KEF R11 Meta Tower Speaker Review

[anphex]

Small follow-up: Both Reference 3 Meta speakers have been cleared for warranty repair by KEF and the service center is just waiting for spare parts. Big kudos from my part to KEF.

 

[Hasse B]

I have been thinking of buying the KEF R11 Meta. My amplifier is a Hypex Nilai monoblock which gives 525 watts at 4 ohms. Has anyone run R11 with Hypex Nilai?

 

[kchap]

Should not be a problem at all.

 

[Hasse B]

I wrote to Hypex and asked. They replied that the Hypex Nilai is designed to handle 4 ohm speakers so it should work fine. I find that the Hypex Nilai monoblock has a lot of power and without any heat.

 

[Shoaibexpert]

Time for Show & Tell:

Listening to these R11 Metas (9' apart and 4' pulled into the room) with two KF92 Subs (crossed at 50Hz) + NAD M23 + Topping Pre90 + VMV D1SE + Zen Stream with the 15V Elite PSU (I know, let's not talk about this) + HQPlayer upsampling and Roon + EQ/Room Correction via HouseCurve app on iPad with my preferred Target Curve...too much processing, I know but worth it. All above equipment passes ASR standards, obviously!

Damn good speakers, I can tell y'all...

Surprisingly, putting a blanket over in the middle 77" screen improves the imaging and depth somehow?!

See in basement room setup response with correction filters below

Did I do good? Comments and suggestions welcome

 

[anphex]

Time for Show & Tell:

Listening to these R11 Metas (9' apart and 4' pulled into the room) with two KF92 Subs (crossed at 50Hz) + NAD M23 + Topping Pre90 + VMV D1SE + Zen Stream with the 15V Elite PSU (I know, let's not talk about this) + HQPlayer upsampling and Roon + EQ/Room Correction via HouseCurve app on iPad with my preferred Target Curve...too much processing, I know but worth it. All above equipment passes ASR standards, obviously!

Damn good speakers, I can tell y'all...

Surprisingly, putting a blanket over in the middle 77" screen improves the imaging and depth somehow?!

See in basement room setup response with correction filters below

Did I do good? Comments and suggestions welcome

It's usually not considered a good idea to try to boost away small, needle like dips since it puts huge strain on the system and brings along many other problems for a very tiny gain. As long as the dip is very narrow you usually will not notice it. Focus on smoothing large bass peaks. This will do 90 % of the trick since this will enable you do play louder anyway, reducing the effect of the dips even further.

Dips like those are just the room&position lottery. Can't really fix those without completely rearranging your listening room or using space-wasting helmholtz-resonators or a DBA.


Apart from that, stellar system. The KF92/KC92 are absolute mental monsters of a subwoofer. I have two KC92 it the difference to Kube MIE12 was night and day. These sure a end game subs for life.

 

[JorisCeoen]

Thanks for the review! I have the R11 non-meta (which undoubted will measure slightly ‘worse’) but it’s still a phenomenal speaker. Everyone who comes over that is used to a standard radio or Bluetooth boomboxes get flabbergasted when they hear the pair for the first time.

I support the claim that these also look jawdropping visually. It’s really the thing that steals attention when you enter the living room, although I’m sure some people wouldn’t actually like speakers to be this dominant in a living area (they are really tall).

One thing that is not much talked about is also how these perform in surround. I can tell you it’s absolutely bonkers. These are the best speakers you can find for a modest living room, being more 3D-ish than you can imagine, even in stereo at times. I may upgrade to a R6M sometime in the future, but for now the R2C is just fine. I’m a little sad they didn’t have the R6-non meta at the time these were designed.

 

[tetsu96]

Tip top review @amirm, TY. This was the one that made me say "I get a lot out of reading ASR, should probably donate".

My setup: R11 Metas with R6 Meta center. Paired with a Denon x4800 (ty Evo Maestro), and Fosi V3 mono blocks.

