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Topic:
KEF In-wall Speakers
This thread has 4 replies. Displaying all posts.
Post 1 made on Wednesday January 7, 2004 at 01:08
sandyallan
Lurking Member
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December 2003
8
Any comment or opinion on KEF's in-walls ? In particular modelCi 200.2QT.


Thanks,

Allan
Post 2 made on Thursday January 8, 2004 at 00:40
Ernie Bornn-Gilman
Yes, That Ernie!
Joined:
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December 2001
30,104
Is that .2 in there on purpose? I am familiar with the Ci200QT, but not 200.2.

And here is my assessment -- the motorized aspect of these is about the spiffiest thing going. They are pretty impressive. But there are problems.

First, the company is now repped in the U.S. by different people than a year or so ago. One of the engineers at that other company was working on a complete redesign, and I hope he got the info to Kef before being taken off the project.

Second, there is/was no diode protection on the power leads going into the unit. If you make a misconnection, you could blow the old board. Even a misconnection on the trigger lead. And --

You need LOTS of room above the ceiling. The back box is only there to protect the mechanism, NOT for any acoustic reason at all, and is more than 8" high; but you have to angle the box in to get it through the hole, so you need at least 11" above the ceiling.

The mounting flange requires a pretty precise hole. Plaster is not very precise. Therefore old ceilings are risky for this.

There are four screws that hold the speaker to the mounting flange. These screws have cheap steel springy washers to hold the screws in place. These washers fall off and should have been replaced with nylon ones.

Two of the mounting screws are behind the fulcrum of the moving portion of the speaker. If the speaker sticks in the open position, it is VERY difficult to get a screwdriver in to remove the speaker. I had one speaker get stuck open, and I could only remove it because I could get to the attic above it. I had to remove the driver from another one and screw around with the gears to get it free.

One method of wiring these is to wire up one to sense speaker voltage, then run the others from a trigger signal from this speaker. Early on, they found that the voltage sensor was so good that the speakers would act as a voltage generator and open the speakers if they were in a room with lots of noise. They then added a switch that would keep the speakers disconnected until they are completely lowered. This means you cannot use them both up and down (I have had requests for this) without defeating that switch. It is not hard to do.

The speakers have a jumper that is set to either auto or not. Auto is what I described above; "not" is that the speaker simply responds to a 12v trigger to lower. This jumper is ALMOST visible from below when the speaker is installed, but it is not movable. If you neglect to set it (they all come set to AUTO, although they tell you to only use ONE on AUTO in any given setup), then you have to take the speaker down to correct this.

The grilles fit really tightly. DO NOT put them in until you are ready to have them in permanently. They are easy to bend slightly, which makes them VERY HARD to get in.

One speaker got stuck in the DOWN position because one of its wires got jammed in a gear, the motor stayed on, the nylon gear broke, and the speaker fell to the down position...with the motor running day and night.

The wires (speaker, 12 volt, control in, control out) go to a Molex type connector that threads through a rectangular hole in the back box. This hole is one of the stupidest things going, because you can't get the connector into it. I think they intended for the connector to snap into it, but it doesn't. I am quite sure that is why the speaker in the last paragraph got messed up -- the wire was not permanently positioned, and got in the way of the speaker.

If you have one of these get stuck with the motor on, that motor is likely to operate slower than the others from then on.

They use European color codes, so you have to look at the instructions when you are wiring them up. Every time.

They do not go to any lengths to tell you that they intend for you to use ONE POWER SUPPLY at EXACTLY 12 volts to run this thing. The logical thing is to use a 12 volt supply, that is always on and connected, to run the speakers down when triggered, and then back up again when untriggered, and a separate 9 volt (produces more than 12V at the low current required by the trigger circuit) wall wart plugged into the back of a receiver as a trigger.
BUT they have reported problems when using two power supplies. They cite something about the negatives not being the same ( ? ) but it may be more to do with the +12 volts not being the same. And as I said, they were not smart enough to diode protect the power inputs, so they surely were not smart enough to allow the trigger voltage to vary from the motor supply voltage.

WOW ! I had a lot to say about these.

Oh yes, and unfortunately most devastating, the Sonance Symphony 623T, at the same price as the Kefs, SOUND a lot better. I have one client with two surround systems in the same huge living room; one has the Kefs, the other the Sonance, and I was embarrassed about the Kefs when I first turned on the system. We are all used to it now, and the cool factor of the Kefs appear to make them acceptable.
A good answer is easier with a clear question giving the make and model of everything.
"The biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." -- G. “Bernie” Shaw
Post 3 made on Thursday January 8, 2004 at 14:07
cmo
Founding Member
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April 2002
295
Ernie,

the .2 refers to the revised CI200QT i.e. a mk2 version as in their other speakers.

I beleive they have upgraded the drive units although I am not sure of the other modifications, hopefully they have addressed some of the problems you have mentioned above.

OP | Post 4 made on Friday January 9, 2004 at 20:24
sandyallan
Lurking Member
Joined:
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December 2003
8
Thanks for the detailed information Ernie.

Regards,

Allan
Post 5 made on Monday January 12, 2004 at 04:12
Ernie Bornn-Gilman
Yes, That Ernie!
Joined:
Posts:
December 2001
30,104
You are welcome. I am either glad to help or sorry I vented at you. Either way, they have some really good points and some really bad points.
A good answer is easier with a clear question giving the make and model of everything.
"The biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." -- G. “Bernie” Shaw


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