Geoff Wood
New Member
When replacing the suspension(s) did you remove the dust-caps and use spacers around the pole-piece to ensure the voice-coil was centred ? Just he 'spider' alone may not have been sufficient to maintain accurate alignment.
KEF owners thread
- Thread starter matteos
- Start date
When replacing the suspension(s) did you remove the dust-caps and use spacers around the pole-piece to ensure the voice-coil was centred ? Just he 'spider' alone may not have been sufficient to maintain accurate alignment.
Geoff Wood
New Member
Yes, some windings may have been rubbed of and scraping. Or the coil-former could have it's end impacted. Or they could be burned/charred.
May be necessary to have the cones fully removed to find out, and remedied by a skilled specialist who could replace with a compatible voice-coil (impedence, former material, number and style of winfings, etc). Or a full recone-kit may be required - if available at all (straighforward to do yourself).
If you are at all curious about what the KUBE does for this speaker, I posted the KUBE EQ curves here:
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/kef-owners-thread.630884/page-26#post-13164870
I don't think the 103/3 sounds very good without the KUBE and based on the EQ of the KUBE the speaker is getting a lot of EQ at the frequency extremes.
John
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/kef-owners-thread.630884/page-26#post-13164870
I don't think the 103/3 sounds very good without the KUBE and based on the EQ of the KUBE the speaker is getting a lot of EQ at the frequency extremes.
John
Geoff Wood
New Member
So did you end up using your re-capped and re-opamped KUBE, or the software EQ ?
I put OPA something-or-other in my CUBE ( R107) and imagine that it made some difference. Later replaced the T33s with something significantly better :
www.midwestspeakerrepair.com/shop/home-audio/tweeters/dome/mw-audio-mt-1191-1-inch-dome-tweeter-for-kef-104-2-speaker/
geoff
@Douglas Jett
In post #877 you said you replaced the donuts on the internal woofer. (Following posts mentioned surrounds) The hole in the donut is large enough not to cause the coil to become off center. You mentioned they ‘generally sound good’. If replacing a small foam/paper donut killed the sound quality I suspect something else is to blame. Did you remove the woofers by disconnecting the wires from the crossover? Are you certain they went back the same way?
I remember foam pieces in the cabinet. Maybe one or more became dislodged during reassembly.
Forget the cap issue, look for the obvious. And keep an eye open for the correct KUBE.
Good luck.
In post #877 you said you replaced the donuts on the internal woofer. (Following posts mentioned surrounds) The hole in the donut is large enough not to cause the coil to become off center. You mentioned they ‘generally sound good’. If replacing a small foam/paper donut killed the sound quality I suspect something else is to blame. Did you remove the woofers by disconnecting the wires from the crossover? Are you certain they went back the same way?
I remember foam pieces in the cabinet. Maybe one or more became dislodged during reassembly.
Forget the cap issue, look for the obvious. And keep an eye open for the correct KUBE.
Good luck.
I have never upgraded my KUBE. Maybe someday. I thought the software EQ sounded cleaner but can only use it with my music server PC since the app is a background piece that intercepts the audio stream before it is send to the digital card. Unfortunately it stopped working. A delete and reinstall didn't help. I suspect some Windows update killed it but I never figured it out. I haven't used the KEF's for over a year now.
John
I'm curious why you believe the MT-1191 tweeters are superior - I bought a pair but was able to find a replacement T33, and have considered swapping them out to see how they sound but haven't gotten around to it yet.
This is our first post here in the KEF owners thread. Our 104/2s in walnut. Fully restored ofcourse. on Lovan 6" mass loaded stands. The tweeters are 32" on center off the floor. My ears are at 35" the KEFs have about 2 deg of rake and I sit about 11' away. the front baffle is about 40" from the rear wall.
Currently all Crown electronics
Currently all Crown electronics
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Lou G
Super Member
@stereocuuple nice pair of KEF 104/2s. They are one of my all time favorite speakers. I would like to mention that they do not need to be on stands. They were designed as floor standers. Mine are on the floor and I am seated about 9 feet away.
From the KEF 104/2 manual:
The Model 104/2 is designed to stand on the floor, it does not require any other form of stand or support. If the speaker is to be used on wood or tiled floor, use the feet as supplied. On thick carpet however, stability will be considerably improved by removing the caps and using the pointed feet, fig 8. Place the speaker in its chosen position and level it by screwing the rear feet fully in and adjusting the front, using the additional washers as necessary to level the speaker. Tighten the screw firmly when levelling up is completed. Only in rare cases of very uneven floors should you need to adjust the rear feet.
