KEF's new Metamaterial Absorption Technology

[kaka89]

KEF is announcing the use of a new sound absorption technology that can absorb 99% of the unwanted sound from the rear of driver. (vs 60% absorption regular approach)

"Like a black hold" they said.

https://hk.kef.com/pages/metamaterial

 

[Doodski]

KEF is announcing the use of a new sound absorption technology that can absorb 99% of the unwanted sound from the rear of driver. (vs 60% absorption regular approach)

"Like a black hold" they said.

https://kef.com/pages/metamaterial

Dang Geolocation won't let me open the page. Automatically routed to the .ca website.

 

[Doodski]

 

[kaka89]

Dang Geolocation won't let me open the page. Automatically routed to the .ca website.

Try HK site directly? https://hk.kef.com/pages/metamaterial

 

[Doodski]

Try HK site directly? https://hk.kef.com/pages/metamaterial

That works.

 

[Trouble Maker]

 

[w1000i]

Vivid Audio absorb almost every thing with single tube. The best speaker I ever heard ( noting come even close )

 

[Balle Clorin]

To KEF ;Show me the measurements , and how they were done.....

 

[phoenixdogfan]

View attachment 80849

Looks like something Eroc Van Daniken would claim to have found in a Sumerian tomb, thereby proving ET had visited Messopotamia in the third millenium BCE.

 

[Newman]

From what I hear in that video, metamaterial is spinspeak for synthetics.

 

[Doodski]

From what I hear in that video, metamaterial is spinspeak for synthetics.

Whatever it is it might be a game changing product. I'm interested to see how it works out.

 

[PaulD]

Here's something useful (free PDF download of the relevant paper!):
https://secure.aes.org/forum/pubs/conventions/?elib=20758

 

[kaka89]

Whatever it is it might be a game changing product. I'm interested to see how it works out.

Sound absorption probably just means they can have better ported speaker, but it is not equal to controlled directivity.
And the absorption is only 40% better than existing technology.

I doubt it will be a game changer.

 

[Mnyb]

Purpose seems to be to use it behind midrange and tweeters ? The whitepaper shows a dome tweeter ?

 

[q3cpma]

Nice marketing.

 

[LearningToSmile]

And the absorption is only 40% better than existing technology.
I doubt it will be a game changer.

Well, depends how you spin it: 40% in absolute terms, or improvement of 60 to 99 which is 65% increase, or, for the marketing inclined, reduction from 40% to 1% unwanted reflections which is a massive 40 times better

Joking aside it's always nice to see mainstream brands do at least some innovation, regardless of what impact it will have in practice - I feel like particularly in materials science there's gotta be a lot of performance left on the table in loudspeaker design.

 

[Mnyb]

Actually KEF is driven by a scientific narrative . To sell everyone has to present a story and a brand , it is the least bad alternative As a byproduct actuall science are done , good for all .

But as the paper says there are bulkier old methods that results in bigger (unsellable ) speakers , so no one uses this kind of aproach in practice .
If this aproach make it happen in actual comercial speakers good ! Thumbs upp from me .

An uneven figth for todays speaker makers it has to be small for the sake of being small , if you can turn that to your advantage that's really good.

* The good thing this smaller damping system may have desirable properties that old solutions don't have ?

* Bad thing , resources spent at "Figth against nature" ! Same problem as small subwoofers (just get the bigger box and problem solves itself ).

 

[Soniclife]

The good thing this smaller damping system may have desirable properties that old solutions don't have ?

My guess is their interest in this is it solves a problem that the UniQ causes, and it's less important for more traditional designs.

Their page teases new speakers using this, wonder what range that will be, new reference series, or new blades?

 

[ttimer]

An uneven figth for todays speaker makers it has to be small for the sake of being small

* Bad thing , resources spent at "Figth against nature" ! Same problem as small subwoofers (just get the bigger box and problem solves itself ).

What makes you say that? Most speakers today have to be small for the sake of being there at all. Just look at the space available in reasonably priced appartments in any major city on the globe. London, which is kind of a relevant market for KEF, is particularly bad in this regard.

 

[Juhazi]

So this was used to absorb backwaves of a tweeter. Yamaha has used two different pipe lengths silencers for same purpose. KEF approach has more "tunings" eg. pipe lengths.

AES paper is open access https://www.aes.org/tmpFiles/elib/20200901/20758.pdf

Auf Deutsch https://www.i-fidelity.net/news/det...r-metamaterial-absorptionstechik-bekannt.html

Several other articles are appearing now eg. https://www.stereonet.co.uk/news/kef-teases-new-products-with-world-first-loudspeaker-technology