After dumping Amber Technology for Audio Connections earlier this year, KEF has now moved to crank up their Hi Fi offering with a new pair of speakers that started life as a pair of concept speakers back in 2009.But before you say “Wow” you had better have a lot of money to spend because these beasts start at $30K. The unlock key to the new KEF Blade speakers is a variety of technologies and design elements called Single Apparent Source technology which delivers the entire audible frequency range radiates from a single point.
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The result is a soundfield that is “virtually indistinguishable from a live performance,” the company claims in their press release.The curved cabinet uses a polished glass-reinforced composite cabinet that delivers lightness and rigidity. The cabinet’s parabolic curvature also increases cabinet strength so that sound is generated only from the movement of the drivers and not from the vibration of the cabinet, KEF added.
The Hi Fi company claims that the elements of Single Apparent Source technology include a front-firing coincident-driver array that places a dome tweeter concentrically within the midrange so they both have the same acoustic center, thus reducing distortion and widening the soundfield. In addition, two side-firing woofers on each side of the cabinet are arranged so their combined acoustic center coincides with the acoustic center of the front-firing tweeter/midrange array.
On top of that, the woofers on one side are mounted back-to-back with companion woofers on the other side in a force-canceling configuration to extend bass response and reduce distortion, even at high volumes, the company said. The configuration lets the forces of each cone cancel each other out, preventing the cabinet from vibrating and muddying the bass despite the cones’ long excursion and high power handling, KEF explained.
The KEF Blade is available in Gloss White and Gloss Black but will also be available in such custom colors as Garnet, Sapphire, Grigio, Racing Red, Racing Blue, Pale Gold, Orange Sorbet, Graphite, Stardust, Lemon Sorbet, Lime Sorbet and Snow White.
