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KEF Reference 4C Review (Center Speaker)

Rate this speaker:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 5 1.5%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 6 1.7%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 78 22.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 254 74.1%

  • Total voters
    343

Robbo99999

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Certainly looks impressive, but the longer I look at the room situation (which is clearly for ad purposes), it would be a waste of good speakers to place them in such a "dry aquarium" ;) I know similar situations from some (terrible IMHO) designer houses of glass and concrete, where even a normal conversation can give you a migraine...
Ha, aka "Diffuse Field EQ"!
 

Robbo99999

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Yes, I'm glad she is healed up and can carry your 100 pound center channel around for you. She sure is handy when it comes to heavy speakers. Although to be honest, you could offer to help her instead of "supervising" her moving heavy stuff around. But, I see you have found the joy of having a good woman! :)
She's from Scandinavia and has a braided pony tail right?!
 

Robbo99999

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I have always thought that the C speaker is for vocal/speech. Isn't anyone here worried about that?



Speech-range-profiles-displaying-values-derived-for-the-individual-periods-of-the-vocal.png


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That seems like a very insightful point, perhaps should be tested for voice intelligibility/clarity/authenticity at different angles in the listening test to see if this highlights itself as a problem.
 

JD_Spoon

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That seems like a very insightful point, perhaps should be tested for voice intelligibility/clarity/authenticity at different angles in the listening test to see if this highlights itself as a problem.
I concur, given the speaker's general use case and its implications, adding some primarily voice-based material for the listening tests would be a really interesting and useful case to have some subjective data for.
 

JD_Spoon

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There it is! A coaxial center channel solves the horizontal dispersion problem. Fantastic. I wonder if a center channel equivalent of the LS50 would give the rest of us an affordable option that performs well enough. Give up a little low range for better dispersion
There is an LS50C Meta available for those who are looking for a matching center speaker to supplement that particular pair. AFAIK, it's identical to the LS50, it's just sold as a single unit rather than as a pair. There was an LS50C previously available as well, but I believe it's been discontinued after the release of the Meta update.
 

phoenixdogfan

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Certainly looks impressive, but the longer I look at the room situation (which is clearly for ad purposes), it would be a waste of good speakers to place them in such a "dry aquarium" ;) I know similar situations from some (terrible IMHO) designer houses of glass and concrete, where even a normal conversation can give you a migraine...
Yeah, I know. :facepalm: It looks way better than it sounds.
 

Biblob

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I have always thought that the C speaker is for vocal/speech. Isn't anyone here worried about that?



Speech-range-profiles-displaying-values-derived-for-the-individual-periods-of-the-vocal.png


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Good Point! Looking at this graph, it might be preferable to have a speaker that sends out a 180/360 degree field of sound, regarding the vocal range 150-500hz, so no matter where one would sit, they would receive the human voice at their seating position.
Making a compromise in headroom/possible loudness, maybe one would do better buying the LS50 Meta.

Laying the LS50 Meta horizontaly, the vertical beamwith (becoming the horizontal beamwith) is as follows. As one can see, the LS50M sends the 150-500hz 180 degrees. Combine this with the same beamwith horizontally (alsmost the same before 1000hz) you have a speaker that sends the human voice 360 degrees.
index.php
 

beagleman

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I concur, given the speaker's general use case and its implications, adding some primarily voice-based material for the listening tests would be a really interesting and useful case to have some subjective data for.
Until now, I have seen many comments about lesser "Perfoming" centers, having a narrow range, but in my limited and not totally scientific "experiments" I have not found it really to matter as much as many think it will.

I may be in the minority here for sure, but my one 3 way Center, with really wide dispersion, to me, does not sound as good, possibly because voices appear more diffuse, or less pinpoint in where they are coming from.

I sense the "issues" many claim to see, actually are somewhat of an advantage.

I found when sitting far to one side, it appears LESS natural for a voice to not roll off in the upper registers.
 

Lsc

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I am using a pair of JL Audio fathom f113v2 subs with them. The pairing with them has been, frankly, delightful in 2-channel listening, and I fully expect the center to make the HT experience absolute dynamite once it's back in with its brethren. This is how things are now, although the second Fathom is out of frame, the L/R speakers are still in the bottom packing material until my stands get here, and you can feel free to point and laugh at my prior GoldenEar soundbar looking out of place covering the center channel duty in the interim. Also, most all of the electronics over on the right are getting swapped out as part of this project.View attachment 179946
Do you not use your fireplace? I’m only asking because I use mine all the time so all my stuff was forced to be on a side wall. Cool setup and I can see why you need that Kef center.
 

JD_Spoon

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Do you not use your fireplace? I’m only asking because I use mine all the time so all my stuff was forced to be on a side wall. Cool setup and I can see why you need that Kef center.
Sadly, while my fireplace is functional, it's mostly decorative. The region I live in is generally reasonably temperate, so in the infrequent situations where the fireplace is needed, we'd move the center channel and forego using it, assuming we had electricity in the first place.
 

nerdoldnerdith

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Damn those are some impressive measurements. Probably the lowest distortion I've seen from a speaker not using huge pro-audio drivers. I hope we get to see the Reference 5 measured at some point. The spinorama for the Reference 5 supplied by KEF is as close to perfect as I've seen.
 

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MediumRare

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I have always thought that the C speaker is for vocal/speech. Isn't anyone here worried about that?



Speech-range-profiles-displaying-values-derived-for-the-individual-periods-of-the-vocal.png


index.php
This doesn't indicate any problem whatsoever. It says that the FR is essentially even up to about 45 degrees to the left and right of center, forming a full 90 degree projection. How many of your audience members sit beyond +/-45 degrees? Assuming you sit 7' away from the speaker that provides a seating area approximately 10' wide (someone else can do the exact math) . Seems plenty to me. Remember, too, the LR are adding information so the chances of an issue are, IMO, zero.
 

strummr

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Lots of 'certainly's posted... so I'll add some more: certainly looks the business, and based on testing: sounds the business; but also costs and takes up space the business. Anyone know how these compare to Revel C208? (I have its lil' brother: C205, and its cousin: RC263)
 

Newman

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Yeah, if you have an acoustically transparent projector screen this is the center channel turned up vertically. Maybe even three of them across the front. Alas that is a $22.5 k problem.
Why would that be a better idea than using much cheaper excellent speakers, upright, behind an AT screen?
 

Nootmuskaatje

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I'd be interested to see how the more budget-friendly Q650C compares to this. It's 2.5 way, but only has 1 woofer and 1 coaxial, the other one being a passive radiator. Instead of two woofers cancelling each other out. More distortion obviously which I can't hear anyway, but would the directivity be even better than this?
 
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