I have had the following in storage for the last 12yrs and would like to use for a modest home entertainment system buying more used ADCOM:
ADCOM GTP-400 tuner preamp
ADCOM GFA-545[ll] power amp
ADCOM GCD-600 CD player
KEF C80 pair of floor standing speakers
KEF Concerto pair of floor standing speakers (in storage for 30yrs)
All of the above are in excellent condition and as you can tell I like KEF speakers.
Any suggestions?
Well you have a nice set up for two channel. If you want more, then you need an AVR or a processor preamp.
The C80 is a nice speaker with the venerable KEF B139 doing the honors in the bass. Although this driver is fifty years on it is still highly sought after and beloved of the DIY community. The C80 is sealed, I think you get better bass extension with it ported, but it works well sealed. It is a driver ideal for TL loading, and for that it is highly sought out.
The concerto is significantly outclassed.
KEF used a lot of electrolytic caps in their crossovers at that time. Electrolytics deteriorate over time, change value and even fail. Unfortunately a lot of those caps were sourced from Hunts, who were a British component maker, that single handed, just about destroyed the British electronics industry. The electrolytic caps in both those speaker sets should be replaced with modern polypropylene types.
This is your C80
I did an update of those speakers using more up to date mid and HF units, and the speaker is ported.
If you are going to set up full HT, then you could use the C80s for mains and the concertos for surrounds. The biggest problem would be finding a center to match those. Bextrene cones favored by Raymond Cooke have disappeared. I don't think Audax have any Bextrene cone drivers in their range now, so that will be a problem. I think the mid range unit on the C80 is Bextrene, and the concerto woofer definitely is. The B139 is polystyrene. The KEF tweeters of that era used melamine, and were not the best.
KEF was sold in 1992, to an outfit out of Hong Kong who also bought Rolla Celestion at the same time.
