The Quest for The KEF… Reference 107!

Not to go off topic, but it's interesting you should say that, I found the same thing with my IMFs over the 107s. Both are very good but for music listening I do prefer the IMFs.

Anyway, carry on. :)

Like minds think alike!!! :thmbsp:

Yahooo.... first on page 9 of the very fine "R107 Quest Thread"!!! :banana:
 
Thanks everybody!

I also ran this past my speaker buddy and he said the more "audiophile" way to do this would be to keep my separates so I have a dedicated amp for the fronts...that no AVR is going to match the dedicated amp (at least not in the same size box...makes sense). He said to look for a used AV processor that I could run the other channels with. Maybe I'll go this route. We'll see, I don't even have all of the gear assembled yet...the Panasonic AVR is in Arkansas with my bro...I might be back here in a few months when I have all the gear in one place, for more help! Maybe the Panasonic will be able to run the center and the rear surrounds, act as the processor, and pass the signal to my current setup to run the fronts. I won't have the fancy room correction that I would have with the Emotiva Fusion 8100 though...I've never used room correction so not sure how big of a difference it makes?

The Kef's are impressive but yeah, they are pretty darn accurate. At least my wife likes them...much less dominating in the living room than the big Maggie's were!
 
Thundermud took some beautiful pics of these...you've probably seen all those, though. Here they are right after I brought them home.

KefMaggie_zps5884307c.jpg


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Thundermud took some beautiful pics of these...you've probably seen all those, though. Here they are right after I brought them home.

Nice looking setup Hawkeye... surprised the misses didn't like the Maggies, they matched the white decor!!! ;)

Not sure if you have room to the left to move the KEF out... the wider the better on these puppies. So I assume the R103.2's will go above the TV? I bought a "Closet Shelf" at Target. I liked it because it was wood and light weight, but it is solidly mounted to the wall joists. May or may not work for you!
 
Nice, but I'd try to get all that "stuff" out from between the KEFs! :D

Seriously, if you can hang the TV on the wall, and move the electronics & cabinet to another wall, you'll likely enjoy the results. I try not to have anything more than a plant or two between the speakers if possible. :thmbsp:
 
Thanks Frommer. That will be the goal at the new place in a few months. I'm picking up a DIY rack (and 12" sub) from my buddy in 3 weeks. SLOOOW progress, or I may end up a single man...and I need my wife's income to buy speakers! Haha. Some day when we buy a house...and this will be in 4-5 years...I will have a dedicated listening room and do it proper...until then I have to make it living room friendly for the wife.

Looks like order of upgrades is:
- rack
- 12" subwoofer
- AV processor (maybe)
 
Sorry if this question has been posed before...

To all of you 107 owners: do you see a problem with keeping the Kube set to 18 hz ALL THE TIME? I figure why not take advantage of the "full range" that these speakers can reproduce, but if it could potentially be a problem, I'll change the setting. The manual says something about choosing 25 or 18 hz only for "critical listening." What if you are ALWAYS critically listening?! ;)
 
Sorry if this question has been posed before...

To all of you 107 owners: do you see a problem with keeping the Kube set to 18 hz ALL THE TIME? I figure why not take advantage of the "full range" that these speakers can reproduce, but if it could potentially be a problem, I'll change the setting. The manual says something about choosing 25 or 18 hz only for "critical listening." What if you are ALWAYS critically listening?! ;)

I'm with ya... I always keep it set to 18Hz, but I could see if you were listening to some really Bass Heavy music like with a Pipe Organ or something, it might get to be a bit much. At least you have the flexibility to dial it back.

But no, to answer your question, I think the speakers can handle a daily diet of low bass... within reason!!! ;)
 
I leave mine to full extension all the time. If I recall the explanation we got from Kef, I think it was more about not stressing a marginal amp and for the occasional recording that might have had excess bass content to sound good on lesser systems.
 
Having them set to18hz could pose a problem with some phono playback, unless you use some form of sub harmonic filter, if you don't have sufficient acoustic isolation for the table. In short, if you generate enough very low frequency sound in your listening room to excite the tone arm, you can cause an oscillation (feedback) loop. If you've ever experienced it, they can be VERY dramatic, loud, and ultimately destructive.
 
So we moved into the new place last night. The living room is fairly small and a fireplace on one wall. Looks like the 107's are going to need to be turned sideways to sit on the fireplace "ledge"...if they sit on the floor, they are largely obscured by the couches and the equipment rack...it just doesn't look as good. Anyone had to use their 107's facing sideways? Obviously I rotated the heads to face the listening position. Rotating the heads this far does block a small part of the bass port. We'll see how it sounds. No chance to mess with it last night, and I don't currently have speaker wires long enough to even reach the left speaker. I'll have to post a pic later.
 
