I had the R107/2 with kube and for the day they were a good value. Matched veneers, output matching to .5 db and flat bass to 20hz without the typical woofer boost at 100 hz. The 107/2 was colored though, a bit bright up top with a little chestyness in the low mids, still really competitive for the time. The ref 1 impresses with the midrange presentation, upper midrange energy and detail really brings drum kits to life, but no deep bass and cymbals will sound softer in comparison. I like the direction kef has taken but the‘British’ sound is gone and you’ll need a sub(or 2) to get r107 bass. You can connect the kube between the ayre pre and amp to use your existing speakers
KEF Reference 1 v 107/2
I replaced KEF Reference 107/2s with Reference 1s because I was concerned about inserting the active unbalanced KUBE between an Ayre KX-5 Twenty preamp and VX-5 Twenty amp. I had had a bad experience adding an active balanced Bryston high-pass filter between the preamp and amp, and was warned by Charles Hanson to avoid inserting active circuits between the two. I regret I never tried the 107/2s with the Ayre gear. A balanced passive Marchand high-pass filter does no harm.