Anyone running KEF speakers??

peterb sorry I do not know how to add attachments to this forum so apologies . I used the circuit diagram I was kindly sent by the KEF technical team and made sure all of the capacitor and resistor specifications were as close to the original as possible . I was able to buy a second pair of crossovers so I was able to remove the originals and store them then work on the second pair and upgrade them using film caps etc but not touching any of the inductors.

I can honestly say that when I turned on the speakers after they were first completed I was less than happy . They worked but the sound was tight and congested in the bass and was not really intergrating with the treble they seemed to be playing as two seperate units. I was about to remove the new CR's put the old one back in and start again but then I remembered when I had the Mains Capacitors replaced on my Krell KSA50 and on getting it home and turning it on being horrified at the poor sound it was producing advice then was to leave the unit running with music at low volume for a few hours which I did and was then greated with the old Krell sound I was used to .

So as the KEF's are not as dangerous (or costly ) to leave on as the Krell I put Radio Paradise in Flac quality on and let them play all night . Result next morning was that not only were the KEF 103's back and singing but they were now much improved smoother , more detailed and stronger bass with much improved imaging . As I use then hard against a wall imaging is the thing that suffers most so improvement is in this area is a nice bonus. Now what is I think impossible to say is was the improvement me just bringing the cr back to the original specification which is a good thing or did the "better" components I used make a difference . My personal view is a mixture of both and frankly I was not that bothered I just loved the sound and the KEF's became my main Music room system until I decided to make them active. 

Andrew I would be interested to know about the upgraded crossovers you built. 

Did you just duplicate the values?

Can you recall what make the caps were, below is the original circuit diagram from my kit.

Can’t go to a dealer to audition a selection of 90s KEF, L*nn & Spendors 😕

Bottom line is that they have matured into superb elements of my HiFi. They have outlived three power amp upgrades and seem to have sonically just got better and better, I think there is definite maturing process for speakers even though the 'timber' used is man made MDF. 

I am not very good at comparative sound tests, unless it is instant switch, I just know if I hear something wrong, it jars. Over the years what has jarred has always been down to a source or one of the electronic elements, never the speakers.

I have not listened to KEF's more recent models but I do trust their designs.

So from my limited experience, I guess that is one vote from me.