I've tried my R107/2s with the bases turned sideways (you actually need to lift the heads slightly to turn them passed 45deg), and I didn't notice any glaring differences in bass integration. Of course I only did this when I had to push them up against the back wall and THAT did have some affect on sound - not in the bass so much as image depth. Still sounded good, and balance remained excellent with just a bit more upper bass "warmth" - not a bad thing, but soundstage suffered a bit from having the speakers so close to the wall. I can imagine some folks might actually prefer them that way!

One of the nice things about the 107's bass cabinet, is that it does lessen interaction with the room and surroundings. They're much more tolerant of surrounding furniture, or close wall locations than most competing designs with conventional front firing woofers... night & day between 107s & B&W 801s for instance!

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how that works for you... and some pics would be great too! :thmbsp:
 
I used to own a pair of these sublime speakers. They were way better without the kube. Once I tried then without it I never used it again. They are one of the few speakers that can move objects in the room without you hearing the sound that's moving them - ditch the kube and enjoy 18hz of sublime power.

Wish I'd never sold them but shipping them to Spain would have cost a small fortune.

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They were way better without the kube.

Some are for and some against... I like having the Bass Extension, but yeah, there is some interaction with the mid-range. I'm using a set of JPS Golden Flutes right now. I haven't had enough time to really compare them to the KUBE, but many find them to provide the Bass Extension without the mid-range effect.

flutea.jpg
 
I also independently grounded the mid and tweeter from the main crossover (which is gargantuan) and there was a significant improvement in transparency. Be careful though - I had to damage the cabinet a little to do it.

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Sooo...one of my 107's decided to act up last night. I'm not sure what's going on with them yet, but here's what happened:

Speakers had been playing fine, but the right one was occasionally cutting out or not working at all. I assumed a loose speaker wire connection, because I could usually re-attach the wires and it would start working again. Last night, I couldn't get this to help. I tried different speaker wires and no luck. I moved the speaker wires from the left speaker to the right one, and the right one still wouldn't play. Moved it back to the left speaker, and it played. So obviously, it seems to be in the right speaker itself :(

I'm going to look at obvious things first...the speaker terminals. I'll need to get inside the cabinet...anyone know how to get to these? Through the top or through the bottom? I'm not sure I'm using the right terminology either...

Now a little background...one day several months ago I was working around the speakers and stepped on the speaker wire, while it was connected to the speaker. It broke the banana plugs off, inside the speaker terminals. I don't think part of the plugs are still stuck in the speaker, because a new banana plug slides right in?

Also, I found that the connections on my cheap-o speaker wires were not good...the screw that tightens the banana plug to the speaker wire was not there, so the connection from the wire to the banana plug was loose...could a poor connection actually damage a speaker? Or could a failing amp damage a speaker? The reason I ask about the amp is because I moved the Apogees upstairs...they sounded great downstairs, powered by a lowly Panasonic AVR, but sounded like crap upstairs with the Emotiva separates...they would sound okay but then there would be some major distortion and buzzing. And I had been hearing some distortion in both of the Kef 107's, especially when turning up the volume...what are the chances that the amp is failing and underpowering the speakers? How can you tell if the amp is putting out appropriate power or if it is failing?

Sorry, lots of questions here, and my speaker troubleshooting skills aren't the greatest yet!

The Kef's have been completely restored just a year or two ago, and the Emotiva amps are only a year old.
 
Well forget about all of that! The speaker terminal was turned a bit...I think I tightened the connector down too much and it turned the whole terminal! I loosened it a little bit and the connection was restored. Speaker is working fine now...whew!
 
We used to have terminals that moved around even on new demo sets. They could have used a bit more torque at the factory.
 
I suggest you remove the bottom panels (6, or 8 screws, can't recall which) and check/tighten the terminals, first to the cabinets so they won't turn, then the wires to the terminals on the inside. KEF didn't tighten the terminals very well and didn't use any locking system for the tiny nuts that make the internal connections either. I experienced slight intermittent distortion from my RH speaker that I thought was a crossover issue so I recapped both speakers and it made no difference. It turned out to simply be those darned terminal connections! Needless to say, I have made sure mine were good & tight and have had no issues since.
 
Well, the 107 acting up gave me an excuse to shuffle some speakers around, anyway...I couldn't leave the "main" system speaker-less! And I had been wanting to hear the Apogee Centaurs on the bigger Emotiva amps. They sounded good but it sounds like the Kef's certainly "fill the room" much better. The Apogees still had that nice, crisp sound to the highs...it must be the mid-bass that is not as strong in those vs. the Kefs...whatever it is, everyone agrees that the Kef's fill the room better...the Apogees sound a bit "lean" in the big room.

So, the 107's got relegated to the "office" system and the Kef 103.2's got moved downstairs (just for a few weeks). When I shuffle things around again, I'll finally give the Pioneer BS22's their shot in the office system.

For now, is this ridiculous? Haha.

 
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