Time for new LR Towers

[ban25]

The weak spot in the entire setup is horizontal center, which is needed because of the flat panel display. There are not many centers that would not be overwhelmed by size and performance of bigger towers. My biggest Revel center is keeping up for most part with the towers. But still not quite there.

Going bigger with towers would throw that balance away. I am really eager to try Blades and also would expect them to perform admirably, but then the question is what’s the matching center for Blades - and certainly it is not any of KEF centers as they are really undersized for Blades. So the choice is to oversize towers and cause imbalance, or stay with balanced setup than sounds pretty good. Heco towers are really great, but obviously bigger towers like Salon 2, potentially 328s, or Blades could do better.

There is this new center out there but still no conclusive review of the center or towers. My center is some 35kg, this one is 80kg. Basically they flipped the tower and rearranged the driver line up - first time ever. But how much better it can do against Revel C426 still to be determined. Seems to roll of a bit early for its size and would like to see compression tests pushing this one to the limits. Plus for this monster size and weight they did not bother to come up with tilting solution, which is pretty sloppy and cheap.

1528 Center+ 8

1528 Center+ 8 has a 3-way speaker design that delivers incredible performance with its 28mm lithium-magnesium tweeter, 5″ carbon-graphene midrange, and quad 8″ aluminum bass drivers…

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Not aware of any other center that can really match the size and reach of biggest towers. Definitely not going to reach out for $50k Mcwhatever to get there.

I think you'd be ok with a Reference 4 Meta.

 

[ban25]

If you end up with the Blades, I'm super curious about how they behave in a HT environment. They should work quite well, but once in a room, a lot can happen.

And yeah, for such a large space, it's not easy to get adequate speakers. I can see why LFE+Main makes sense in your case.

Smoothest bass response I've ever been able to achieve across the room, when paired with two subwoofers. Wide sweet spot for listening. Before the Blades, I used to have three different Dirac calibrations that I switched between often. Now I have two, but in practice rarely swap between them.

There are some practical benefits as well. It's nice having no cabinet vibration even at reference levels. The feet and built-in spirit level make it very easy to get them perfectly level -- something I never quite achieved with my old R11s. They're pretty forgiving in terms of placement, I think the recommendation from KEF is 9" out from the rear wall.

Assuming you buy new, registering them will get you an additional year on your warranty (6-years total).

And of course they are gorgeous to look at. One thing to note is that the Frosted Blue finish on the Blades is *not* the same shade as the Royal Blue on the LS50 Metas! Just something to note if you have both. I do, but fortunately they are not sitting next to each other.

 

[Oddball]

I think you'd be ok with a Reference 4 Meta.

I don’t think I would - but that’s just me. This one is roughly equivalent to what I have, perhaps tracking a bit better, but definitely not a match for Blades.

The fact that this is their biggest center does not mean that they should have not made a bigger one - to match the Blades. That one, which they don’t have, would be the one for me.

 

[ban25]

I don’t think I would - but that’s just me. This one is roughly equivalent to what I have, perhaps tracking a bit better, but definitely not a match for Blades.

The fact that this is their biggest center does not mean that they should have not made a bigger one - to match the Blades. That one, which they don’t have, would be the one for me.

Theoretically, it's the same UniQ mid/tweeter driver as found in the Blades, just with 6.5" woofers instead of 9". But yeah, if you want maximum bass out of the center, those might come up short.

 

[Vacceo]

I don’t think I would - but that’s just me. This one is roughly equivalent to what I have, perhaps tracking a bit better, but definitely not a match for Blades.

The fact that this is their biggest center does not mean that they should have not made a bigger one - to match the Blades. That one, which they don’t have, would be the one for me.

The issue I see with a matching Blade center is how to set the side woofer array in a horizontal position.

Sure, you can use a single Blade as center, but that means you are bound to an acoustic screen.

Smoothest bass response I've ever been able to achieve across the room, when paired with two subwoofers. Wide sweet spot for listening. Before the Blades, I used to have three different Dirac calibrations that I switched between often. Now I have two, but in practice rarely swap between them.

There are some practical benefits as well. It's nice having no cabinet vibration even at reference levels. The feet and built-in spirit level make it very easy to get them perfectly level -- something I never quite achieved with my old R11s. They're pretty forgiving in terms of placement, I think the recommendation from KEF is 9" out from the rear wall.

Assuming you buy new, registering them will get you an additional year on your warranty (6-years total).

And of course they are gorgeous to look at. One thing to note is that the Frosted Blue finish on the Blades is *not* the same shade as the Royal Blue on the LS50 Metas! Just something to note if you have both. I do, but fortunately they are not sitting next to each other.

Were the R11's able to handle LFE+Main?

 

[ban25]

The issue I see with a matching Blade center is how to set the side woofer array in a horizontal position.

Sure, you can use a single Blade as center, but that means you are bound to an acoustic screen.


Were the R11's able to handle LFE+Main?

R11s are pretty bass shy. You can add a shelf to boost it up a bit, but still pretty underwhelming IMO. I don't miss them.

 

[MarcT]

R11s are pretty bass shy. You can add a shelf to boost it up a bit, but still pretty underwhelming IMO. I don't miss them.

Interesting. I'm in the market for new front L/R speakers and recently was able to listen to KEF R11 Meta and Martin Logan Motion XT-F100 towers in the same room in two channel, driven by a McIntosh power amp. I was actually surprised at the bass extension of the R11's, given the limited cabinet volume.

 

[Oddball]

Well I guess the reason might be that expectations are subjective, so what works for some might not for the others. It is a matter or choosing the pair that really meets one’s expectations, subject to considering objectively the measurements, availability of subs and various bass management options, or any room particular issues.

 

[Vacceo]

R11s are pretty bass shy. You can add a shelf to boost it up a bit, but still pretty underwhelming IMO. I don't miss them.

I was thinking more along the lines of being able to handle the current required to reproduce LFE and if the drivers are capable of doing so.

After Amir's testing, the lower end not being super strong was quite evident.

 

[PGansz]

Have you looked at Paradigm Founder 120? It's a low-end monster for the money - no speaker in the price range touches their mid 20hz extension.