KEF Unicore

[617]

Imagine an R3 with those.

The problem with dual opposed woofers is they become sideways bipoles at midrange frequencies. I wouldn't use them past 200hz or so.

 

[q3cpma]

The problem with dual opposed woofers is they become sideways bipoles at midrange frequencies. I wouldn't use them past 200hz or so.

Didn't think it through, indeed. Would need to be a 4-way to use it.

 

[Lbstyling]

From a DIY speaker enthusiast perspective, KEF Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT) is much more interesting that the sub tech.
And on that note, the voice coils are different sizes in the unicore. It's not a 'ultimate' anything, as it would likely be neo to be cutting edge low distortion.

 

[Chromatischism]

Maybe they will put it in a bluetooth boombox like the JBL Charge.

 

[Soniclife]

Didn't think it through, indeed. Would need to be a 4-way to use it.

The Blades get away with only being a 3 way, but it would be interesting to see a no compromise 4 way.

 

[Soniclife]

I don't get the concentric voice coils though, if it's a dual opposed sub setup. Something about both sides not being identical for such an application irrationally ticks me off.

I feel similar, but if the speaker uses a pair of these, and there is a measurable difference they could just be put in different ways around to average out.

It does seem like you could get a pair of these in an R3 sized box and have the same displacement as the R11.

 

[Ilkless]

I feel similar, but if the speaker uses a pair of these, and there is a measurable difference they could just be put in different ways around to average out.

Or left-right mirror imaged speaker pairs, with the assembly sidemounted. The cutout seems identical on both sides as well, so KEF wouldn't even need to manufacture 2 different enclosures.

 

[watchnerd]

https://us.kef.com/uni-core?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=GEEK OUT WITH US&utm_campaign=Uni-Core Announcement 011421

Force cancelling low frequency driver to appear in a new product.

Isobaric under a new name?

 

[watchnerd]

Like my poorly executed image editing - bookshelf version of blade with single pair of woofers

View attachment 106065

GAH!


It's like a creepy Gollum hobbit version of the Blade.

 

[Ilkless]

Isobaric under a new name?

My first thought, but the animation shows push-push instead of push-pull with the drivers facing away from each other.

 

[watchnerd]

My first thought, but the animation shows push-push instead of push-pull with the drivers facing away from each other.

Push push OMG the poor amps and cabinet.

 

[jhaider]

I don't get the concentric voice coils though, if it's a dual opposed sub setup. Something about both sides not being identical for such an application irrationally ticks me off.

My first guess was a way to get isobaric loading from a single unit, but they are clearly push-push instead of push-pull. Isobaric would make sense in view of their developments around rear driver radiation, as with the Meta absorber.

I expect KEF spent a lot of time figuring out how to make voicecoils of different diameters perform the same. That’s the secret sauce here. The fact that they’re driven independently also allows for non-dual opposed configurations, such as some manner of cardioid - think MartinLogan style endfire arrays. Another alternative is a 0.5-way - think something like an R3 with a back-firing woofer lowpassed lower than the front firing woofer. I don’t know if there are practical benefits to that, but it is a possible configuration.

Isobaric is the opposite. Basically Isobaric is an obsolete way to get deep bass in a small cabinet with weak motored woofers, throwing parts at the problem and trashing efficiency. The only advantage of Isobaric is halving-ish the cabinet volume required for a given bass cutoff. The modern approach is to use a driver with a strong motor and get extension via EQ and big power.

 

[Lbstyling]

I expect KEF spent a lot of time figuring out how to make voicecoils of different diameters perform the same. That’s the secret sauce here. The fact that they’re driven independently also allows for non-dual opposed configurations, such as some manner of cardioid - think MartinLogan style endfire arrays. Another alternative is a 0.5-way - think something like an R3 with a back-firing woofer lowpassed lower than the front firing woofer. I don’t know if there are practical benefits to that, but it is a possible configuration.

Isobaric is the opposite. Basically Isobaric is an obsolete way to get deep bass in a small cabinet with weak motored woofers, throwing parts at the problem and trashing efficiency. The only advantage of Isobaric is halving-ish the cabinet volume required for a given bass cut off. The modern approach is to use a driver with a strong motor and get extension via EQ and big power.

