SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED
Stunning movie roomwith a 007 twist, p36

HIGH-PERFORMANCE SOUND & VISION

LG’S OLED EVOLUTION!
65in G1 TV puts on picture perfect show with 4K HDR
100u+cts

prod inrated arour Gee
Guid

FILM & TV

WATCH
THE SKIESn MONSTERHUNTER n SOULn SYNCHRONIC
n WONDER

Falcon and theWinter Soldier
takes flight on
Disney+, p99

WOMAN 1984
n OUTRIDERSnSILENT ACTION

Get set, go
AV systems
that won’t
break the bank

On TestKEF KC62 ultracompact subwoofer
JBL Bar 5.0 soundbar
Denon AVR-X2700HDolby Atmos receiver
Optoma UHD38 PJ
Google Chromecast

Spielberg!
Celebrating
50 years of themovie master

Inside BUYER’S GUIDE ➜ READER’S ROOM ➜ SONY 48IN OLED ➜ OPINION➜ LUMAGEN HDR PROCESSOR ➜ PARADIGM FOUNDER SERIES ➜ COMPETITIONS

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ISSUE 320
SPRING 2021
£5.50
AUS- $14.50 NZ- $16.50 CAN- $17.99

KEF KC62/£1,400

REVIEWS

Mark Craven admires the brains behind this brawny,
bijou bassmaker

KEF's new subwoofer is calling out for a slick nickname. Fromthe brand that brought us the Blade and Muon speakers, plus
The Reference range, comes the ...KC62. This moniker makes itsound like something that's fallen off a spreadsheet rather thanwhat 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.

KEF sub thinks
inside the box

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, andpacking patent-pending technologies around its dual driver
implementation, the KC62, we're told, means that 'deepand 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 capableof 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 ofloudspeaker design – cabinet volume, low-frequency
extension and efficiency – and says that one of these mustbe sacrificed in pursuit of optimum results in the other two.
Related to subs, this means that a big box is needed toachieve a high output and deep bass. KEF thinks differently.
In the KC62, two 6.5in woofers are mounted in aforce-cancelling (opposed) configuration. This isn't
particularly unusual – the same method is used in KEF's
considerably larger KF92 sub – but what's going on behindthe scenes is.
In place of the standard twin magnet system, the KC62
uses just one, while the voice coils and suspensions of thetwo identical drivers themselves are not identical. One of
the coils has a larger diameter, allowing the two to overlap

12and 'travel within their own gap without colliding.' KEF has
named this patent-pending technology UniCore – which
proves it can still think of cool names when it wants to– and claims the result is a greater excursion and higher
potential SPLs. Additional tweaks around suspension massand magnetic flux are then deployed to ensure the KC62
doesn't have two drivers behaving differently.

AV INFOPRODUCT:
Compact dual 6.5in
active subwoofer
POSITION:
KEF's smallest
woofer, priced below
the dual 9in KF92
PEERS:
B&W PV1D;SVS SB-3000

Heavy metal thunderThis is all the theory. In practice, what you get is a
subwoofer that's about the size of football, but withthe weight of a small elephant – well, 14kg. Some ofthis surprising heft will come from the KC62's aluminium
cabinet, which not only enables a sultry curved design, butworks to manage heat dispersion from its 2 x 500W Class
D amp stage. If you think that 1,000W seems like quite
a lot to drive a pair of 6.5in woofers, you'd be right.
The styling of the KC62 is clearly informed by thebrand's LS50 bookshelf speakers and, to a lesser extent,
its Q Series models. It replaces the square subwoofer
aesthetic of old with rounded sides and corners. A flatbottom stops it rolling around your carpet.
Measurements are approximately 25cm wide in all
directions, but the curves make it seem even smaller than
this. There are no grilles for its woofer duo, so beware ofpets and toddlers.
Terminals and controls are mounted on a tidy rear panel,and include crossover, volume, phase, LFE and stereoline in/out. To save space, speaker-level inputs are via aPhoenix connector. There's also a power switch (obviously)– when on, the status light on the KC62 glows orange toindicate the sub is in standby. When it wakes, this light
glows white for six seconds, and then fades off. The reason
I've mentioned this is because I experienced occasions
where the sub refused to wake from its standby mode3

1. Got white speakers?
The KC62 has a finish
to match
2. A KEF logo andstandby/on status
LED sit on the 'front'
3. KEF's 6.5in woofers
are mounted on P-Flex'Origami' surrounds

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REPRINTED FROM HOME CINEMA CHOICE FOR GLOBAL DISTRIBUTIONREVIEWSSPECIFICATIONS(presumably because the output level from my AVR wastoo low), and there appears to be no way to manuallyturn it 'on'. Raise the volume a bit and wait.
There's also a switch for five preset EQ options – Room,Wall, Corner, Cabinet and Apartment. The first four are
self-explanatory, while the latter is designed to avoid
upsetting the neighbours and 'reduces the level of very low
frequencies.' You won't want to use that one.

