KEF

KEF Uni-Q and MAT

A KEF Uni-Q driver sets the tweeter in the middle of the cone that carries the midrange, so both share one acoustic centre and the sound spreads through the room from a single source. KEF designed and patented the arrangement, and the benefit reaches every seat: the stereo image holds together away from the central chair, so the whole room hears the music much as the person in the middle does.

KEF Meta speakers add Metamaterial Absorption Technology, or MAT, a maze-like structure behind the tweeter dome that absorbs the unwanted sound radiating from the rear of the driver, sound that would otherwise colour the treble. The LS50 Meta was the first loudspeaker with metamaterial, and MAT now runs through the Q Series, the R Series, The Reference and Blade.

From the Q Series to The Reference

The KEF Q Series opens the passive range. KEF Q Series speakers such as the Q1 Meta and Q3 Meta bring Uni-Q with MAT to rooms of every size, while the larger Q Concerto Meta revives the name of the Concerto, the first three-way standmount KEF made. The LS50 Meta continues the line of the LS50, created for the fiftieth anniversary of KEF, and the three-way R3 Meta, partnered by the S3 Floor Stand that KEF designed for the purpose, shares drivers with the largest model in the R Series.

At the summit, the Reference 1 Meta is the only standmount in The Reference, a series hand-built in Maidstone. Each pair is matched in production against a laboratory reference standard, which is how the series earned the name. Every one of these KEF bookshelf speakers is passive, so choose the amplifier with care, with the integrated amplifiers as a sensible starting point, and set the cabinets on speaker stands built for the job.

KEF Wireless Systems

KEF wireless speakers build the amplifiers, the streaming and the digital inputs into the cabinets, so a pair plays from a phone, a network or a television without a separate amplifier. The LSX II, styled by Michael Young, is the compact choice; the LS50 Wireless II brings Uni-Q with MAT to a fully active pair; the Coda W adds a phono input for a turntable alongside HDMI ARC for television sound; and the LS LUXE, sculpted by Ross Lovegrove, is the first KEF wireless loudspeaker with Velocity Control Technology.

These KEF active speakers replace a separate amplifier and streamer in one step, a natural fit for a living room, a study or a second system, and each can be compared with designs from other brands among the wireless hi-fi speakers.

Blade, Muon and the Larger Room

Among KEF floor standing speakers, Blade holds a singular place: KEF calls Blade the world’s first Single Apparent Source loudspeaker, a design in which bass, midrange and treble appear to come from one point. The Blade One Meta and the smaller Blade Two Meta are still built by hand in Maidstone, and the Muon, shaped with the industrial designer Ross Lovegrove, exists in a run limited to one hundred pairs. To compare KEF floorstanding speakers with tall designs from other brands, explore the floorstanding speakers collection.

From a Nissen Hut in Maidstone

KEF takes the name of Kent Engineering and Foundry, on whose site in Maidstone KEF began, in a Nissen hut. The founder, Raymond Cooke, was an electrical engineer from the BBC with a love of music and an appetite for new materials and technology. The first KEF hi-fi loudspeaker, the three-way K1, already used synthetic materials, and KEF audio engineering has kept that spirit through monitor work for the BBC, computer-aided design and the patent behind Uni-Q.

Every pair of KEF loudspeakers here also belongs to the wider hi-fi speakers collection. To hear a KEF speaker before choosing, ask the Audio Lounge team in Wigmore Street about a demonstration.