KEF showed their $140,000/pair Muon "concept" loudspeaker in a suite at the Hilton at the 2008 CES, but my assignment for the show report blog was electronics, so I so I passed on visiting the KEF suite. Big mistake! As the show went on, I heard several of my Stereophile colleagues raving about the KEF Muon, but by that time it would have been too inconvenient to go back the Hilton. But when I heard that KEF would be demonstrating the Muon at FSI, I was sure to check them out.

With a cabinet made of polished aluminum, the Muon is a tour-de-force of loudspeaker engineering. (If Sony did not already own this slogan, KEF could have used "Like. No. Other" to promote the speaker.) At this point, I've only listened to the speakers briefly, but that was enough to convince me that if I had $140,000 to spend on a pair of speakers, these would almost certainly be the ones. I'll be going back again later to give them a more extensive listen. And, in case you're wondering, this is no mere engineering concept, with no likelihood of anyone actually buying them. The word from KEF is that so far this year they've sold more than 20 pairs worldwide.

The speakers are finished in polished natural aluminum. The green hue in our photo stems from the fact that KEF was using a video projector to illuminate their room with an ever-changing color palette.