KEF Reference 1 vs. Olympica 1


I’ve been a music lover and DJ for decades and have bought tons of DJ gear over the years but now I’m focusing more on my family/listening room and need help with comparing some speakers.
Ive owned B&Ws for most of my adult life and as I got older, the diamonds became fatiguing and I decided to change things up. After reading many reviews, I decided to go with either Kef Reference 1 or Olympica 1. I’m buying them used and currently am using B&K 200.7 to drive them.
Any help and experience would be greatly appreciated.
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Showing 1 response by dynguy

I owned the Reference 1 and the large center since they first came available and recently sold them. 

They are great speakers and i did I did enjoy them but as time went by I grew less interested in them. They do nothing wrong as many speakers in this price range but on the other hand music to me didn’t have the ability for me to let go of analyzing the sound and just cut loose and enjoy the music.

They were great for HT with the monster center.

The funny thing is as I was a very early buyer and they were just releasing. I thing I ordered them in October but it took until March in I’m remembering correctly. I was getting frustrated and nearly canceled. During that time I auditioned the Olympica at Magnolias and thought they were not my liking. They were not set up that great either. I remember trying a couple more times and on the third audition they were set up nicely and I really really liked them. I didn’t fully understand at the time as my KEFs had not arrived yet but if I had a chance to redo I most likely would have canceled the KEFs and went Olympica. I just feel they are a speaker that was more musically there in a way that the KEFs were not.

i went to Legacy Calibre this time but I think this time I got it right. I’ll know soon.