@pathtonowhere I was one of the brighter-than-R3 people and I wouldn’t put too much gravity on my in-room response. It was obvious pretty quickly that the R3 suited my room and ear better so I was using the R3 as a control and swapping the Concerto in-place for the R3 (same toe out etc) when taking measurements. I’d have to guess, too many variables for me to know exactly why it responded that way in-room for me. I didn’t spend a ton of time experimenting with them after doing some initial A/B tests.
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KEF Q Meta is Coming
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pathtonowhere
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It's possible that the wider dispersion pattern makes the difference in a narrow room with low ceiling and/or hard floor.
For example, I had a Monitor Audio Silver 100 (no waveguide at all) and a Wharfedale 230 (a shallow to medium depth waveguide). The difference in treble is about 2dB in a on-axis chart, but the Silver seemed at least 5dB brighter to me. And it wasn't only the level, but also the kind of sound, because the brightness reflected from the walls/ceiling was muddy and the treble had a ringing quality to it.
That being said, the Concerto seems to have a relatively deep waveguide (mid driver+the ring around it). I'll just try to get to listen to them so I can see for myself.
For example, I had a Monitor Audio Silver 100 (no waveguide at all) and a Wharfedale 230 (a shallow to medium depth waveguide). The difference in treble is about 2dB in a on-axis chart, but the Silver seemed at least 5dB brighter to me. And it wasn't only the level, but also the kind of sound, because the brightness reflected from the walls/ceiling was muddy and the treble had a ringing quality to it.
That being said, the Concerto seems to have a relatively deep waveguide (mid driver+the ring around it). I'll just try to get to listen to them so I can see for myself.
jacktracks707
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Just wanted to pop in and say Ive been enjoying the Q4 Meta on Wall speakers as my surrounds a lot. They look really nice too. One is on the wall, the other is on a stand and it looks good on a stand as well.
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As I had written in the white paper thread, I now ordered a pair of Q7 Meta, will report when they are here and I have done some measurements and comparisons.
Interesting..
Interesting too!
And hope you'll have fun.Btw, could it be a good idea if this thread would be merged in the white paper thread?
somebodyelse
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Which 'these' do you mean? Q3, Q6 or Concerto? Mostly we're still waiting for measurements. Erin has measured the Q3 and (I think still only on youtube?) the Concerto, but those haven't made it to spinorama.org yet so you'll have to compare manually.
I mean the Q Concerto Meta
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Yes, the Uni-Qs are enclosed inside their own, separate acoustic volumes on all of the three-way models.
extrachange
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I finally bought a pair of Concerto and I can confirm they are not bright sounding when listening near field, but in a reflective room, it's gonna to be a lot brighter. I'm happy with them any ways, not as impressive as R3 Meta, but more then enough for my surround setup.
Here's my in-room measurement with a subtle boosting high shelf EQ, after room correction and crossovered to a sub, they sound great!
Here's my in-room measurement with a subtle boosting high shelf EQ, after room correction and crossovered to a sub, they sound great!
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Do you have any plans to send the Q4 meta on-wall for review and measurement or have you already sent one to Amir? It's a really interesting speaker as it looks like a whole new cabinet design from KEF. For room aesthetics while taking up less space I feel like on-wall speakers with slim subs are the future for listening to music.
The Q4 meta on-wall seem like a really good option for rear speakers if you have the wall space.
Are there any measurements of the Q4 Meta on-wall out there. I expect they will measure well and I wonder if they can actually sound far better on a wall in a real room than any bookshelf speaker on an actual shelf on a wall, the way many people will actually use them in real life.
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The allocation of review samples is managed by KEF Marketing, so I’m not sure what’s currently in the pipeline. However, if you're interested in the technical data, the whitepaper is now available and includes full spinoramas, impedance curves, and directivity contours.
KEF Q Series with MAT Whitepaper
Hi everyone, I’m happy to share the much-awaited Q Series with MAT whitepaper. Thank you all for your patience, and I hope you enjoy reading it! Please note that due to the upload limit on ASR, I had to compress the document before attaching it. The high-resolution PDF should be available on...
audiosciencereview.com
You’re absolutely right that the Q4 Meta has been designed to make multi-channel setups easier — by requiring less space without compromising much on performance. In terms of the Q4 Meta's design, we have included several features that make it far better suited for on-wall use compared to simply mounting a typical bookshelf speaker directly on the wall:
- Side-mounted port: The port is positioned on the side rather than at the back, eliminating concerns about obstruction or the need for port bungs. This is particularly useful if you don’t have a subwoofer or want greater flexibility when integrating one.
