Kef R Meta Series Release

[Daka]

You are right here, I just checked the ls50 and ls50 Meta. They both are more or less 50 degrees. In real life R Series was always narrow to my ears, and ls50 meta wide. Never listened to the Orginal ls50s. In a typical Hi-Fi Store, everything else sounds wider than uniq. Hardly heard any hifi speaker narrow as the r series recently. But they image better than everything. You cannot get both on a speaker if m not wrong.

That was my issue with R as well, all perfect except for narrow dispersion. While 50ish isn’t exactly very wide, and as you mention many other speakers are even wider, with KEFs stellar imaging would be perfect. Erin did compare R and maybe original reference to new reference Meta which is around 50-60 - making it his one of his favorite speakers. Perhaps in bigger rooms at bigger distances/spread narrower dispersion doesn’t matter but us people with smaller rooms do prefer it for it to be wider.

 

[anthonymoody]

reference 2c list is $5000 (going for $3000), meta version is $6000

In the US, the current R2C MSRPs for $1300. I would note it's *not* part of the current KEF sale, though obviously many used R2C's will hit the market soon

$3k I would think is a hard cap for what the R6C will MSRP for, otherwise you'd likely pick up a discounted Reference 2C instead. I would anyway. I would guess the MSRP of the R2C meta as $1500, and the R6C as $2500.

We will know soon.

 

[TheBatsEar]

In the US, the current R2C MSRPs for $1300.

Why not get a R3 and use that as a center? You could buy a pair for below 1000€ and either use both or sell one.

 

[Steve Dallas]

Why not get a R3 and use that as a center? You could buy a pair for below 1000€ and either use both or sell one.

In the US, the R3s are $1700 per pair on sale.

 

[Daka]

Why not get a R3 and use that as a center? You could buy a pair for below 1000€ and either use both or sell one.

1. Using one - twitter would be off center… which maybe wouldn’t be sonically big problem but would irk the shit out of me.
2. Using two - twitters would be too far from each other comb filtering etc, you could disconnect mid/twitter (or maybe open it up and just a twitter) from one but again same thing as 1.

Unless you can accommodate single one vertically.
Wonder if anyone experimented with this?

 

[Daka]

In the US, the current R2C MSRPs for $1300. I would note it's *not* part of the current KEF sale, though obviously many used R2C's will hit the market soon

$3k I would think is a hard cap for what the R6C will MSRP for, otherwise you'd likely pick up a discounted Reference 2C instead. I would anyway. I would guess the MSRP of the R2C meta as $1500, and the R6C as $2500.

We will know soon.

Well R2C was priced at lower point than R3 - 15% more per unit than R3 in fact. So my guess would be same as current R3 price (per couple)

 

[Kal Rubinson]

1. Using one - twitter would be off center… which maybe wouldn’t be sonically big problem but would irk the shit out of me.

Only if you lay it down on its side.

 

[Daka]

Only if you lay it down on its side.

Unless you can accommodate single one vertically.

Yeah. Unfortunately I’m using TV so no way to put it vertically.

 

[Vacceo]

Perhaps the evolution of the speakers will lower the impedance as it happened in other models (Blades I think).

 

[pjn]

In the US, the current R2C MSRPs for $1300. I would note it's *not* part of the current KEF sale, though obviously many used R2C's will hit the market soon

I was quoting the reference 2C (old one) comparing to the new reference 2C (meta). You can still get the old reference 2C - I'm sure it won't be the last time that KEF's nomenclature confuses... Curiously KEF is selling 3 reference 2Cs (old ones) as a complete L/C/R system and pairs as stereo sets - they must have a lot to get rid of.

 

[stren]

Perhaps the evolution of the speakers will lower the impedance as it happened in other models (Blades I think).

Did it actually measure lower or did they just spec it closer to reality? The og ls50 was specced at 8 even though minimum was 3 from what I remember.

 

[Vacceo]

Current R's can drop to 3.2 ohm, so that could be the case too.

 

[ROOSKIE]

Can you point out the page number?

This is a significant aspect of Toole and co's research.
In a certain sense half the book is about this.

In a nutshell, if a speaker has a dip on axis where in the same area off axis there is a peak you can't boost the on axis to 'neutral' without exgerating the off axis peak even more.
Same thing for a peak on axis and a dip in the same area off axis. Now if you bring that on axis peak down the off axis has a huge hole.
So even in cases where there is a peak on axis but neutrality off axis, if you cut the on axis peak now the neutral off axis has a dip.
That is why a speaker with lots of frequency responce errors but good matching in terms of on and off axis responce, like the Klipsch RP-600m can be easily PEQ'd to a very good result. And something like the Wharfedale Linton can not be improved due to acoustic interferences(irregular directivity) in many areas.

 

[Descartes]

Why not get a R3 and use that as a center? You could buy a pair for below 1000€ and either use both or sell one.

Except in the US they are more expensive!

 

[Descartes]

In the US, the R3s are $1700 per pair on sale.

Yes they rip off the US customers!!

 

[Descartes]

Same price ? Don’t think so.

After you include amplifiers and cables

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

Except in the US they are more expensive!

Yes they rip off the US customers!!

After you include amplifiers and cables

You can reply to multiple posts with one comment.

 

[HooStat]

Only if you lay it down on its side.

And if you don't use a speaker grille, which would hide the visual anomaly.

 

[n1rvana]

For the love of anti-glare, why are all of them in gloss

 

[HarmonicTHD]

For the love of anti-glare, why are all of them in gloss

Sparkly sounds ;-)