KEF anyone?

[Darren]

Met with a local rep for lunch the other day and I am sorta intrigued with the KEF line of motorized loudspeakers. Besides the absolutily cool "wow" factor these must present when watching them drop from the ceiling and pop open from the walls... I was wondering about the actual performance and sound reproduction these particular models offer.

[SammPX]

We were a KEF dealer a few years ago, since then we switched over to Triad. The 200QTs sound pretty good with three across the front and a couple of 160QRs in the rear, plus a sub. My biggest gripe was the sound of the motors and how each speaker would raise and lower at a different rate. Be careful with the wire management, the guys that installed ours had a habit of leaving the wires loose and it would jam in the gears causing the speaker to stall and burn out.

[flcusat]

Just a piece of advice don't put them in the bedroom

[Darren]

Just a piece of advice don't put them in the bedroom


Humm? I am sure there is a joke in there... but it blew over my head!

[flcusat]

There is not joke. If you put them in the bedroom for a couple. One of them fall to sleep, when the other one turns the system off the noise of the speakers going up will wake the other party. I made that mistake once.

[Darren]

There is not joke. If you put them in the bedroom for a couple. One of them fall to sleep, when the other one turns the system off the noise of the speakers going up will wake the other party. I made that mistake once.

Wow. They must be very loud... I'd like to test some with a SPL meter. Anyone else had client complaints with these models?

[flcusat]

I don't know the current models. I'm talking about the 200Q models from 3 years ago.

[sihrig]

In Alaska and sell the hell out of KEF. Great sound, very appealing to the eye. Used to be through distrib, but since I let my clients here them first in there home where AUDIO does change. KEF just kicks A&^ and have no complaints with them. I have not used there subs however. Usually stick to the PSB subsonic series. WOW. Hope that this helps.

[metrognomicon]

Really friggin loud. And not a nice loud, more of a "cheap plastic gears" loud. That was not the current generation of residential models, though. The ads say things like "quiet" so maybe they've made some changes.

I do love the KEF sound... of the speakers, not the motors.

[aforlano]

In Alaska and sell the hell out of KEF.

You also are selling to Moose and Abominable Snowmen, too.

:p

Fred

[Darren]

Had a chance to check out the KEF at CEDIA. The motorized versions seem to be very quiet (considering the ambient level of EXPO noise). I also did my best to wear them out ;) actually I wanted to see if they were in sync with each other during opening/closing. In that repect they behaved nicely.

[J. MacDonald]

The Ci200.2QT is now in it's 3rd gen. It's quieter than previous generations, but still clearly audible. There is another revision presently in the works. If you like the cool factor, but are concerned with noise, check out the smaller CI3-80QT. The CI200.2QT is an 8" UniQ so there's a large assembly moving. The CI3-80QT is much smaller and uses the driver compliment from the popular KHT5001. They are very quiet but still sound like a KEF :)

There's also now a motorized dipole called the CI-FDT. It uses a dynamic driver for the lower frequencies and an NXT type panel for the upper end. The panel part pops out of the wall when activated.

The motorized stuff is good for generating referrals as everyone loves the wow factor.