KEF KHT2005.2 review

KEF's little Eggs helped redefined the sub/sat market when they burst on to the scene a few years ago. There have been plenty of pretenders to KEF's throne since, some of which have performed better than these little beauties, but when manufacturers design stylish sub/sat systems, these remain the ones to beat.

As an example of consumer electronics design, they are irritatingly triumphant and ooze a great deal of class; whether dressed in the silver or the stylish black alternative. The five identical egg-shaped satellites house a smart little 100mm Uni-Q driver with a 19mm tweeter embedded in its centre.

The subwoofer - revamped from the original, reasonably well-received version - utilises a 250mm long-throw bass drive unit in a sealed box design, powered by a 250W amplifier.

Thanks to the inventive nature of the Uni-Q driver's construction, it's possible to rotate the centre satellite by 90° for aesthetic reasons, but still have a coherent soundfield throughout the system. The resulting sound envelopes you in a genuinely convincing manner, with realistically reproduced voices and a powerful presence across the front.

The revamped subwoofer is also a star in its own right, dropping low and dealing with the best my wide-ranging test arsenal has to offer without ever sounding flatulent or giving way to the huffing and puffing that some ported subwoofers occasionally suffer from.

Even this most recent version of the KEF system is getting on a bit now, and where this package was once unique, it now has a number of convincing rivals, most notably the Cabasse system. But the brand's motto is 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' and there's no doubt that this system sounds as fresh now as it did the day it was hatched.