There’s no question that the sophistication of today’s home theater — with anywhere from six to eight speakers — can take a toll on your décor. And if you’re putting together a serious system, chances are you won’t be able to simply unpack your new gear and enjoy a movie the same night without some help. KEF aims to change all that with its elegant KIT100 system, which consists of only four components — a DVD player/tuner/control center, a subwoofer/amplifier, and two speakers. The $1,500 rig, also known as KEF Instant Theatre, virtually snaps together in less than 15 minutes.
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The brains of the system is the sleek DVD player/control center, which also plays CD-R/RW discs, including those loaded with MP3 or Windows Media Audio (WMA) files. It connects to the somewhat imposing subwoofer, which contains all the amplifiers and feeds the unique satellite speakers. The die-cast aluminum satellites, which can be attached to optional floor stands or wall mounts, are about the size of an average laptop computer stood on edge — not counting the striking round, tapered flare at one end.
The flare isn’t just for show. It contains KEF’s proprietary Uni-Q driver array, with a tweeter nesting in the center of a midrange cone, while the enclosure behind it contains a side-firing driver based on NXT flat-panel technology. The Uni-Q drivers in each speaker radiate the left/right front channels while creating a “phantom” center channel between them. The flat drivers radiate surround-channel information, which reaches the listener after being reflected off the side walls.
One of the most elegant components of its type on the market, the DVD/ tuner is just over a foot wide and has rounded ends, a mirrored front with an inconspicuous disc-loading drawer, and a blue fluorescent display that dims automatically once a DVD begins playing. Like the other KIT100 components, it’s finished in “stardust silver.” The back panel is laid out so clearly and logically, making connections is practically foolproof — particularly since all four pieces of the system interconnect with heavy cables terminated in computer-style plugs that further reduce the possibility of wrong connections as well as eliminating stray wires.
Since the front panel has only eight tiny buttons for basic disc-loading and transport functions, the remote control is essential for operation. Fortunately, it’s well designed, with keys of different shapes and sizes and a logical layout.
As noted, setup was quick and easy. But there is one potential source of setup trouble: The DVD/tuner’s component-video output is disabled out of the box. To enable it, you must use the composite- or S-video output to access the onscreen setup menu. A fail-safe screen asks you to confirm your component-video setting, since enabling this output will disable the composite- and S-video outputs. The same confirmation screen appears when you select progressive-scan mode for the component output — the interlaced mode is disabled; you can’t just switch back and forth.
The default audio setting is All Purpose, which is the one you’ll want to keep. Before reading the manual, I selected (logically, I thought) the Movie option. But that defeated Dolby Digital/DTS decoding and invoked Dolby Pro Logic II instead! By contrast, the All Purpose setting automatically switches to Dolby Digital or DTSwhen it detects either of them in the source material. Anything else, according to the manual, “will be played in a configuration of Pro Logic II chosen by KEF Audio for optimum reproduction of analog source material.” If you want to record from the system’s Record/Multiroom output on the rear of the subwoofer, you need to select stereo mode. Finally, there’s a Matrix setting to create pseudo surround from mono sources.
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Since KEF is one of the oldest English speaker companies, I chose a very English movie, Nicholas Nickleby, based on the book by Charles Dickens, to evaluate the Instant Theatre’s performance. Director Douglas McGrath created an evocative montage of the sounds of 19th-century England. Admittedly, the DVD lacks explosions, high-speed chases — the fastest involves a horse-drawn carriage clattering on cobblestones — and other sonic sensationalism. At the same time, it was a treasure trove of quick, sharp sounds: those carriage-wheels on cobblestones, chains and other metallic objects clanging, fabrics swooshing, knives and forks pinging china, and crystal goblets clinking. Add to that dozens of interesting voices, and this movie demands realistic performance from speakers, which the KEF KIT100 system delivered.
Nothing tests the veracity of a system better than voices, and the Instant Theatre told the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Video aside, Dickens’s characters sounded like they populated the front of my home theater. Male and female voices, whether Nathan Lane as Vincent Crummles or Anne Hathaway as Madeline Bray, shouted, chattered, and whispered with natural and neutral tonality. In fact, the KEF speakers reproduced voices so accurately that I could detect the difference between those recorded in a sound booth and those recorded on the set. Similarly, clanking chains and other street sounds, like blacksmiths at work, did not ring hollow. The KEF system gave authority to the movie’s sound effects in both impact and subtlety.
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| The KEF KIT100 reproduced voices and period sound effects accurately and withauthority in the Nicholas Nickleby DVD. |
The musical score by Rachel Portman sounded lush and full. The strings were warm and sonorous, and the high end was clear without harshness or emphasis. And the bass left nothing to the imagination — the subwoofer could probably reproduce a Richter 8.2 earthquake with ease and authenticity. However, the system’s maximum volume was somewhat limited, so it’s most suitable for small to medium-size rooms.
My squarish room, with a 42-inch widescreen rear-projection TV in the corner, is not what the system designers envisioned, however, so there was minimal surround effect in my initial setup. Even after fine-tuning, surround sound never fully bloomed there. The front sound field was magnificent — very broad and fairly deep — but it didn’t wrap around the sides the way I’ve heard with other virtual surround systems in the same room. The result was much the same, though, when I set up the system in a room with the side walls closer together, as KEF had in mind, and played other DVDs besides Nicholas Nickleby, including the surround spectacular Moulin Rouge.
Video performance using the progressive-scan component output was smooth, without noticeable jaggedness on diagonals or any color smearing. In Nicholas Nickleby, after Smike runs away and Squeers takes off in the carriage at a gallop, with Nicholas running behind, the background stayed in focus, and I saw no jagged edges. The movie in general is shot in soft focus, with muted colors to evoke the era, and the KEF system faithfully reproduced it. However, the player took more than 2 seconds to switch between layers of the DVD.
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The Instant Theatre excelled with stereo audio. I spun a CD-R that the legendary singer-songwriter John Stewart, who first became known as a member of the Kingston Trio, made in my radio studio. The sound was spot-on, from John’s mouth to my ears. For contrast, I listened to a recent CD, I Can’t Be New, by pop-folk artist turned cabaret performer Susan Werner that included plenty of piano and bass. Having heard Werner perform live many times (without amplification), I felt the KEF system reproduced her voice with great honesty and that the acoustic bass was really there in my room. The system defaulted to Dolby Pro Logic II for these discs, and it provided a good image across the front plus a degree of depth and side ambience.
The KEF Instant Theatre doesn’t replace a true-blue 5.1-channel system. But if elegance and space saving are essential for your home theater, or a secondary system, and if you can set it up optimally, you owe it to yourself to audition KEF’s KIT100. Set up properly in the right room — perhaps a bedroom, den, or summer home — this system can provide a far better movie experience than a plain old two-channel rig or many of the less expensive home-theater-in-a-box systems.