new KEF KC62 dual 6.5" subwoofer

[Ilkless]

They couldn't be making such a foundational advancement in driver design just for a small sub that will end up as a fringe product. Just like how I don't expect the Meta absorber to be limited to the LS50 Meta. Or that Kii won't tap on Purifi for their replacement for the Three(BXT)

Odds are this is going into the next-gen Blade with a larger diameter. Would give them even more flexibility in overall packaging and baffle design to optimise directivity (there's still a null arising from the out-of-phase waves cancelling each other out at the upper end of the woofer's passband).

 

[prmfeddema]

Yes - the amount of engineering (and cost) that went into the analysis, design and production of this type of driver cannot be covered by 1 product only - your guess is probably right that this is part of a larger effort in moving the speaker design to the next level and potentially release a new generation of products.

 

[brandall10]

To save everyone time... It's a video of themselves reading and comparing the spec sheets on camera.
Content creation's a tedious job, so I guess optimizing effort-vs-output ratio is important to sustaining the business....

They spent a fair bit of time on listening impressions.

I don't see what is terrible about this at all. Sure, there are no measurements. Sure, they spent time discussing particulars such as specs, warranty, return policy, etc. If you're cross-shopping these it's not a bad way to spend 20 minutes to get a quick high level overview, esp. if you're not already 1+ hour deep into the research yourself.

 

[Bear123]

I'm getting the Micro 3000 too, so I want to wait to at least hear that beforef inishing up my KC62 review as it is now the most obvious competitor. Unfortunately I'm struggling a bit with the subwoofer measurements as the noise floor in my back yard, which isn't large enough for ground plane measurements, makes dealing with the bass a pain, but I'll do what I can.

Dual opposed sub measurements are also rather challenging due to the distance of the woofers to the mic as Im sure you know. Ricci addresses this on his Data-Bass site. In fact, I think he no longer does ground plane testing of dual opposed subs due to this.
Data-Bass article

Hoping Josh resumes testing this year as I'm curious to see some of the newer offerings tested.

 

[whazzup]

They spent a fair bit of time on listening impressions.

I don't see what is terrible about this at all. Sure, there are no measurements. Sure, they spent time discussing particulars such as specs, warranty, return policy, etc. If you're cross-shopping these it's not a bad way to spend 20 minutes to get a quick high level overview, esp. if you're not already 1+ hour deep into the research yourself.

Let's see, you can see in the video there're all these nice professional equipment: nice microphones, nice wall diffusors / absorbers, nice video / sound editing and god knows what gear offscreen. They or their team definitely knows how to use their content creation gear. And all you get at the end, is audio poetry. No no no.... professionally recording video/audio is fine, dyeing the hair a trendy ash grey is fine, but it's too hard to stick another mic to measure the subs.

It's easy to put disclaimers that measurements are done in-room. Afterall, they're fine rattling off their listening impressions based on their ears in the same room. Surely their ears are affected by room modes the same way as a microphone.

And it's highly likely that it's only with the release of KC62, that they're now forced to review subs and use 'scientific' sounding phrases like 'pressurize a room'. But that's about as far as it goes.

 

[brandall10]

Let's see, you can see in the video there're all these nice professional equipment: nice microphones, nice wall diffusors / absorbers, nice video / sound editing and god knows what gear offscreen. They or their team definitely knows how to use their content creation gear. And all you get at the end, is audio poetry. No no no.... professionally recording video/audio is fine, dyeing the hair a trendy ash grey is fine, but it's too hard to stick another mic to measure the subs.

And it's easy to put disclaimers that measurements are done in-room. Afterall, they're fine rattling off their listening impressions based on their ears in the same room. Surely their ears are affected by room modes the same way as a microphone.

And it's highly likely that it's only with the release of KC62, that they're now forced to review subs and use 'scientific' sounding phrases like 'pressurize a room'. But that's about as far as it goes.

I get it, you find no value in a subjective review. News flash - 95% of the people purchasing these, won't have bass traps. They'll plop them right in their living room with no treatment or correction at all.

Again, they listened to them. Just a like an auto reviewer drives a sports car on a regular road and not a race track. It's not perfect, but it actually is useful to the primary target audience.

I'm over it with audiophile foolery such as cables and shirking all measurements from other audio forums. But I think we might be losing the forest from the trees in the other direction over here.

We can just agree to disagree on this one.

 

[whazzup]

I get it, you find no value in a subjective review. News flash - 95% of the people purchasing these, won't have bass traps. They'll plop them right in their living room with no treatment or correction at all.

Again, they listened to them. Just a like an auto reviewer drives a sports car on a regular road and not a race track. It's not perfect, but it actually is useful to the primary target audience.

I'm over it with audiophile foolery such as cables and shirking all measurements from other audio forums. But I think we might be losing the forest from the trees in the other direction over here.

We can just agree to disagree on this one.

News flash - 95% of the people purchasing these, won't have bass traps. They'll plop them right in their living room with no treatment or correction at all.

News flash: I'm one of the 95%.



Again, they listened to them. Just a like an auto reviewer drives a sports car on a regular road and not a race track. It's not perfect, but it actually is useful to the primary target audience.

Yes, just measure the subs in the room they listen to and state that. To correct your analogy, regular road = in users' rooms while race track = anechoic chamber or klippel. Again, their ears and the microphone, both are in the same listening room. So actual measurements in room (aka regular road) will also be, to use your words, useful to the primary target audience.