I see a lot of people outside of ASR advocate for expensive amps to do justice to their Metas. Don't know if the Fosi's do justice the way amps costing 10-50x the price would, but they get plenty loud before my ears tell me to turn it down and I don't perceive any change in sound character as I turn up the volume. The graphs / numbers in the review thread here said as much, so they do everything I wanted and expected.

I had Klipsch previously (RF-83s/RC-64) which were super fun and dynamic, but after reading reviews (especially here at ASR) - the tonal neutrality, low distortion, controlled dispersion, and the ability to play loud without compression or significant resonances appealed to me (Klipsch obviously not flat and I haven't seen Klippel measurements of my models, but I'm tired of their sound and other Kipsch's don't measure great here). I tried the R3 Metas to see how I liked them, and then bought the big boys. Coupled with the Fosi mono blocks, this is an ultra low distortion setup - so fun for movies, but even 2.0 content wows me now.

And the fun thing on the left - that's 26cu/ft of subwoofer with an 18" driver in there. DIY'd that about 12 years ago using a QSC amp, and that takes the bottom under 10Hz in room (the HouseCurve graph on my phone does not go the whole way). It's clean too, size (LLT) goes a long way in pushing what a sub can accomplish. The R11s go low with low distortion and I run them Full Range / LFE + Mains, but the sub augments the low end nicely.

Wow does not come close to summing up all the awesomeness for me - SUPER HAPPY with the R Series as a whole, and the R11s are great. Where Reference and Blades probably do up the game, I think I'm at my sweet spot.

 

[anphex]

Today DACHSER Logistics, completely unannounced by them or by Audio Service NL, dropped off my repaired KEF Reference 3 Meta.
I am already very grateful that they shipped the speakers back for free though! Repair report says replacement of Woofer in left speaker and replacement of UniQ in right speaker, all under warranty. Out of curiosity I would have loved to know the exact diagnosis but as long as they work fine again I'll be happy.

 

[Tassin]

Great news for you. Might well be one the best purchases of your life.

 

[anphex]

I just set them up again and everything is fixed now. Sub-Bass flutter and Uni-Q distortion completely gone and there wasn't even a speck of dust on the speakers after leaving the workshop .

Now I am playing with tilting the speakers to adjust my "direct sound / early reflection"-ratio and it's just incredible how precise you can adjust these with KEF speakers. Currently they are set up like I usually NEVER set up speakers: completely parallel, front firing. No focus on the listening position. Still, the phantom center is razor sharp. Just incredible stuff KEF made there, may it be the R or Reference.

 

[anphex]

I am still super confused as to why, especially for KEF/coaxial speakers, a toe in of a few 10-20 degrees sounds noticable more pleasant than straight on-axis-sound. Is that the on-axis turbulence coaxials have on the exact 0° axis? Or is it just the clean radiation pattern MAKES it sounds good in the room?

Still, I can't really get used to seeing speakers to exactly aimed at me. Must be a virus of my studio focus time.

 

[alont]

I am still super confused as to why, especially for KEF/coaxial speakers, a toe in of a few 10-20 degrees sounds noticable more pleasant than straight on-axis-sound. Is that the on-axis turbulence coaxials have on the exact 0° axis? Or is it just the clean radiation pattern MAKES it sounds good in the room?

Still, I can't really get used to seeing speakers to exactly aimed at me. Must be a virus of my studio focus time.

The direct sound from the speakers is probably tonally quite similar in both speaker placements. However, when the speakers aren’t pointed directly at you, the early reflections in the room become slightly more pronounced and potentially a little more tonally accurate, which can contribute to a wider soundstage and better perceived overall tonality.

 

[thewas]

I am still super confused as to why, especially for KEF/coaxial speakers, a toe in of a few 10-20 degrees sounds noticable more pleasant than straight on-axis-sound. Is that the on-axis turbulence coaxials have on the exact 0° axis? Or is it just the clean radiation pattern MAKES it sounds good in the room?

In my experience it is a combination of both.

