KEF is using the US CEDIA Expo to reveal a new series of in-room speakers that will sit alongside the Companies Q series and Reference series in price but come much closer to Reference performance.The Nine R series models which will reach Australia later this year consist of three floor standing speakers, two bookshelf speakers, two timbre-matched centre channels, one dipole surround speaker, and a dual-driver, 500-watt sub-woofer. 

The Company said that they aim to deliver performance in the new speakers to be “nearly comparable” to their Reference performance speakers which are seen as being among some of the best speakers being sold in Australia today. 

The company incorporated many of the technologies used in its $49,000 Blade speaker, which uses a variety of technologies and design elements to ensure that the entire audible frequency range has the same acoustic centre, the company said. The result is a sound field that is “virtually indistinguishable from a live performance.” 

In the R series, the Uni-Q tweeter/midrange array places the tweeter in the midrange cone to give both drivers the same acoustic centre, thus reducing distortion and widening the sound field over their frequency range. The speakers also use the same vented tweeter used in the Blade. The tweeter’s dome structure is said to be so stiff that it operates pistonically over its entire working range. KEF’s “tangerine” waveguide also helps disperse high frequencies evenly across a wider angle.

The midrange drivers use a braced magnesium/aluminium alloy cone, KEF’s Z-flex surround and a decoupled, die-cast aluminium chassis to deliver fast and smooth midrange response, the company said.

The speaker’s bass drivers feature large vented magnet assembly and a large, lightweight aluminium voice coil that drives a light, stiff cone to deliver clean, deep bass with excellent dynamics and power handling, the company said. 

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p >Prices for Australia have not been set.