KEF sub thinks inside the box

Mark Craven admires the brains behind this brawny, bijou bassmaker

- Mark Craven

KEF's new subwoofer is calling out for a slick nickname. From the brand that brought us the Blade and Muon speakers, plus The Reference range, comes the ...KC62. This moniker makes it sound like something that's fallen off a spreadsheet rather than what it is, which is arguably the coolest subwoofer I've ever had a chance to play around with. Maybe it will grow its own nickname over time, like KEF's 'Eggs'. It's certainly a cracker.

The KC62 was announced earlier this year with much fanfare by KEF, which clearly believed it was on to a winner. Here, went the blurb, was a subwoofer for everyone (well, those with a spare £1,400). Cute and compact, and packing patent-pending technologies around its dual-driver implementation, the KC62, we're told, means that 'deep and powerful bass is no longer solely the domain of big-shouldered, massive subwoofers.'

Now, some of my best friends are massive subwoofers, but a compact sub has considerable appeal, mostly because it's easier to accommodate in your room, and far more likely to be allowed into a typical lounge. And, adds KEF, smaller models can be more practical for systems using multiple subs. There's also the fact that smaller environments don't actually need a woofer capable of hitting Armageddon SPL levels at 10m.

Iron Law Man

The white paper for the KC62 goes into detail about Hofmann's Iron Law. The concept of audio engineer Josef Anton Hofmann, this 'law' outlines three parameters of loudspeaker design – cabinet volume, low-frequency extension and efficiency – and says that one of these must be sacrificed in pursuit of optimum results in the other two. Related to subs, this means that a big box is needed to achieve a high output and deep bass. KEF thinks differently.