The left channel of my KEF Reference 102s started getting scratchy - a classic symptom of dirty contacts somewhere - I quickly narrowed it down to the two switches of my KUBE 102 (EXTEND and TAPE). With some switches / pots, this is a simple matter of applying Deoxit, but I found out the switches used in the KUBE required manual disassembly and cleaning.
I figured I'd take some pictures while doing it and share them here in case anyone else is frustrated by a scratchy KUBE. (No idea if this is common knowledge -- apologize if it is. I couldn't find any help online before doing this ...) I'm not sure how similar the 102 is to other KUBEs - if the switches are the same, cool!
Even though I thought the symptom was only some scratchiness, now that it's back together, it seems like this cleaning has cleaned up the sound way beyond removing scratchiness ... it seems like there's much more clarity coming through, and I gotta say I'm even more impressed with these Reference 102s.
I started taking pictures once it was apart ... following in reverse order will guide disassembly.
Here's the KUBE with the switch out and disassembled.
The switch has two guides inside that bridge two of the pins at a time, and slide back and forth in order to bridge the closer or the farther pins with the middle pin. Both the pins and the sliders had dark crud built up on contact surfaces. I used 600 grit sandpaper to clean them up until shiny again. (Edit: You may decide to use something else that isn't abrasive!)
After some trial and error I found the best way to re-assemble was to put the sliders in their grooves in the blue switch arm first, and then to put the blue switch arm back into the white lower switch housing making sure the sliders lined up with the pins on the way in.
Put the blue housing bracket back on and solder the switch back onto the circuit board.
Solder the paper protector back on, then slide the housing back in place and put in the screws.
Hook it back up and enjoy!
I figured I'd take some pictures while doing it and share them here in case anyone else is frustrated by a scratchy KUBE. (No idea if this is common knowledge -- apologize if it is. I couldn't find any help online before doing this ...) I'm not sure how similar the 102 is to other KUBEs - if the switches are the same, cool!
Even though I thought the symptom was only some scratchiness, now that it's back together, it seems like this cleaning has cleaned up the sound way beyond removing scratchiness ... it seems like there's much more clarity coming through, and I gotta say I'm even more impressed with these Reference 102s.
I started taking pictures once it was apart ... following in reverse order will guide disassembly.
Here's the KUBE with the switch out and disassembled.
The switch has two guides inside that bridge two of the pins at a time, and slide back and forth in order to bridge the closer or the farther pins with the middle pin. Both the pins and the sliders had dark crud built up on contact surfaces. I used 600 grit sandpaper to clean them up until shiny again. (Edit: You may decide to use something else that isn't abrasive!)
After some trial and error I found the best way to re-assemble was to put the sliders in their grooves in the blue switch arm first, and then to put the blue switch arm back into the white lower switch housing making sure the sliders lined up with the pins on the way in.
Put the blue housing bracket back on and solder the switch back onto the circuit board.
Solder the paper protector back on, then slide the housing back in place and put in the screws.
Hook it back up and enjoy!
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