Kef R3 Bookshelf Speaker Review (Erin's Audio Corner)

[hardisj]

Just added a monthly donation to your PayPal as well. It is not much but hopefully it will add up through the months and years.

I was wondering who that was so I could thank them. So, Thank You!

 

[hardisj]

@hardisj
A very interesting observation you had was your preference for how the speakers sound between your 2 rooms. Did you happen to have measurements comparing the 2 rooms? Apologies if you've already done so somewhere. Might be highly instructional to see how R3 reacts with a live vs dead room.

No, and I know that I should have. Problem is, my HT has now become storage for all these dang boxes and I haven't gotten a chance to use it since January (when I first tested these speakers up there).

 

[hardisj]

Are you providing the download for the SPIN data?

I will sometime tonight. I totally forgot.


If you noticed, I updated my horizontal and vertical SPL plots to be colored. I used your color scheme (as best I could), as well.

 

[hardisj]

It kinda does when looking at the 0-90° horizontal and vertical plots in detail.

Indeed. And if you look at that bullet you quoted, the next sentence was:

And in that same vein, the only thing in the data that might make sense as to a culprit is the expansion of directivity around this point. This could simply be coincidence.

 

[MZKM]

If you noticed, I updated my horizontal and vertical SPL plots to be colored. I used your color scheme (as best I could), as well.

I did

For the horizontal, are you just showing one side or the average of both sides?

 

[hardisj]

I'm just showing one side (making the assumption that it is symmetrical; and it is other than maybe be very slightly off-center sometimes).

For non-symmetrical speakers I'll show both, probably in the same fashion as I did for vertical (dashed lines for negative angles).

 

[Soniclife]

@hardisj Great review, thanks. Are you able to do multi tone IMD testing? I don't know if it would show anything interesting, I'm just curious.

 

[TimVG]

Indeed. And if you look at that bullet you quoted, the next sentence was:

I gotta quit browsing ASR when just waking up.

 

[hardisj]

I gotta quit browsing ASR when just waking up.

It happens. LOL

 

[hardisj]

@hardisj Great review, thanks. Are you able to do multi tone IMD testing? I don't know if it would show anything interesting, I'm just curious.

So, that's the thing. Right now, there isn't a room correction option for IMD like there is HD. Which means that I would need to either test in the nearfield (very, very close to the speaker) or test outdoors. The former is out because testing a loudspeaker in the nearfield doesn't allow the drivers to sum properly and get the full response. I cannot do the latter because of noise levels (IMD testing is loud). When I do my CEA-2010 testing the frequencies are low enough that it isn't annoying and my neighborhood doesn't hear it. But when I'm doing HF testing that stuff is loud and can be heard down the street. Ask me how I know.

Same thing with my multi-tone testing.

I wish there were an easier way. That's just the nature of testing from home.

 

[aarons915]

I've had the R3 for about a year now as some know and have messed with EQ quite a bit. These are about the same as Amir's measurement but I slightly tweaked them with these new measurements to be a bit more neutral. They are about perfect with these filters and that harshness around 2500Hz is smoothed out without creating much of a dip in the listening window.



The horizontal and vertical polar plots are very interesting as well and in my opinion illustrate why the UniQ driver sounds so natural, especially with vocals. Here's a directivity pattern of a human speaker in both planes, it matches the R3 directivity pattern about perfectly.

 

[Juhazi]

The trim ring is round, half wavelength of 1,2kHz is 143mm. This dimension doesn't seem to fit the surround of the driver or trim ring's outer diameter. Cabinet is 199.6 mm wide. Hmm perhaps the contour of the ring shifts effective diameter?

 

[hardisj]

and that harshness around 2500Hz is smoothed out

Out of curiosity, did you notice this before my review? I'm just curious if I'm the only one because I wasn't sure if it was the room or the speaker.

 

[tecnogadget]

Out of curiosity, did you notice this before my review? I'm just curious if I'm the only one because I wasn't sure if it was the room or the speaker.

I wouldn’t go as far as saying “harshness”, but I did perceive that 2500hz could be improved by Eq (which I did). To me voices sound really nice and natural, but still had the perception that something could be improved in that regards to achieve SOTA (that little improvement monster inside all of us).
Overall I love them and wouldn’t have choosen a different speaker. By the way great review Erin !

 

[Biblob]

Hey Erin, top notch review (as usual )
I was wondering, is the spinorama not 10 dB to wide? It now looks like it goed from 30-90dB, which is 60 dB in total. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought it would have to be 50 dB wide on the vertical axis if following the CTA standard.
I don't really mind it, although this might get a bit more squished

 

[aarons915]

Out of curiosity, did you notice this before my review? I'm just curious if I'm the only one because I wasn't sure if it was the room or the speaker.

Yes I've had a weird relationship with the R3, I originally took them home to compare to the LS50 and didn't like the R3 much, they sounded like something was missing but also something was harsh, they were fatiguing. My in room measurement showed the shadowflare dip around 1k and then Amir's review came out and it looked like I could fix the midrange dip with a bit of EQ and by pushing in the shadowflare so I just bought a pair to try again. EQ made them much better but they still sounded "energetic", not harsh or fatiguing like the 1st time but they wore on me after awhile. That's when I started experimenting with that slight peak that is actually closer to 3k in the ER curve and my in-room measurements and smoothed out the highs nicely, it's just a balancing act because to completely smooth out the ER curve creates a decent dip in the listening window.

 

[hardisj]

I was wondering, is the spinorama not 10 dB to wide? It now looks like it goed from 30-90dB, which is 60 dB in total. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought it would have to be 50 dB wide on the vertical axis if following the CTA standard.
I don't really mind it, although this might get a bit more squished

It cuts off the DI plots if I make it 50dB scale. Amir's is the same way. I was going to set mine at 50dB but I knew people would complain it wasn't the same as Amir's.

 

[rclark07m]

Thank you for the great review, Erin. For both the D&D 8C and the KEF R3 you mentioned that they sounded better in your living room than your home theater room. Were both speakers affected equally, or were the differences more pronounced (or of a different character) in one or the other? Thank you.

 

[hardisj]

For both the D&D 8C and the KEF R3 you mentioned that they sounded better in your living room than your home theater room.

I actually didn't listen to the DD8C in my home theater. I think I specifically mentioned that was the case because I have a false wall in my HT and therefore not a true boundary like the 8c's are designed for.

 

[Frank Dernie]

I believe this is to compensate for room gain. Most people still do not use room compensation software and having the bass go to a low frequency but rolled off allows plenty of bass in room without it getting overblown in most people's system.
I consider it to be clever practical engineering personally.

I would like to add that, looking at the bass response a 10dB room mode at around 60Hz, not uncommon, would make the response better in room, rather than worse, this could well be why the R3 sounded so much better in @hardisj living room than the HT, and will, IMO have much less need of room compensation that any speaker which doesn't have this sort of response.
KEF have many years of experience and have mentioned the difference between in room and raw basic data frequently over the years.