KEF 104/2 - The speaker gods have spoken

I stumbled upon a pair of KEF 104/2's locally for $110. Rubber woofer surrounds, dust caps should be replaced, I would call the cabinets and grills a 7-7.5. It should be an easy restoration. I'm an ADS speaker man and I am planning to build a Sigfried Linkwitz DIY design but when I saw these for $110 i couldn't pass them up. I sold my ADS 1590's two years ago for $750 and I've been looking for a replacement for low $$.

I hate listener fatigue. ADS, KEF, B&W and NHT all seem to understand the problem and have developed designs that you can listen ot for a long time without needing to leave the room in 30 minutes or less.

I'll post pic when I get them. I look forward to your comments and advice during the restoration.

Has anyone been able to A/B test KEF's against ADS speakers? Both companies made some of the top designs in the 80's and 90's.
 
bhebbel said:
I stumbled upon a pair of KEF 104/2's locally for $110. Rubber woofer surrounds, dust caps should be replaced, I would call the cabinets and grills a 7-7.5. It should be an easy restoration. I'm an ADS speaker man and I am planning to build a Sigfried Linkwitz DIY design but when I saw these for $110 i couldn't pass them up. I sold my ADS 1590's two years ago for $750 and I've been looking for a replacement for low $$.

I hate listener fatigue. ADS, KEF, B&W and NHT all seem to understand the problem and have developed designs that you can listen ot for a long time without needing to leave the room in 30 minutes or less.

I'll post pic when I get them. I look forward to your comments and advice during the restoration.

Has anyone been able to A/B test KEF's against ADS speakers? Both companies made some of the top designs in the 80's and 90's.
Click to expand...



You won't be disappointed. A lot of similarities between ADS and KEF in terms of the smooth high end and midrange sound. The difference to me is in the lower midrange, mid bass. The ADS sound a bit "rounder" and the KEF sound a bit more "forward." I prefer the KEF sound. Haven't heard a KEF I didn't like yet, just varying degrees of loooove.


I hope you find this thread helpful as you restore yours!
 
I picked up the KEF 104/2's from the thrift store. Great cosmetics. Original shipping cartons included!!! $103

I'll post pics later tonight.

I need to know what is the correct ferrofluid to buy.

Is this it?
http://www.parts-express.com/ferrofluid-650ul-general-purpose-for-2-diameter-vc--340-54

I have seen posts where people have used 300 uL fluid instead of the 650uL in the parts express link.

Which one is correct?

I'll need to get dustcaps as well. Are they all the same? any recommendations?
 
each side use about 150 uL. So either size, when measured out accordingly.

And that is a STEAL of a deal. A STEAL!
 
baco99 said:
each side use about 150 uL. So either size, when measured out accordingly.

And that is a STEAL of a deal. A STEAL!
Click to expand...

I was kind of stunned wehn i stumbled onto them. i stopped in a at a Restore/Habitat for Humanity store. They had been in the store for some time. They were put on the floor for $275. They were marked down twice before I discovered them. When I found out they had the original shipping cartons in the back of the store I got a little wobbly. This may qualify as the best pick I ever had!

The Restore stores do not normally sell any electronics gear. I got lucky. If you have a Restore store close to you try to stop in there. It's sort of a poor man's Home Depot.
 
KEF speaker find

I'm a little late posting pictures of the KEF speakers that I picked up from the RESTORE Habitat for Humanity store. These speakers included the original shipping cartons. They have the butyl rubber surround on the woofers. I purchased ferrofluid and dustcaps for the tweeters and woofers. The cabinets are nearly perfect except for on scratch on the side of one of the speakers. Unfortunately, my son is going to college and I need to sell these fine speakers. I wish I could keep them but I have to let them go.
 

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Nice find - and fantastic condition!
I see its the first revision, SP3037 (pre 1990)

Good luck with them, and the restoration of the tweeters. It's a pretty easy job, though it sounds fiddly. Just be carefull when applying the ferrofluid. Once that stuff hits the magnet, it gets s u c k e d out of the tube.
Next time i need to do such a job, i will make two portions, one for each tweeter - so it's easier to get the right amount on each.
 
I'm reading this thread the whole thing, knowing that baco99 has had a few speakers. I see how he loves these 104/2s and gets a second pair, a pair of cabinets and extras and then gives em the full monty with minor updates to correct those little late night project jobs we all mess up.

Now he waxes poetic about them without telling us a bit about how they sound. He has me searching the web for a pair. And I see a pair for sale in MA and a pair of mt cabinets, too...wondering.

But I continue to read and and notice the admiration of this speaker and then finally in the 213th post, I read that the DQ-10 is not such a bad speaker to fall back to when the KEF needs to go under the knife (screwdriver) once again.

I'm lost. baco99 has gotten me to rebuild two pair of DQ-10s and now I need to move on to the 104/2 but wait, if those are his on CL, I don't know whose they are, what are better than the 104/2 that makes him want to move on? Or is it there the seller has another pair? I notice that the DQ-10s were on BT a while ago and are not in the gear list anymore.

I just don't know what to do. Guess I'll just crank of the wall of DQ goodness, they are on dining room chairs across the front of the listening room and keep reading AK for the next thing and let the 104/2 slide until they show up at the right price as a few of the late posters in this thread mentioned.

