Review: KEF Universal Wireless System

Call me lazy, but I like to watch movies in bed. The only downside is that there are no surround speakers because my wife is vehemently opposed to my hanging them on the bedroom wall. But since we just added new furniture, there’s now the opportunity to place speakers on the two night tables flanking each side of the bed so I can finally have surround sound. However she is also opposed to having speaker wires running across the floor. So this wireless system couldn’t have shown up at a better time. And not only are the components unobtrusively small, but KEF has the good sense not to include a pair of speakers and instead let me choose the ones to use.

The manual is thin because it’s extremely easy to get this up and running. Start by placing the wireless receiver labeled “left” on the left side of the room and then the other on the right. Each receiver has a power supply to plug into an AC socket (and is always on), plus there are two knurled knobs for attaching wires to the surround speaker. Power is supplied to each speaker by an internal 50-watt amplifier inside the receiver.

The last step includes placing the wireless transmitter near your amplifier or HTiB and aiming it towards the receivers (just don’t place it on top of the amp so as to avoid heat buildup, or anywhere the signal might be blocked). Then insert the provided cable into the transmitter and attach the speaker leads on the other end to the amplifier’s left and right surround speaker outputs. Finally, plug in the AC cord and turn the transmitter on. Blue LEDs on the transmitter and receivers should now light up to show that they “see” each other—if they blink instead, check that everything is plugged in and powered and that the connections to the speaker outputs are tight (I had the blue light solid the first time). Then, adjust the surround speaker settings in the amplifier as you would normally and sit back to enjoy surround sound.

So I’m flipping through the noisiest, loudest scenes from the HD DVD of “Face Off” with the Dolby Digital and giving the surrounds a real workout—every thud, screech of metal and explosion is loudly circling around me like a Blackhawk helicopter out of control. KEF is right when they say their wireless technology doesn’t require any special coddling because there’s no way I would have thought the surrounds were wireless if I hadn’t already known. And don’t think surrounds are only for big bangs either as they can add unexpected ambiance—for example, as found on some of the Pixar short films now available on a Volume 1 DVD collection.

Now I admit to being worried that the wireless system would fall prey to interference—the transmitter is about 25 feet from the receivers and between them there’s an always-on Wi-Fi module, a cordless phone plus a computer—all using the 2.4 GHz band. But in all my use with DVDs and movies off of the TV as well as SACD audio discs, the wireless receivers never lost the signal to the surrounds. And while there were a few times where I could make out an intermittent minuscule “pop” from one of the speakers while they were playing, it didn’t detract from my enjoyment overall.

A mini-jack also lets you plug in an iPod/MP3 player and transmit the audio—configured this way, you could use the KEF with a pair of speakers for playing in a second room or outside on a patio, etc.

Over the years I’ve seen enough “wireless” speaker systems to fill a dumpster—an apt description because the consistency of the audio response was often more suited for being tossed in the trash than used. That’s not the case with the KEF wireless system, and my only complaint is that I have to return it now since the review is done.