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Kef KM1 in need of repair.

They are definitely a piece of British audio heritage.

They deserve to be saved and restored, certainly.

One thing I cannot understand though. Who in their right mind wants to monitor and mix at120dB?
Permanent hearing damage would occur within minutes if not sooner.

I wonder if these things might need a seperate mains spur!
 
The vendor had already confirmed that at least one of the mids was in trouble.

Spares/repairs items always seem to go way too high on ebay since there's always an idiot who thinks he can fix it for nothing.
 
Look forward to an update. I love it when you buy something with an issue and you get it home and find there's no issue at all. But I suspect that's not the case here sadly...
 
Do you have any plans aesthetically, Paul, or just to get them up and running? A nice pair of stands to match the speakers would be lovely, unlike the rather function over beauty, of the original metal bar design.
 
Blue Belle said:
Do you have any plans aesthetically, Paul, or just to get them up and running? A nice pair of stands to match the speakers would be lovely, unlike the rather function over beauty, of the original metal bar design.
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My very vague and not well thought-out plans are:

Step 1: Evaluate the state of the drivers, and ship the damaged ones off to Paul at Wembley Loudspeaker Co for repair

Step 2: Get the electronics working (am PCB repair engineer in the broadcast industry, so this doesn't hold too much fear for me)

Step 3: Woodwork

Step 4: Stands

Steps 1 and 2 will happen simultaneously. Step 3 will have to wait a little while as I need to move house (I'm renting space at the local Big Yellow storage for them in the meantime. Step 4 can happen prior to the house move. I've got a fairly well setup mechanical workshop at home, so I was planning to buy some square section tubing and weld up clones of the KEF original stands, although perhaps a little less tall.

As for their final destination... Probably my living room. There's a pair of Dynaudio M3A's there at the moment, which I really like (displaced the old B&W Matrix 801's), so I've got to figure out where to put them first. I nearly bought a pair of KM1's off Ebay twenty years ago, but was living in one room in a shared house and bottled it because of their size. Things have changed for the better in time, and I've been after a pair of KM1's for a while.

It'll be fun...
 
Paul Marchant said:
My very vague and not well thought-out plans are:

Step 1: Evaluate the state of the drivers, and ship the damaged ones off to Paul at Wembley Loudspeaker Co for repair

Step 2: Get the electronics working (am PCB repair engineer in the broadcast industry, so this doesn't hold too much fear for me)

Step 3: Woodwork

Step 4: Stands

Steps 1 and 2 will happen simultaneously. Step 3 will have to wait a little while as I need to move house (I'm renting space at the local Big Yellow storage for them in the meantime. Step 4 can happen prior to the house move. I've got a fairly well setup mechanical workshop at home, so I was planning to buy some square section tubing and weld up clones of the KEF original stands, although perhaps a little less tall.

As for their final destination... Probably my living room. There's a pair of Dynaudio M3A's there at the moment, which I really like (displaced the old B&W Matrix 801's), so I've got to figure out where to put them first. I nearly bought a pair of KM1's off Ebay twenty years ago, but was living in one room in a shared house and bottled it because of their size. Things have changed for the better in time, and I've been after a pair of KM1's for a while.

It'll be fun...
Click to expand...

Excellent!!.. along with the fact that they are in the hands of someone with a genuine love for the speaker, you are clearly going to do them justice. Any chance of a resurrection thread for the Kef's? If i had the money, i was on similar thinking to you. Send the drivers off to Wembley, but i would have needed to send the amps to Quad for their work, because my forte is wood, so i would have tackled the boxes and stands with a slightly different approach, as a result. Best of luck.
 
Blue Belle said:
Excellent!!.. along with the fact that they are in the hands of someone with a genuine love for the speaker, you are clearly going to do them justice. Any chance of a resurrection thread for the Kef's? If i had the money, i was on similar thinking to you. Send the drivers off to Wembley, but i would have needed to send the amps to Quad for their work, because my forte is wood, so i would have tackled the boxes and stands with a slightly different approach, as a result. Best of luck.
Click to expand...

I feel I should document the process somewhere. Perhaps here, or I'm one of the mod team at Reddit.com/r/electronics repair and that might be more suitable.

It's not going to be an immediate thing. They should be arriving at some point next week. I've rented some space at the Big Yellow Storage round the corner from work. This will slow things down a bit, as I'll have to go in there one evening and pull the drivers out. It'd be quicker and easier to do at home (but if I take these home in this state, one of the rest of my household will probably stab me) but such is life.

The electronics repair / refurb might be a couple of hours, or a couple of weekends depending on what's wrong with them and the general state of the boards.

I'll stick a post up here with progress from time to time.
 
Dude! Love your commitment to the cause. Congratulations on owning such an awesome set of speakers.

I know what you mean about taking them home in an unrestored state.. my last restoration also stayed at work until completed. Took them home and they got the thumbs up… I hope your family is as accommodating. ;)
 
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