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KEF 107 without Kube

I'm about to buy a set of KEF 107s without the Kube. My understanding is the Kube basically bumps up the bass to make the speaker more flat and lacks bass/body/punch without it.  Then I also hear that the Kube negatively affects the mids/highs according to many owners.  Is fixing this as easy as just bumping up the bass knob or do I really need to employ my miniDSP that I don't want to put in the chain?  Actually, I'll be using my Mcintosh ma7900 integrated so I don't think I can put the miniDSP in the chain anyway.

Woofers have been refoamed and tweeters have new fluid.. Nothing else has been done as far as wiring and crossovers.  

Thoughts on these without the Kube?  Or any other good mods?


dtximages
dtximages OP
364 posts
 
@roxy54 to maybe change the way I said what I said.. I thought the bass was phenomenal until I found out he boosted the knob way up.. It left me wondering how much "help" the speaker will need in the low end.  From the best I could tell in his bad room they sounded great, or what I knew could be great. Had I had hours to play with them, perhaps I could have figured out something was amiss or not quite right but I just remember thinking "danggg these things go low and sound big".
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,932 posts
 
I understand now. It's all good.
wmmack
1 posts
 

I purchased my KEF107s new in 1986 for $3100. Theses are 1st generation speakers. My Kube stopped working around 2005 and I have been using the speakers without the KUBE since that time.

I have replaced the woofers 3Xs over this 35 year period. I have an extra set of tweeters and mids in storage also.

I am still very happy with this speaker. The imaging and soundstaging are remarkable. They can still resolve the details in most well recorded music. 

The bass is still impressive without the KUBE. The speaker only outputs what is in the rcording. If a recording is bass heavy it reproduces it. if the recording is lacking bass notes, you will not hear those notes. The speaker is still very accurate.

The Kube allowed:

1. Contour:control over frequencies under 160hz +/-3db.

2. Extension: cut off lower frequencies at 50, 35, 25, 18Hz.

3. Q-Factor: Damping, tightness of the bass

I do miss the ability to have more control over the bass on certain recordings. The bass does not extend down to 20HZ without the KUBE. 

I can say that I'm still in Love with the speaker to this day after 35 years. I will replace them at some point, as they are not on par with some of the better current speakers that are in my budget.

I purchased an Earthquake SuperNova MKV 15" subwoofer to supplement the frequency range below 32Hz.

I am using Odyssey Kismet ++ mono blocks for amplification, Emotiva XSP-1 Pre-Amp, Teac NT-503 DAC, Signal Cable, Groneberg cables, DELL  I7 laptop running Jriver.

I hope this helps you in your decision.

Thank You

 

 

steve59's avatar
steve59
1,735 posts
 

using eq is the only solution for you now, but kef had the bass peak at 5hz rolling off so it was flat by 40 hz in order to avoid the mid bass hump every other manufacturer does to get deep bass. the kube also smoothed out some defeciency around 3khz.  I had the 107/2 and the 105/3 that might be interchangable...but.

dtximages OP
364 posts
 

I took posession of the speakers and wow these are realllllyyyy good even without the KUBE.  I did some more digging and there are some people who claim they can't really tell a difference with/wihtout the KUBE.  I do understand why some people use these without the KUBE and never look back. 

Let me ask you this...  Can I acheive the same effect using a MiniDSP with Dirac as the KUBE?  It's all about proper equilization right?  There's no other magic sauce this KUBE does to bring the speaker to the next level is there?

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