KEF T105 speaker review

Ultra-flat speakers T Series by KEF – the perfect companions for the modern plasma, LCD or OLED-panels with a wide diagonal, in addition, thanks to their design such speakers do not take up much space and easily fit into any residential interiors. Meanwhile to achieve simultaneous cabinet finesse and good sound quality is a very complex technical task, which cannot be solved without a lot of innovation, but here the company KEF has an advantage in the form of more than 50 years of history in the development of sound reproduction technology.

The key feature of the T-series satellites is the use of a new midrange driver. KEF engineers have dramatically reduced the size of the driver, which is just 27mm deep and almost three times shorter than the previous Uni-Q unit in the KHT range. As a result we managed to make a very thin enclosure of the loudspeaker with a thickness of only 35 mm at the level of the speakers with NXT radiators. But although the latter make it possible to reduce the size of the speakers, they are not of high quality of sound.

Small midrange driver designed almost from scratch: new cone, suspension, spider, miniaturized motor. The driver measures 115mm in diameter and comes with a dual layer flat faced polymer diaphragm. The cone on the inside has radial and concentric ribbing, over which a second layer of elastic material is stretched. Such a bizarre design allows not only to increase the rigidity of the cone and improve its damping qualities, moving resonances outside the operating frequency range, radial ribs together with the holes in the second layer form a natural air duct to cool the motor. The double-layered diaphragm is attached to the original Z-Flex surround, which gives the diaphragm excellent travel +/-4mm , given the modest depth of the speaker itself. Z-Flex is not like standard semi-circular hangers, having its own stiffening ribs and enough freedom for bending when the diaphragm moves in and out, the new suspension is designed to allow only low frequency modes of vibration, suppressing resonances at medium frequencies. Those could seriously ‘muddy’ the sound of the loudspeaker in the area that is most noticeable to the human ear. The flat diaphragm with ‘low profile’ Z-Flex surround also offers another KEF engineer’s concept – minimizing tweeter sound bounce from the faceplate ‘features’ that inevitably occur when using deep cone diaphragms with protruding semi-circular surrounds.

The T-Series tweeter incorporates technology tried and tested in KEF’s higher ranges. For example, the diameter of the aluminum dome is 25 mm, as opposed to the 19 mm squeakers that KHT series satellites are equipped with. Larger diameter also means more power and a wider dispersion pattern, widening the working range towards the midrange which in turn allows the use of simpler separation filters. The tweeter dome is housed in the proprietary Tangerine Waveguide “acoustic lens”, which controls sound dispersion by attenuating the strong directivity of the tweeter. Despite the lack of space in the flat enclosure, the T-Series tweeter has a rear damping chamber, like the tweeters on the top Reference and Muon speakers.

Everything has been thought out in the layout and wiring of the new speakers. Of course, in the same way as the KHT kits, the T series satellites can also be hung on a wall, placed on a shelf, or fitted with optional floor stands, which have conventional speaker wiring and conveniently located terminals at the base. By the way, the brackets for suspending satellites on the wall are designed in such a way as to minimize the depth of the installation, adding just a couple of millimeters to it. So on the wall the T-series speakers look even flatter than they really are. The engineers cleverly took into account the problem of equalization of satellite speakers sound in the upper bass. As you know, the influence of a close wall will slightly raise the bass level of suspended speakers compared to column-mounted speakers. In the T-series satellites the problem is solved automatically: in addition to wiring the columns are placed in a compensating circuit, which appropriately processes the bass. It’s also important because the T-Series subwoofer is designed to precisely match the satellites and doesn’t need additional cutoff frequency adjustments.

KEF offers several options for cinema sets, assembled from T-Series speakers. We’ll focus on the younger system T-105, consisting of five satellites T101 and an active subwoofer T-2. The satellite that serves as the “center” has a special stand that allows you to tilt the speaker at a small angle. So the loudspeaker can be aimed at the audience, improving the localization of the sound panorama images and tying the action to the screen. T101 satellites have dimensions of 300x130x35 mm HxWxD , they are made in a closed box and are equipped with two radiators: a tweeter and a subwoofer share the responsibility at 1.7 kHz. The T-2 subwoofer, of course, is not as flat as the satellites, but the creators have tried to reduce its. The resulting device is quite compact and its dimensions are 380x370x177 HxWxD . The subwoofer is equipped with a closed box, built-in D-class amplifier with power of 250 W and the woofer with 250 mm diameter.

The set can create a coherent and uniform panorama of the surrounding sound, faithfully reproduces emotions in the voices of actors. The small satellites and “sub” are able to reproduce movie special effects very decently, with commendable dynamics and sound brilliance.

All acoustic systems of the KEF T105 set come in a classic black color and are able to fill small and medium-sized rooms with good three-dimensional sound quality.

59 700 Dollars.