Erin Hardison of Erin's Audio Corner walked around folding laundry in front of KEF's LS60 Wireless and never heard the tone change. That's KEF's Uni-Q driver at work. Most speakers stack the tweeter above the woofer, so the sound shifts as your head moves. KEF puts the tweeter right in the center of the cone, so both play from the same spot and the sound holds steady as you move around. Reviewers credit it for KEF's imaging. Andrew Robinson calls the LS50 Meta "among the best imaging loudspeakers I have ever heard," and Erin describes KEF's soundstage as "more like an oval shape" with soft edges. KEF suits listeners who want the speakers to vanish and a center image that holds still, including people who don't always sit in one spot.

There are two ways into KEF. The passive speakers, from the Q and R Series up to the LS50 Meta and the Reference and Blade, need a separate amplifier, and the quality of that amplifier shows. The active models, like the LSX II, LS50 Wireless II and LS60 Wireless, have their amplifiers built in and run from the KEF Connect app. John Darko had an LS50 Wireless II set up in under 10 minutes and called it "Sonos-grade." Either way, aim the speakers just to the side of your seat rather than straight at you, and plan on a subwoofer with the smaller models. Erin calls the R3 Meta "the best value in its class," and Darko, who first noticed its bass from the kitchen while making coffee, gave it his Knockout Award and said he would buy a white pair.

KEF grew up alongside the BBC's monitor speakers. Raymond Cooke had worked at the BBC and at Wharfedale before he and Robert Pearch started KEF in 1961, in Nissen huts on the land of Kent Engineering & Foundry, which gave the company its name. KEF's drivers went into the BBC's LS3/5A, a small studio monitor that eleven companies built under license, tens of thousands of pairs in all. Laurie Fincham's Uni-Q, which KEF dates to 1988, became possible once neodymium magnets were strong and cheap enough to fit at the neck of a cone. The LS50 of 2012 brought the two together. KEF built it for its 50th anniversary and said it was inspired by the LS3/5A, and Stereophile named it both Budget Component and Overall Component of 2013, the first time one product had ever taken both. The Reference and Blade are still hand-assembled in Maidstone, each pair built start to finish by one person who signs it.