KEF KF92

Getting very loud, very low-frequency, distortion-free bass from a subwoofer is very easy. The only problem is the size, cost and number of bass drivers you’d need to use to do it, and the fact that the cabinet you’d need to accommodate them all would have to be so big that it would take up a good deal of the available space in the average-sized living room.

The various parameters—size, cost, number of drivers and so on—can certainly be manipulated, but ultimately the final result will always be governed by the immutable laws of physics… and you can’t get around them. Not that subwoofer manufacturers haven’t tried… and KEF has tried harder than most. In order to ensure that one of its smallest-ever subwoofers could deliver deep bass it even invented an innovative circuit it called ‘Intelligent Bass Extension’ or IBx for short, which is essentially an algorithm built into a DSP controller that counteracts the natural tendency for a bass driver to roll-off at low-frequencies but at the same time monitors what that driver is doing to ensure its safe operating parameters are not exceeded.

KEF’s IBx circuit was so successful—and so popular with its customers—that KEF decided to use it in its larger subwoofers and, most recently, in this new KF92.

THE EQUIPMENT

The cabinet of the KEF KF92 is completely sealed, which has a number of advantages over the more common ‘ported’ or ‘bass reflex’ cabinet. The first and most obvious of these is that whereas bass reflex ports can sometimes create audible noises—usually ‘chuffing’ sounds, but sometimes whistling sounds—you won’t ever get these noises with the KEF KF92 because there is no port. Another advantage is that because the cabinet is sealed, all the internal metal components are protected from corrosion, which