DRIVERS: 2 x 6.5in woofers with P-Flex surround ENCLOSURE: Sealed, with forcecancelling driver configuration ONBOARD POWER (CLAIMED): 2 x 500W (RMS) Class
D amps FREQUENCY RESPONSE (CLAIMED): 11Hz-290Hz REMOTE CONTROL: No
DIMENSIONS: 246(h) x 256(w) x 248(d)mm WEIGHT: 14kg
FEATURES: Stereo/LFE line-level input; speaker-level input; line-level output; room/wall/corner/cabinet/apartment preset EQs; crossover and phase control;
compatible with KEF KW1 wireless transmitter; UniCore overlapping voice coil/single magnet technology; Smart Distortion Control technology; aluminium cabinet

Get down, get funky
I set up the KC62 with, at first, a pair of Q Acoustics 3010i
bookshelf speakers in a 2.1 setup, and it immediately madethem sound like two full-size loudspeakers. The scaleof everything expanded. Funk Blaster, a frankly bonkers
electronic funk/hip-hop track from KOAN Sound (TidalMaster), oozed from the system with chunky, chewy
bass that sounded tonally even across the range, while
kick drums pounded with a purposeful thump. It's aget-off-your-sofa-and-boogie performance that doesn't
seem right coming from such a diddy box.
KEF claims an 11Hz low-frequency reach for the KC62
(which, incidentally, is the same claimed of its twin 9in– but non-UniCore – KF92 model). I'm sure it managed
to provoke such frequencies in its lab, but in the real world,in your real living room, don't expect this woofer to blow
out your windows.
What it does do very, very well, is range low enoughto absolutely convey the huge thuds, bangs, rumbles andwhirrs of your favourite movie soundmixes, with a superb
feeling of tautness and control, while remaining invisible
itself. You could by all means place the KC62 withineyesight, as it looks gorgeous, but there's no indicationthat it's in the room apart from the flapping of yourtrousers. Some bigger, ostensibly beefier subs
4
have a habit of making their presence
felt in more ways than one;you begin to hear the cabinet
itself, or drivers lollingaround after exertion.
Yet this KEF, no doubt
thanks to its onboard
DSP and Smart Distortion
Control Technology(which measures current
information from thevoice coils to pre-limitdistortion), plus rock-solidcabinet and natty 'Origami'
driver surrounds, ischurch-mouse quiet.
So it goes low, but doesit go loud? Certainly to thelevel that I can imagine
anyone wanting to run
it. It's a compact sub intended forsmall to medium-sized environment.
KEF's spec claim is of a maximum 105dB SPL.
If you want more than that, you'll need to go bigger.
In my 4m x 5m living room, with Iron Man (Disney+)providing the evening's entertainment, the KC62 became
the star of the show in a 5.1.2 Atmos setup. Before Tony
Stark first appears in his D.I.Y. Tin Man costume, all the badguys can see is a dark cave entrance – but they can hearominous footfalls. Each is accompanied by a bassy whumpthat evokes the tension in the scene, and as they get louder

TESTED WITH
IRON MAN: The Marvel Cinematic
Universe got off to a flyer in 2008 withthis smart, action-packed origin story.
After bashing its way through homecinemas on a high-quality Blu-ray, it
appeared on a low-quality 4K BD in
Germany in 2017, before Disney finally
did it 4K justice in 2019, and uprated
the soundmix to Dolby Atmos.

and louder, the KC62 happily obliges. It sounds pure andunruffled, big and weighty. The ensuing firefight andflame-thrower display then lays on elements higher
up the bass range; rapid machine-gun fire, exploding
munitions, the roar of his suit's thrusters. The bass is all
thrillingly on point; lean and without any excess fat. You
could almost call it superheroic.

4. As well as standard
connections andsettings, the KC62 hasa five-preset EQ switch

The little engine that could
So: aside from grumbling about the sleepy natureof its standby mode, my time with the KEF KC62 wascontinually joyous. It has the lush looks and refined build
quality I've come to expect from the brand,
and a performance that makes
a mockery of its
dimensions. It's a riot
with movies andassured with music,
and undoubtedly
very clever.
At the sametime, it's notexactly affordable,
and those withplenty of floor spaceand no aversion
to bigger, boxier
woofers may
well prefer tolook elsewhere.
There's noescaping the fact
the KC62 hasbeen designed tofit a brief. But it
does so brilliantly n

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VERDICTKEF KC62

➜ £1,400 ➜ uk.kef.com

WE SAY: KEF's mini woofer looks as cool as a cucumber andsounds it too. Bass is deep and plenty loud enough, and always
totally controlled. A thing of beauty, priced accordingly.
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