We can just agree to disagree on this one.

Uh-huh. You replied, so I did.

 

[richard12511]

Let's see, you can see in the video there're all these nice professional equipment: nice microphones, nice wall diffusors / absorbers, nice video / sound editing and god knows what gear offscreen. They or their team definitely knows how to use their content creation gear. And all you get at the end, is audio poetry. No no no.... professionally recording video/audio is fine, dyeing the hair a trendy ash grey is fine, but it's too hard to stick another mic to measure the subs.

It's easy to put disclaimers that measurements are done in-room. Afterall, they're fine rattling off their listening impressions based on their ears in the same room. Surely their ears are affected by room modes the same way as a microphone.

And it's highly likely that it's only with the release of KC62, that they're now forced to review subs and use 'scientific' sounding phrases like 'pressurize a room'. But that's about as far as it goes.

I'm actually subscribed to that channel, but I skipped that video. I haven't watched a single second of it, but I'm guessing they say the REL and KEF are the most "musical"?

Jay also has some weird views that are literally the exact opposite of what is true, and I have to skip those videos where he mentions those.

 

[whazzup]

I'm actually subscribed to that channel, but I skipped that video. I haven't watched a single second of it, but I'm guessing they say the REL and KEF are the most "musical"?

you guessed right, lol....

 

[kokoon]

So I got mine yesterday and I like it a lot. It's my first subwoofer ever, so I can't compare it to anything else as I don't really have a reference.
One thing is for sure, I'll be doing a lot of tweaking, to make sure I'm getting the best out of it.

I got it hooked up to MiniDsp SHD via RCA stereo pair. I'm crossing over in SHD at 80Hz, with a 48dB/oct slope. I'm getting pretty good results as far as integration with mains (P3ESR from NC252) is concerned, I did the phase alignment with REW and then ran DIRAC for the whole thing.

The thing that bothers me most at this point is the auto-standby on the KC62, it's turning off in the evening when volume is low and it doesn't want to wake up until I turn up the volume a bit. I've set SHD's outs to like +12dB and lowered the sub's volume control to 9ish o'clock, but it's still giving me problems with this. I'll try with manual mode next, I've read it could be less of a problem that way.

 

[Tokyo_John]

I have a pair of LS50 Metas arriving tomorrow, and of course thinking about a KC62 as a pairing sub. I don't need loud volumes, living in a small Tokyo apartment and surrounded by sensitive neighbors, but I want good transients and linear bass extension. The KC62 seem to fit the bill, and they match the LS50 decor-wise. However, the only thing that bothers me is that the KEF KC62 seem to be rather pricey for what they offer, and it isn't clear that better subs can't be found for lower price points.

 

[prmfeddema]

Nice!
For me: another 2 weeks wait...

The kef connect app recommends these settings with the ls50w2’s

Volume/gain at 15:00 or 3 o’clock
High pass at 70hz
Low pass at 45hz

does that help?

 

[kokoon]

those crossover frequencies don't look right, that's a big gap

 

[prmfeddema]

those crossover frequencies don't look right, that's a big gap

 

[prmfeddema]

And the volume settings

 

[kokoon]

Well the cut-off frequencies should normally match on both sides of the crossover, so I'd go with 80Hz or something like that on both the sub's low-pass and mains high-pass.

 

[Frank Dernie]

Surely their ears are affected by room modes the same way as a microphone.

They must be but IME it doesn't sound as extreme as the microphone signal looks, I presume that is because we "listen through the room".
If you listen to recordings of the microphones individually you notice the difference much more than if you move from one microphone location to another. I have found it odd and "listening through the room" is the only explanation I know of.

 

[prmfeddema]

I'm getting the Micro 3000 too, so I want to wait to at least hear that beforef inishing up my KC62 review as it is now the most obvious competitor. Unfortunately I'm struggling a bit with the subwoofer measurements as the noise floor in my back yard, which isn't large enough for ground plane measurements, makes dealing with the bass a pain, but I'll do what I can.

Good morning NapiLopez,

Just curious on the progress in testing the KC62 / SVS 3000 micro.. any first/draft measurements that would be willing to share (note that i have already ordered my KC62).

Kr,

P.

 

[prmfeddema]

those crossover frequencies don't look right, that's a big gap

Finally some time to respond using my pc. The setting shown are the ones that the Kef app is proposing when using the LS50 wireless 2's.
As for the wakeup issues - if you have a look at my issue table on google drive one of the other users has similar issues - you might want to check with him.

 

[JohnnyZeroSix]

The thing that bothers me most at this point is the auto-standby on the KC62, it's turning off in the evening when volume is low and it doesn't want to wake up until I turn up the volume a bit. I've set SHD's outs to like +12dB and lowered the sub's volume control to 9ish o'clock, but it's still giving me problems with this. I'll try with manual mode next, I've read it could be less of a problem that way.

I've been battling this Standby issue since I got mine a month ago. In LFE mode, it needs a good, strong, regular LFE signal to stay awake. This doesn't happen in MANUAL mode. My preamp speaks in Volts (not gain) and I have to provide >1.1V, depending on crossover frequency. I'm surprised you still have problems with such a (relatively) high crossover; mine is <50Hz.