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KEF Universal Wireless System

Reviewer: Thomas Bartlett

Writers like me are constantly telling anyone that asks - and often those who haven't asked - that choosing a loudspeaker is the most subjective, most personal and most important part of choosing a sound system. Say what you like about different amplifiers and other electronics, few people can notice the difference between A and B, but with speakers, everyone can. Easily.

But should your choice of loudspeaker be constrained by a requirement for wireless? If you must have a wireless loudspeaker, then your choices are from a few, rather than from thousands. Even if it's only for the surround channels, it's wise to choose front and centre speakers that come with those surround speakers for the best performance.

Unless you have a universal wireless system. That's what KEF's system is.

Before getting into the details, it is pretty much the same as the system specifically designed for KEF speakers, except that it has been designed for operation with any speaker system.

This system comes as three compact boxes, each of a similar size, and each finished in a piano gloss black. Not that the finish matters much because there is no reason why any of them should ever be visible.

One is the transmitter. You can plug this into the preamplifier outputs of your receiver for the surround speaker channels. If your receiver doesn't have those, an adaptor cable allows you to use the speaker outputs. My confession: I used a stereo preamplifier so that I could audition the system with high quality front speakers. Each of the other two modules has high quality binding post outputs.

That's because within each is a receiver for the transmitted signal, and a 50 watt digital amplifier.

You wire those to your speakers, plug the supplied 'wall wart' power packs into power points, and that's all there is to it. The transmitter and the two receivers establish contact, and after then you forget about them. The digital power amplifiers run cool so you need not worry too much about ventilation. Just hide them behind the speakers.

They were very quiet in operation - that is, no spurious noise was produced - and had plenty of power for decent volume levels with most speakers.

Clearly, a highly flexible way to go with wireless.

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