Electrical time delay in the dividing network is designed to tilt the listening axis up 10° from the horizontal. This ensures that the ears of a listener seated 3m (10') from the loudspeaker are on the axis, at a height of 1.2m (4') above floor level. Reference to fig. 9 will show that accurate stereo information is maintained over a wide area both horizontally and vertically. There is no one 'stereo seat' with Model 104/2."
From the KEF 104/2 manual:
The Model 104/2 is designed to stand on the floor, it does not require any other form of stand or support. If the speaker is to be used on wood or tiled floor, use the feet as supplied. On thick carpet however, stability will be considerably improved by removing the caps and using the pointed feet, fig 8. Place the speaker in its chosen position and level it by screwing the rear feet fully in and adjusting the front, using the additional washers as necessary to level the speaker. Tighten the screw firmly when levelling up is completed. Only in rare cases of very uneven floors should you need to adjust the rear feet.
Electrical time delay in the dividing network is designed to tilt the listening axis up 10° from the horizontal. This ensures that the ears of a listener seated 3m (10') from the loudspeaker are on the axis, at a height of 1.2m (4') above floor level. Reference to fig. 9 will show that accurate stereo information is maintained over a wide area both horizontally and vertically. There is no one 'stereo seat' with Model 104/2."
Very cool! Great looking setup. I'll bet it sounds amazing. I personally like the idea of playing with (loaded) stands to try and get a different/better directional performance in your space.
Lou G
Super Member
@stereocuuple, They are fantastic speakers. Glad you like them. Yes on carpet you really need to have spikes or something solid under the speakers. I personally am not a fan of spikes, especially when moving the speakers. The best sound I found was using the rubber feet with the speakers sitting on plinths that I made out of scrap butcher block. The butcher block plinth is about 1 1/2 inches thick. It works great, the speakers are very stable and the bass is very tight.
RemoWilliams
Addicted Member
Anybody know if one can remove the plus and minus wires that come out of the crossover for the mid / tweeter unit on a 105.1 and plug into connectors on top of the bass driver cabinet and simply put speaker cables from a second amplifier in there instead? It seems one could do this and use the other power amp for the mid / tweeter using the binding posts. As Kef installed a separate crossover below the 12" driver I would think it would filter out all frequencies except what the driver was designed for. Those wires are quite thin, seems upgrading them to at lest 16 or 18 gauge would be a good idea.
I was going to try it just to see if bi amping is possible, other than wondering what the mid / tweeter crossover sends to the bass driver, all of them I assume as the pair of thin wires run from under the 5 way binding posts to the connectors for the bass unit. As that module is designed to be removed it makes sense that there is a quick disconnect feature for the speaker wires.
Would removing the fuses be worthwhile? Any improvement in the signal is a good thing and if one is using a high output amplifier clipping will not be an issue, just not sure how important the fuses really are.
I was going to try it just to see if bi amping is possible, other than wondering what the mid / tweeter crossover sends to the bass driver, all of them I assume as the pair of thin wires run from under the 5 way binding posts to the connectors for the bass unit. As that module is designed to be removed it makes sense that there is a quick disconnect feature for the speaker wires.
Would removing the fuses be worthwhile? Any improvement in the signal is a good thing and if one is using a high output amplifier clipping will not be an issue, just not sure how important the fuses really are.
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BilboBaggins
Addicted Member
I was considering doing exactly that with mine, but then I got some more big speakers and that idea was no longer as practical.
I never did it, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. There would be no electrical connection between the head unit and the bass unit. I was going to do vertical bi-amping with two Bose 1801s.
RemoWilliams
Addicted Member
I set up the 105.1 with a pair of BGW power amplifiers fed from a pre amp and it does appear to offer a degree of dynamics and detail, of course this is also dependent on how well the components interact but it certainly has helped somewhat. Never hurts to free up the bass driver with it's own amplifier. The BGW outburst over 300W a channel into 8 ohms and is definitely capable.
With a sub, there is no need to match brands.
Were I to spend that much (the cost of the DEF KC62), I'd get one (or 2) of these. https://www.rythmikaudio.com/