Great read guys. Makes getting a pair and redoing them something of a fun project. Seems hands are already held on this restoration.
 
Happy 104-hunting, BS.
Mine is going soon too, as i haven't got the room for them, after i moved to a new house. I have decided to dial down the size of my speakers, and go almost bookshelve'y.
My, soon-to-be, ex-104.2's has given me lots of joy through the years - but now it's time to move in another direction.
 
Blue Shadow said:
I'm reading this thread the whole thing, knowing that baco99 has had a few speakers. I see how he loves these 104/2s and gets a second pair, a pair of cabinets and extras and then gives em the full monty with minor updates to correct those little late night project jobs we all mess up.

Now he waxes poetic about them without telling us a bit about how they sound. He has me searching the web for a pair. And I see a pair for sale in MA and a pair of mt cabinets, too...wondering.

But I continue to read and and notice the admiration of this speaker and then finally in the 213th post, I read that the DQ-10 is not such a bad speaker to fall back to when the KEF needs to go under the knife (screwdriver) once again.

I'm lost. baco99 has gotten me to rebuild two pair of DQ-10s and now I need to move on to the 104/2 but wait, if those are his on CL, I don't know whose they are, what are better than the 104/2 that makes him want to move on? Or is it there the seller has another pair? I notice that the DQ-10s were on BT a while ago and are not in the gear list anymore.

I just don't know what to do. Guess I'll just crank of the wall of DQ goodness, they are on dining room chairs across the front of the listening room and keep reading AK for the next thing and let the 104/2 slide until they show up at the right price as a few of the late posters in this thread mentioned.

Great read guys. Makes getting a pair and redoing them something of a fun project. Seems hands are already held on this restoration.
Click to expand...


I suppose the "speaker garage" is a confusing place to try to understand. :scratch2:

The 104/2 that you see listed on CL, located in Tewksbury MA, are not mine. They belong to a local audiophile who I do not believe to be on AK. The empty cabs are also his. He used some parts to restore the ones that are for sale.

My 104/2 are still here :thmbsp:, only temporarily displaced by the KEF Reference One "FrankenKEF" project. These are my second set of 104/2. The first set that I picked up had some cosmetic challenges, within about a month, I found a second set that was physically near perfect. Within that same month I found a pair of bass bins with woofers inside. I sold off the first set, parted the incomplete bass bins, and restored the second set, which are the ones that I still own; the ones of lore.

I also restored foppy's later model Rosewood finish 104/2. But I never owned those.

The DQ-10s are also still here :yes:. I picked those up from ToddMcDonna, fellow AK member, and gave them the works. In the process, edroom also picked up some DQ-10s, and I worked on those as well. Ed's DQ-10s were sold to Urchinn, another local AK member.

It's a bit like tracking the royal family's lineage.

And the reason why the DQ-10s aren't listed is because they are currently sitting idle, and there's not enough characters in the Signature field to accommodate all the crap that I have!!!

2dc5709f6f034aac421ad011b31a7f2f.jpg
 
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baco99 said:
And the reason why the DQ-10s aren't listed is because they are currently sitting idle, and there's not enough characters in the Signature field to accommodate all the crap that I have!!!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update. I agree with having too much stuff to list. I broke mine out to equipment types. Just the phono preamps took a full like. Tape takes a full line and so on.

I can't post the main rig as I'm always swapping gear. Mark said the other day that he likes bringing gear here because our group can hear it on a system they are familiar with and I'll have the cables and cords to connect it. This keeps me busy but I get to listen to new to me music when the folks drop by.
 
I will be using my ol' trusty B&W DM17's for now, until my new (yes...NEW, as in not-at-all-vintage!) Buchardt Audio S300's arrive past new year's.

Messing aorund at this very moment, trying to find out where to put what...
ftok8k.jpg


The lack of space in my new room null's the 104.2's in the equation - so they'll go on the classified's soon. Not a single problem with them - besides they need a minor brush up cosmetically. I had fun with them, restoring the original tweeters and all - but, the times are a' changin'...

1zovivp.jpg


How i HATE moving - if you don't count the fact that there's, ofcourse, mostly positive sides to it. But tearing all the gear down, packing, moving, and then trying to find all the different stuff afterwards, is like <insert your own sour swearwords here> every time. *oh well* :D
 
Well I'm going to bury this comment deep in this thread. A pair of 104.2s showed up on CL near me. no link, don't what anyone to grab em. But they come with the kube...but the price is a grand. Probably because we talk about them. I have number of speakers that cost less, including stacked, mirrored, recapped DQ-10s. These 104s are too much for me. But then I did say I would look for some and bam there they are.
 
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Here's the dilemma with my beloved 104.2's.
I had the tweeters serviced 2 years ago.
Now I notice one of the donuts is starting to crumble.
Local shop who knows what they're doing says $400 to $500 to do all four woofers.

Have listened to various very nice speakers in the 3K range lately but many are a bit on the bright side (B&W, Focal, Ryan, Monitor Audio) and those I really liked are out of my price range, approaching 5K (PMC).

I am the original owner and these speakers are MINT.
Should I fix them (and if so is it time to do the X'vers too)?

Will new donuts have any effect on the sound, or are they simply cosmetic and/or voice coil protection
 
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