I would be extremely surprised if KEF managed to get the drivers to measure the same or even that close with different voice coil diameters. I would love to be wrong, but I doubt its possible. You would need a bigger magnet to compensate for the lower MMS of the smaller VC, not to mention Le would be different, then if you ad windings to increase Le, you now have higher MMS, but longer xmax, then your driver will ring at a different frequency as its held at a different location on the cone..... and so on.... yea, cant see it.

If they are going cardioid, I am very interested indeed!

They have all the ingredients to try it, as
1) The company admitted some time ago that they ascribe to Toole's/Harman design philosophy/criteria.
2) cardioid may well be the next step as it extends pattern control lower.
3) They are one of the very few manufacturers that design and make their own drivers, and they are also some of the lowest distortion units available.
4) The coax drivers they use are technically superior in several ways over any current competition, no small feat! That took effort, and suggests they have some hungry, dedicated designers that have been given the freedom to do some real engineering.
5) They already make active speakers, which is half the battle with a dual opposed driver type cardioid design.

What remains to be known is the correlation to user preference with extending beam width to this low a frequency + what the ideal pattern width is exactly.

Having said this, my money is on it just being a typical dual opposed bass driver design, but it fits in a narrower cabinet and emits lower 2nd harmonics. Meh.

 

[Juhazi]

https://audioxpress.com/news/kef-in...logy-to-create-maximum-bass-in-minimum-space/

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

someting like a kef ls50 wii but with a

Like my poorly executed image editing - bookshelf version of blade with single pair of woofers

View attachment 106065

i IMAGINEG THE SAME THING XDDD, i think for isobarics 20-200hz are fine but the 200hz to 400hz hmmm

Maybe if the uniq work like ls50 but at 200hz and then the roll-off start and the isobarics subs can work between 20 - 200hz, that will be awesome

Another thing can be a r3 plus 2 subswoofer below xD


But i think this uni core will be a sub

 

[bo_knows]

someting like a kef ls50 wii but with a

i IMAGINEG THE SAME THING XDDD, i think for isobarics 20-200hz are fine but the 200hz to 400hz hmmm

Maybe if the uniq work like ls50 but at 200hz and then the roll-off start and the isobarics subs can work between 20 - 200hz, that will be awesome

Another thing can be a r3 plus 2 subswoofer below xD


But i think this uni core will be a sub

Well, I think you are correct. Steve Guttenberg hinted in his latest youtube episode about a new KEF product which is going to be a small subwoofer ( KC62). Even though I'm disappointed, a lot of LS50 users will benefit and now have a KEF option to extend the bass for their setups.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

Well, I think you are correct. Steve Guttenberg hinted in his latest youtube episode about a new KEF product which is going to be a small subwoofer ( KC62). Even though I'm disappointed, a lot of LS50 users will benefit and now have a KEF option to extend the bass for their setups.

Well the ls50 series is the best seller as i can see, so a nice sub is a good idea.
But 2000 por that sub make that a bad product, they need to lower the price of subs, 2000 for a sub it's too much. 1000 and we have a deal.
The kef cube series are expensive and meh.

 

[MCF94]

Well the ls50 series is the best seller as i can see, so a nice sub is a good idea.
But 2000 por that sub make that a bad product, they need to lower the price of subs, 2000 for a sub it's too much. 1000 and we have a deal.
The kef cube series are expensive and meh.

Why do you think, the new KEF subwoofer (KC62) is 2k?

 

[stren]

Well the ls50 series is the best seller as i can see, so a nice sub is a good idea.
But 2000 por that sub make that a bad product, they need to lower the price of subs, 2000 for a sub it's too much. 1000 and we have a deal.
The kef cube series are expensive and meh.

If designed for LS50 then they would need to keep it <1500. Hopefully wireless connectivity to the ls50wii is built in rather than needing the adapters. If it's called the KF62 rather than KF92 then it presumably has 2x 6" drivers. If the 2x9 is 2K, then I'd expect at least half that on price. 6" is a bit anemic, would rather they have gone 8"

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

Why do you think, the new KEF subwoofer (KC62) is 2k?

because the k92 is 2000, and isn't a good seller product because it's expensive; most of the good deal subs are selling between 500 to 1000, so if they increase the price they will sell even less xD
i have the kef r series bookshelf, but the k92 it's too expensive, they need to make a decent price sub, not the kef cube series.
Most of the people that have the r3, r300 or ls50 doesn't pair up with kef subs because they are too expensive for what they do