 

[The Great]

This is a review, listening tests, EQ and detailed measurements of the KEF R11 Meta floorstanding speaker. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $3250 each.
View attachment 359169
The R11 Meta is gorgeous looking with high gloss finish and cabinet that has been shrunk as much as possible to basically hug the drivers. The coax center driver is the star of the show carrying most of the audible band from 200 Hz up (see measurement below). I was impressed with the engineering that went into binding terminal of all things:
View attachment 359170

With a turn of a knob, you connect the bass to the coaxial and vice versa! No jumpers here. Even the cardboard that the speaker came in has clever features like plastic that you pinch and it releases the sides of the box so you can get it out easier. First class execution all around.

KEF R11 Meta Speaker Measurements
As usual we start with our Klippel NFS robotic measurements of frequency response with acoustic center set to center of coaxial driver and grill left out (as well as port plug):
View attachment 359171
I sent out the measurement to KEF and correlation was excellent with their measurements. Their response was a bit smoother than mine but otherwise showed the same dip around 1.2 kHz and dip in bass response. Company explained that the former is diffraction related and goes away off axis and bass shelving was doing was done to accommodate room gain. I will check for this in listening tests later. For now, we can admire the nice directivity which is highlighted in off-axis response that is smooth and sloping down as we want to see it:
View attachment 359172

Very nice. Simulating room response we get:
View attachment 359173
The dip is not as pronounced now which is good.

I forgot to measure the port response but here is one of the woofers and coaxial driver:
View attachment 359175
Even in good speakers I am used to seeing woofer break up/resonances but here, that is so suppressed. Credit goes to the coaxial driver which goes so low, allowing earlier roll off of the woofer response.

Coaxial driver brings uniform directivity and that is precisely what we see:
View attachment 359177View attachment 359178
View attachment 359179

While competing waveguide solutions manage similar behavior horizontally, vertically they are usually a mess. Not so here. Vertical response of the R11 Meta is almost as good as horizontal -- a nice bonus!

Those quad woofers work to bring ease of bass and SPL handling:
View attachment 359181
View attachment 359182

It sounded clean even during sweeps. So I decided to push it to 102 dBSPL:
View attachment 359183
This is why you buy a high-performance tower speaker folks instead of bookshelf. Same amount of floor space but far better handling of music at elevated levels.

Some of you worry about the misnamed speaker "compression" so here are the three responses adjusted to land on top of each other, with proper vertical scale:
View attachment 359184
There is just no audible consequence as a result of going from 86 dBSPL all the way up to 102 dBSPL.

Impedance minimum falls at higher frequencies making it easier to handle as music is not as loud there:
View attachment 359185

There are some resonances as is the case with just about every speaker I measure:
View attachment 359186
And here is the step function for fans of that:
View attachment 359187

KEF R11 Meta Listening Tests and Equalization
Due to heaviness of the speaker, I tested the R11 Meta in our living room as you see in the review picture. This is a massive open floor space with ceiling at some 25 feet. Speaker was away from the rear wall to the tune of 5 to 6 feet (about 2 meters). Stock sound seemed "accurate" for the lack of a better term. I was curious what effect EQ would have on the two things that were visible in on-axis response: dip at 1.2 kHz and bass shelving:
View attachment 359188
I started with the 1.2 KHz (Band 2). This gave female voices more brilliance and pulled them out in front of the speaker a bit. Depending on the clip I played, I could see how someone would prefer it without EQ, while others would want it with that small correction. It was a trade off between sounding a bit bright (with EQ) vs a bit recessed (stock).

I then dialed in the bass response with that boost. I was prepared for some distortion but nothing remotely was audible in that front. Instead, I was greeted with glorious, deep bass that was substantially more rewarding than stock response. What's more it helped to balance the overall tonality with the 1.2 kHz filter, no longer having that tad brightness effect.

I cranked up my amplifier to 0dB reference and started to play track after track. Every piece of music was glorious. Deep, deep bass that was clean as a whistle. Upper range response was delightful while not being accentuated at all. With my wife and dogs around, my testing especially at these playback levels is usually limited but I was enjoying the speaker so much I kept going. Next thing I know, our female dog is worried, running to my wife to hold her. And the male dog coming to me giving me that look of: "what are these loud sounds???" After they did this three times I decided to sadly quit.

