KEF Reference and Blade Meta announced, but where is the R Meta?????

[Zvu]

If I recall correctly, when the first Blade came along they were still getting to grips with metal mid-range cones and how to drive them pistonically without break-up. I suspect the original Blade approach was something of a "brute force" effort, and I could believe that it's not really better than what they did in the following decade with the neck control in other speakers.

Yep, I can imagine a bit more power compression. But how many people would that really affect? Who has rooms their Blade struggles to fill?

I'm not going into that because i simply don't know. I expressed my doubts and, unlike some , i'm not certain about anything until i see comparative measurements

 

[MarkWinston]

@jackocleebrown mind giving us the laydown on the new series and put some doubts to rest?

 

[cd45123]

Great to see they’ve added Meta to the higher end. These are very impressive. I am still hoping Q4 will see the announcement of an LS60 speaker that’s made for the rest of us.

 

[abdo123]

I am still hoping Q4 will see the announcement of an LS60 speaker that’s made for the rest of us.

If you're expecting a bigger coax that's not going to happen unfortunately.

 

[cd45123]

If you're expecting a bigger coax that's not going to happen unfortunately.

I’d be happy just with an announcement of some new passive under $3k this fall. I’m thinking though that it’s the LSX II…

 

[KMO]

If you're expecting a bigger coax that's not going to happen unfortunately.

On another thread I see people circulating (baseless?) rumours of some sort of LS50+KC62 combo floorstander.

That's potentially plausible, extending their active offering range beyond the teeny LSX (II) and bookshelf LS50, leveraging the development already done on both LS50 Wireless II and KC62.

 

[Crosstalk]

Great to see they’ve added Meta to the higher end. These are very impressive. I am still hoping Q4 will see the announcement of an LS60 speaker that’s made for the rest of us.

Kef never made ls40, ls30 and so on. So may be ls100 is what I m waiting for

 

[Crosstalk]

On another thread I see people circulating (baseless?) rumours of some sort of LS50+KC62 combo floorstander.

That's potentially plausible, extending their active offering range beyond the teeny LSX (II) and bookshelf LS50, leveraging the development already done on both LS50 Wireless II and KC62.

That would be a blade mini two woofers to the side and coax in front

 

[cd45123]

Kef never made ls40, ls30 and so on. So may be ls100 is what I m waiting for

Lol, fair enough. Times change, though. Also, I’m going with Jack and the company saying this is going to be a huge year. Never understood how Dynaudio went with Special 25 and later Special 40

 

[Niko Malt]

On another thread I see people circulating (baseless?) rumours of some sort of LS50+KC62 combo floorstander.

That's potentially plausible, extending their active offering range beyond the teeny LSX (II) and bookshelf LS50, leveraging the development already done on both LS50 Wireless II and KC62.

It would be great to see an active version of the LS50M with the C62 combined
Could be a real competitor to the coaxial Genelecs (except for the 8361 offcourse).

I own a set of 8351A and the passive version of the LS50M, they have more similarities in sound than differences.

 

[MarkWinston]

It would be great to see an active version of the LS50M with the C62 combined
Could be a real competitor to the coaxial Genelecs (except for the 8361 offcourse).

I own a set of 8351A and the passive version of the LS50M, they have more similarities in sound than differences.

How would you describe the sound differences between the LS50M and the 8351A?

 

[jae]

I wouldn't expect any "official" announcements until near or at release time. No company is going to cannibalize their own sales and/or screw over vendors with the promise of an imminent new flashy product, these days many of which are subject to all sorts of delays, supply chain, and logistics issues. You'll know something is coming when many vendors suddenly have great sales simultaneously and for an extended period, especially at odd times or with no upcoming holidays.

 

[Niko Malt]

How would you describe the sound differences between the LS50M and the 8351A?

Well the 8351a has offcourse a deeper lowend but the projected image is prety much the same, very stable and deep.
Without GLM the 8351a are more bright but this is easily changed if you use the GLM software.

 

[Crosstalk]

I wouldn't expect any "official" announcements until near or at release time. No company is going to cannibalize their own sales and/or screw over vendors with the promise of an imminent new flashy product, these days many of which are subject to all sorts of delays, supply chain, and logistics issues. You'll know something is coming when many vendors suddenly have great sales simultaneously and for an extended period, especially at odd times or with no upcoming holidays.

R series was already on discount during Christmas season. Atleast in my country you can still ask the dealer for a discount on the r series.

Every r series can be had for at least 30 percent off than online prices at brick and mortar stores in Germany. Also if closely watching every week atleast one of the shop will have one pair on disocunt. Recently I saw r11 for 3200€. Current lowest price on r3 is 650 € a piece!

 

[KMO]

But discounts on the R series seem to be pretty regular and seasonal, along with good individual deals. I'm not convinced there's been a deviation from historical price behaviour.

Whereas some of the recent Reference behaviour was clearly unusual - eg selling cheap L+R "pairs" of Reference 4 centres...

Edit: Although I note that's the reason for dropping the "c" - they're outright calling them "LCR" speakers now.

Reference 4 Meta
Three-way LCR Loudspeaker
The larger of the two LCR models, Reference 4 Meta is an ideal match for Reference 5 Meta or Reference 3 Meta in a high-end home theatre system. They can even be used as stereo pairs when built into custom entertainment furniture.

And although they don't say it, the Reference 2 Meta is an instantiation of the prototypical "sealed box with 80Hz F3" main speaker that THX conceived for bass management:

Reference 2 Meta
Three-way LCR Loudspeaker
Compact, yet extremely capable, especially within dual-purpose spaces such as living rooms. Perfectly at home as a centre/multichannel system speaker, or as left/right stereo pairs.

So why not buy five or seven? Maybe that's the next upgrade after my current 7 x LS50 Meta...

 

[Kal Rubinson]

- smaller voice coil diameter in UniQ meta midrange renders lower power rating and possibly (comparison measurements needed) higher distortion and power compression,

Possibly but, the HP for the midrange is at 450Hz for the Meta Blade 2, while for the original Blade 2, it is 320Hz. That can be a compensation in terms of power rating and compression.

 

[bo_knows]

I'm just not sure it's for the better....

OG KEF Blade has a 3inch voice coil for midrange driver, does this mean that now the REF series has the same size and magnet structure? If so, I would think that would take away from Blade being special and worth an extra $$$.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

There is no necessity for the References series to handle the Blades power, it's a waste of resources since the blades are made to play louder.

 

[bo_knows]

Do they offer an upgrade path for owners of the "old" Blade and Blade2..?

That would be the right thing to do, I'm not sure how would they pull that off.
They offered an in-home upgrade on Muon for 12K.

 

[bo_knows]

And you will keep waiting. Refreshing both highest tier series is plenty and enough for Kef for the time being. Don’t see them making any more showcase for this year.

But they will...

Take a look when you have time.