- Slim cabinet design: The cabinet is significantly shallower than most bookshelf speakers, resulting in a minimalist appearance when mounted and reducing how far it protrudes from the wall. To maintain meaningful low-frequency efficiency, we made the cabinet slightly wider to ensure sufficient internal volume for the LMF driver. Because of this, the Q4 Meta can be used not only as surround speakers but also as on-wall front LCRs — a configuration that some customers are already enjoying.
- Designed for on-wall placement: Most importantly, the Q4 Meta has been subjectively balanced specifically for on-wall use from the outset. This means that the intended sound performance is preserved when mounted, unlike the compromises that typically arise from placing standard bookshelf speakers on the wall.
This is one of the best replies I've seen from a manufacturer. SVS, Dali and Nubert are far less interested in having measurements of their speakers published.The allocation of review samples is managed by KEF Marketing, so I’m not sure what’s currently in the pipeline. However, if you're interested in the technical data, the whitepaper is now available and includes full spinoramas, impedance curves, and directivity contours.
KEF Q Series with MAT Whitepaper
Hi everyone, I’m happy to share the much-awaited Q Series with MAT whitepaper. Thank you all for your patience, and I hope you enjoy reading it! Please note that due to the upload limit on ASR, I had to compress the document before attaching it. The high-resolution PDF should be available on...
You’re absolutely right that the Q4 Meta has been designed to make multi-channel setups easier — by requiring less space without compromising much on performance. In terms of the Q4 Meta's design, we have included several features that make it far better suited for on-wall use compared to simply mounting a typical bookshelf speaker directly on the wall:
I hope this helps, cheers!
- Side-mounted port: The port is positioned on the side rather than at the back, eliminating concerns about obstruction or the need for port bungs. This is particularly useful if you don’t have a subwoofer or want greater flexibility when integrating one.
- Slim cabinet design: The cabinet is significantly shallower than most bookshelf speakers, resulting in a minimalist appearance when mounted and reducing how far it protrudes from the wall. To maintain meaningful low-frequency efficiency, we made the cabinet slightly wider to ensure sufficient internal volume for the LMF driver. Because of this, the Q4 Meta can be used not only as surround speakers but also as on-wall front LCRs — a configuration that some customers are already enjoying.
- Designed for on-wall placement: Most importantly, the Q4 Meta has been subjectively balanced specifically for on-wall use from the outset. This means that the intended sound performance is preserved when mounted, unlike the compromises that typically arise from placing standard bookshelf speakers on the wall.
The Q4 meta is the only on-wall I've seen a spinorama for. Would I be right to assume that it was mounted on a large board for the measurement and the rear reflections ignored or subtracted as there will be none? In the context of having no similar on-wall speaker measurements to compare it to it looks really good!
The bass roll off won't matter if you use these with a sub. The dip between 1k and 2k looks like it could be curable with EQ/DSP? You should use EQ if you're using a sub or subs anyway. Directivity looks to be very wide which would be good for music in general purpose rooms where you might not just sit in the sweet spot. I would guess this is to do with the wide front baffle compared to the size of the driver. This is from just looking at these graphs with my amateur eye mind you.
In comparison the Q Concerto Meta for example has smoother response and more bass extension so would not necessarily want EQ or a sub for most music but much narrower directivity meaning to me you would need to stay in those narrower beams or have the tonality change noticeably as you move around. This, I guess, will be due to the 3 way configuration. Again, just my amateur take.
All in all, excellent. It would be great to see an expert review and some data uploaded to spinorama though!
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Would you send them to Amir or Erin for a spinorama measurement? We could organize a crowdfunding for the shipping cost
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I am located in Europe and shopping this huge box two ways across the ocean doesn't make financially sense (plus the time it will take) since from what I read at Erin KEF anyway sent him some models for testing directly to him.
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Sure, a little teaser of my coming comparison:im looking forward for some impressions as well, as part of this awesome community its almost a must...
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