• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

KEF Q Meta is Coming

its proof data and curve its not real life

they are better than the old

old was good

better than good :p

for the less expensive kef series its good
The non-meta actually has somewhat better midrange distortion performance, which is out of the ordinary for meta vs no.
Screenshot_20241006-171154.png
Screenshot_20241006-170909.png
 
Last edited:
I speculate that the kind of uni-Q drivers of the Q1 and Q3 probably didn't receive huge changes.
But the 4" Uni-Q of the Concerto and towers seems to be a new design and might perform better.

The non-meta actually has somewhat better midrange distortion performance, which is out of the ordinary for meta vs no.View attachment 396977View attachment 396978
6 years between the 2

sealed for the 2 ?

meta disk need perhaps time to burn :p
 
Erin's Q3 Meta data in red vs ASR Q350 in green.

on axis.jpg
inroom.jpg


Don't see much incentive to upgrade.

The Q3 doesn't have the dip between 3k and 4k, but is worse at 1.5kHz. Both have that mud peak from 100 to 300Hz. Both speakers need EQ to sound really good. Might as well keep the old ones. Or for people considering buying either, get the cheapest ones and put the rest of the money towards EQ.

The Q350 sells for half price in the EU, for which I personally think they are a bargin. The Q Concerto needs to be a lot better to justify $1200 vs just taking the jump to R3 in my opinion.


One way I EQ'ed mine. In my room they play flat down to 35Hz.
Screenshot 2024-10-07 at 03.34.01.jpg
 
Last edited:
The measurements for these new Q3Ms look about the same as those for the Q350, maybe even a little worse because there now appears to be a new cabinet (or port) resonance at around 650Hz that wasn't there before.

So I have two questions:

1) Did KEF remove some of the bracing inside the cabinet?
2) Since there are alleged audible improvements from the addition of the meta backing to the tweeter, what measurement(s) would capture that improvement? The measurements done by Erin don't seem to capture any improvement in the tweeter range.
 
Last edited:
crappy speaker..

Kef could have made easily it better not much cost and made a lot of their lower priced systems awesome atleast in HT world.. but they chose not to.

oh well.
 
Erin's Q3 Meta data in red vs ASR Q350 in green.

View attachment 397020View attachment 397021

Don't see much incentive to upgrade.

The Q3 doesn't have the dip between 3k and 4k, but is worse at 1.5kHz. Both have that mud peak from 100 to 300Hz. Both speakers need EQ to sound really good. Might as well keep the old ones. Or for people considering buying either, get the cheapest ones and put the rest of the money towards EQ.

The Q350 sells for half price in the EU, for which I personally think they are a bargin. The Q Concerto needs to be a lot better to justify $1200 vs just taking the jump to R3 in my opinion.


One way I EQ'ed mine. In my room they play flat down to 35Hz.
View attachment 397022
the old is sold 399
the new can be found 559 e WITH speeker protection
 
Could be the edge diffraction from the very simple cabinet construction...

Some of it is, some of it isn't. Surprised Erin didn't know what the ~1khz stuff was when it's clearly right there in the dispersion graph, it's diffraction from the cabinet.
 
Some of it is, some of it isn't. Surprised Erin didn't know what the ~1khz stuff was when it's clearly right there in the dispersion graph, it's diffraction from the cabinet.

When you see that rise and dip it's a good indicator. They could've smoothed it out in the crossover, but probably didn't have the budget to start adding more elements in their entry level line.

Measurements can highlight potential issues to listen for, but are not always audibly problematic with actual source material, which seems to be the case here, at least to Erin's impressions.

Here's a simulation for that baffle size and driver position, fwiw.

bafflediff.png
 
Doesn't look too great for $800 coming from a company that knows how to make a good speaker. I suspect a lot of penny pinching to increase margins, and I certainly wouldn't be recommending them to someone looking for "budget" speakers.
 
Doesn't look too great for $800 coming from a company that knows how to make a good speaker. I suspect a lot of penny pinching to increase margins, and I certainly wouldn't be recommending them to someone looking for "budget" speakers.
This might be an overly cynical simplification (wouldn't be my first), but it reminds me of car companies managing to make an entry-level crappy car that they can list for $19K, just to get people into the dealership and sell them one for $24K. So, you go to buy a Concerto or whatever, and the salesman mentions the R series, convinces you to listen to a track or two, and suddenly you are walking out with better speakers, and more debt. I know KEF tried more than that with the Q series, but they also know they can't make them TOO good, or they risk losing lots of R sales.
 
To me it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if the Q1/Q3 sound pretty much like the outgoing models but with improved tweeter clarity from the meta. IF that allowed them to keep costs down so that they can continue doing the regular discounts/sales. The Q150 at $350 seems like a good deal already to get in the game, any improvement would be a bonus. $600 I’m not so sure about.
 
no concerto review ?
Thats nice to hear. Will you be sending a set to Amirm or Erin for a review?
Er. To be honest, I can't remember who we've sent speakers to, but I believe either/both Amir and/or Erin has some of the new Q Series.
Either way, there's definitely going to be third party measurements for you to have a look at. Obviously, there will be a pretty comprehensive set of measurements from the white paper when that's published.

R&D Engineer - KEF

Edit: I copy-pasted this earlier answer of @AOR . Hope it's clear.

This review is planned anyhow (If I'm not mistaken): https://darko.audio/2024/09/in-berlin-for-review-kefs-q-concerto-meta/
 
Last edited:

Er. To be honest, I can't remember who we've sent speakers to, but I believe either/both Amir and/or Erin has some of the new Q Series.
Either way, there's definitely going to be third party measurements for you to have a look at. Obviously, there will be a pretty comprehensive set of measurements from the white paper when that's published.

R&D Engineer - KEF

Edit: I copy-pasted this earlier answer of @AOR . Hope it's clear.

This review is planned anyhow (If I'm not mistaken): https://darko.audio/2024/09/in-berlin-for-review-kefs-q-concerto-meta/
with 5 kef publicity on 1st page dont need to reed this review paid :p
 
Back
Top Bottom