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KEF Reference 1 v 107/2

I replaced KEF Reference 107/2s with Reference 1s because I was concerned about inserting the active unbalanced KUBE between an Ayre KX-5 Twenty preamp and VX-5 Twenty amp.  I had had a bad experience adding an active balanced Bryston high-pass filter between the preamp and amp, and was warned by Charles Hanson to avoid inserting active circuits between the two.  I regret I never tried the 107/2s with the Ayre gear.  A balanced passive Marchand high-pass filter does no harm. 

dbphd
curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
5,167 posts
 

@jayctoy 

Okay, but is that his question??

jayctoy's avatar
jayctoy
4,318 posts
 

No 

jayctoy's avatar
jayctoy
4,318 posts
 

Curiuosjim I think I tried to just share my 0.2 cents regarding the kef cube. If I have the answer to his question? I will.

steve59's avatar
steve59
1,827 posts
 

I had the R107/2 with kube and for the day they were a good value. Matched veneers, output matching to .5 db and flat bass to 20hz without the typical woofer boost at 100 hz. The 107/2 was colored though, a bit bright up top with a little chestyness in the low mids, still really competitive for the time. The ref 1 impresses with the midrange presentation, upper midrange energy and detail really brings drum kits to life, but no deep bass and cymbals will sound softer in comparison. I like the direction kef has taken but the‘British’ sound is gone and you’ll need a sub(or 2) to get r107 bass. You can connect the kube between the ayre pre and amp to use your existing speakers 

dbphd OP
1,632 posts
 

stevet59, I augment the KEF Reference 1s below 80 Hz by a pair of Velodyne HGS-15s with SMS-1 acoustic room correction, I’m unaware of the subs except when they do something I know the KEFs can’t do, e.g. vibration from a low pipe organ pedal note.

As noted above, the KEFs are high-passed at 80 Hz by a passive balanced Marchand filter.

My one complaint about the Reference 1s was that large orchestrations didn’t scale as I remembered with the 107/2s, but the addition of the subs cured that. The setup can sound very large when called for, yet remain delicate for the small jazz and baroque groups I prefer.

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