Let me summarize it for you: the stock tuning is designed to not remotely offend. The shelving in bass will mean even if there are significant room modes, speaker will not get boomy as I routinely hear from flat response speakers. And the small dip at 1.2 kHz means it will never sound sharp either even if the recording is such. In that regard, I would call the R11 Meta tuning "conservative." There may indeed by something to this tuning as starting point. Since we must measure the response and EQ in bass anyway, we can make the correction I did. But for those who don't, they will get a better response. So the choices here seem wise even though I like very much preferred the filtering I applied (especially in bass).

Conclusions
We expect excellence, objectively optimized response from KEF speakers and we have that in R11 Meta. My experience with budget coaxial designs is that they give up power handling which to me is a poor trade off. Not here. The R11 Meta has excellent bass handling with very low distortion allowing me to EQ it with no degradation as far as distortion of playback ability. There is a bit of room left here in there for enthusiasts who want the optimal performance to get there with EQ. Result was that even in our living room with many hard surfaces and large space to boot, a single R11 Meta roared to action, delivering optimal and super enjoyable response on every reference track I threw at it. Science and excellent engineering works!

I am happy to recommend the KEF R11 Meta speaker. Not only does it perform well, it is well priced as well.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Why is The Panther not showed with this review? Seem like The Panther is also missing with other reviews. I’m sure there is an explanation But I am new to this (faboulus I might add) site. Oh, and could we get a COMPLETE list of The various Panther modes?

 

[Jimbob54]

Why is The Panther not showed with this review? Seem like The Panther is also missing with other reviews. I’m sure there is an explanation But I am new to this (faboulus I might add) site. Oh, and could we get a COMPLETE list of The various Panther modes?

Often doesn't fit in shot with speakers .

Sometimes Amir forgets.

Pretty comprehensive list : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/asr-panthers.11541/

 

[The Great]

Often doesn't fit in shot with speakers .

Sometimes Amir forgets.

Pretty comprehensive list : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/asr-panthers.11541/

Thank you very much, jimbob54. What about The postman Panther then?

 

[Jimbob54]

Thank you very much, jimbob54. What about The postman Panther then?

ASR Panthers

Headless Panther The fear of audio companies - this headless panther signifies a poorly engineered product. Measurements of the product typically show bottom-of-the-pile performance and/or false claims by the product vendor. Sometimes the product is broken in a way that lends it unusable or...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[anphex]

Please have a look at the measurement image below. Purple and teal are WITHOUT COVERS, using my KEF Reference 3 Meta "naked". Red and blue are WITH COVERS. I am surprised by this 2 dB drop in the HF range since these covers are pretty expensive and KEF advertises them as "crystal clear without altering the sound".

I just need an opinion here. Is this reasonable and in the range of "can't be done better" for magnetic cloth covers or should I really expect linearity even with covers?

Edit: Oh, purple and red are at 0,5m pretty much on axis. Teal and blue are 30° and about 1m distance.

 

[dogmamann]

Please have a look at the measurement image below. Purple and teal are WITHOUT COVERS, using my KEF Reference 3 Meta "naked". Red and blue are WITH COVERS. I am surprised by this 2 dB drop in the HF range since these covers are pretty expensive and KEF advertises them as "crystal clear without altering the sound".

I just need an opinion here. Is this reasonable and in the range of "can't be done better" for magnetic cloth covers or should I really expect linearity even with covers?

Edit: Oh, purple and red are at 0,5m pretty much on axis. Teal and blue are 30° and about 1m distance.


View attachment 393838

I expected worse than this when you cover the UNIQ. You are basically introducing another cheap plastic ring over the carefully designed plastic ring(shadow flare) which is a critical design element for the sound of the UNIQ.


Good that the grill isn’t creating any diffraction as that’s worse than this. Also UNIQ grills are the most easiest grills which you can put on and put off while listening. If I were you I would have left the grills on the woofers and left the uniqs naked.