its knickers in a twist. Stage depth suffers a bit, but otherwise the speaker adapts extremely well to such unfamiliar territory.

The Three-Twos replaced the really rather excellent little Indigo Model is, a speaker which on price grounds should offer little or no competition. But in practice, the limited performance envelope of a decent small speaker confers certain advantages when you compare it to its larger brethren; just consider the Linn Kan. But not in this case. The KEFs were immediately and obviously superior in every respect (including sheer fun, and that's going some where the Indigos are concerned). Sure, the extra bandwidth was pretty apparent, along with the enhanced scale that goes with it, but it was the sudden improvement in natural tonality and easy dynamics that really grabbed my attention. The gentle switchback piano and double-bass arpeggios of 'Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me' (This One's For Blanton Analogue Productions CAPJ 015) had a wonderful aplomb to their passage, sure footed and surely paced, effortlessly descending to the lower registers and back with out any sense of strain or slurring. The Duke's stabbed opening was just where it should be, as was the graceful transition to his flowing melodic lines. And I only put it on to check the positioning and bass linearity of the set-up. When a speaker breathes new life into a familiar musical work horse, you know that it's doing something pretty fundamental right. In this case it has to do with the top to bottom coherence of the speaker system.

This coherence, which is so vital to a musically convincing performance, is one of the main advantages enjoyed by two-way designs (at the price of limited bandwidth). What KEF have achieved is a four-way design which matches the coherence of the best two-ways, whilst adding a healthy combination of efficiency and bottom-end extension. In reality the KEFs don't go as low as their size might suggest, but you need to balance that against the ease of drive. The physically smaller NHT 2.9s go deeper, but at the price of electrical requirements which would make an awful lot of amplifiers quail. I got superb results from the Three-Twos with the little Canary valve integrated, whilst most of my listening was done with the JA30s. All 20 watts of them.

The combination of coherence and scale puts a sense of performance right at the top of the KEF's list of attributes. Add to that the immediacy and vibrance that comes with more efficient designs, and you end up with a speaker that communicates very directly indeed. At the same time, its natural tonal balance and well behaved tweeter stop it being aggressive or wearing. The end result is a sound that's big and packed with life and presence. What the recording does with it is, of course, another matter. The Groovenote recording Here's To Ben (GRV1001) is an audiophile tour de force. As a recording of small ensemble jazz it's hard to fault. The performance is another matter. I'm afraid that pop singer Jacintha, whilst she has a beautiful voice, simply doesn't cut it as an interpreter of these jazz standards. Okay so my views might not accord with other writers, including some who work on this magazine, but just compare Jacintha to Betty Carter or Ella with the Three-Twos, and you'll see where I'm coming from. The range, emotion and power of either of the older performers transcends the limitations of their recordings. The spectacular clarity of the Groovenote only exposes the performance as a pale and unconvincing alternative. The KEFs don't punish bad recordings, they just punish bad music.

What the Groovenote did reveal was the Three-Two's one consistent weakness. No matter what equipment I partnered them with, I found that the excellent separation and focus across the front of the stage didn't extend back. They didn't lack stage depth, it was just that they lost snap and transparency the further back you go. This isn't an effect I've ever suffered before, and both KEF and I are at a loss to explain it. Whether it's limited to my environment I can't say so you'd best check it out for yourself. Whilst I was aware of it, I can't say that it interfered with my musical enjoyment to any great extent, so I think this one's a personal call.

The KEF's life and impressive scale make it a natural for the kind of intimate recordings that go with jazz and acoustic rock or pop. The out and out head-banger should probably look elsewhere, but everything from violin sonatas up to complex studio rock and full orchestral pieces are handled with an easy grace. The Three-Twos can get nasty when they need to, but they really are the consummate all-rounder, playing and letting you enjoy whatever you throw at them. That makes them an excellent choice for straight stereo use, but I have to say (reluctantly because some people will see it as a slur) that they are a God-send for the listener who wants to combine a high quality two channel set-up with an ultra refined A/V system. Used with an all Uni-Q surround package and a really good sub-woofer, the results would be seriously impressive. Me? I stick to stereo, and despite a collection of much more expensive alternatives, I'll be sorry to see the elegant KEFs depart.