Blade

When KEF gave their engineers free rein to create a fitting showcase for their technology leadership, they developed a revolutionary prototype that looked and performed like no other: Concept Blade, the world's first single apparent source loudspeaker.

Its phenomenal sonic capabilities met with such praise that they decided to produce an edition that serious audiophiles could actually own. After two years of painstaking refinement - and in time to mark 50 years of KEF innovation - Blade is the result.

Conceived from the outset to extend the boundaries of high end audio, it’s a unique synthesis of innovative engineering and groundbreaking design based on a new architecture that achieves the ideal point source to which all speakers aspire. This is because the four sophisticated new bass drivers are configured so that their combined acoustic centre occupies exactly the same point in space as that of the Uni-Q HF/MF array, so the sound appears to emanate from a single, flawlessly coherent source.

Sculptural and acoustically inert, the slender parabolic enclosures are engineered never to interfere with the purity of the output. The advanced new hybrid cones are so light and rigid that their natural break-up point is never reached within the required frequency range. Inside, you find ingenious new venting, bracing and wave management technologies. Meticulously specified, super-premium components - every one operating so comfortably within its performance envelope that you experience noticeably more precise imaging than is possible with conventional speakers. What you hear sounds as if it’s live - emotionally engaging, richly musical and effortlessly natural. A revelation, pure and simple.

Reference Series

Prior to the introduction of Blade, KEF's pinnacle of engineering was their much lauded Reference Series and it still lives up to it's name. The first KEF Reference loudspeaker was launched in 1973, when the Model 104 ‘swept reviewers, distributors, retailers and customers off their feet’ as the first domestic audio speaker to match the standards of a broadcast monitor in terms of outstanding acoustic precision. The model line is now world-famous and several generations later remains for many the benchmark for high-end audio loudspeakers and is legendary for its clarity and precision.

Of course you don't have to take our word for it, on testing the 207/2 John Atkinson of Stereophile magazine was moved to write, "the 207/2 is overall the best-sounding full-range speaker I have used in my current listening room. Too all intents and purposes, it is without flaw." It's impeccable performance led to a Stereophile Product of the Year award amongst it's other accolades.

As the name implies, each Reference speaker is hand-built in the UK and then rigorously tested against the laboratory 'Reference' version of that speaker, it the manufactured unit deviates too much from this ideal, it does pass inspection and is reworked until it does. In the hyperbole of modern audio this is a rare example of the name truly reflecting the nature and performance of a product.

Unlike the unique Blade, the Reference products are a truly full range including a monitor, center channel and sub-woofer options allowing customers to configure a wide variety of systems in many different spaces.

R Series

KEF's newest members of the family are the premium R Series. Featuring many of their latest innovations in loudspeaker technology, the R Series makes genuine audiophile standards of entertainment more affordable than ever before. Stunningly fluent new Uni-Q driver arrays combine with potent new bass drivers and many ingenious refinements to create a rich, spacious sound image of such accuracy that it approaches the benchmark standards of KEF’s legendary Reference Series.

The new Uni-Q MF/HF driver array makes midrange response is amazingly fast and clean, thanks to a braced magnesium/aluminium alloy cone. At the acoustic centre of the midrange cone is the sophisticated vented tweeter that endows KEF Blade with such startlingly pure HF response.To capitalize on Uni-Q’s point source characteristics, KEF’s ‘tangerine’ waveguide helps to disperse the higher frequencies evenly across a wider angle to flood the room with an intricate and natural soundfield. Operating together as a single, perfectly integrated voice, the array as a whole delivers a sweet, accurate sound of unprecedented clarity. The new bass driver is equally impressive. The combination of a massive vented magnet assembly and a large, lightweight aluminium voice coil driving a light, stiff and strong hybrid cone assures clean, deep and uncompressed bass output with superb dynamics and power handling.

With nine models including three floorstanders, two bookshelf speakers, two fully-specified center channels, dipole surrounds and a matching subwoofer, the all-new R Series represents a decisive step forward in the enjoyment of music or movies. By incorporating the high end technologies of KEF Blade in a classically elegant format, it gives serious audiophiles phenomenally accurate reproduction that neither adds to nor subtracts from the original recording: refined, spacious and exquisitely detailed.

LS50

Q Series

The multiple award-winning Q Series has always exemplified KEF’s conviction that new materials and technologies can, when applied with intelligence and imagination, reproduce recordings so perfectly that they sound indistinguishable from the live event. This is more true now than ever before. As the latest expression of this design philosophy, the new range immerses you in three-dimensional imagery of a richness and clarity that until now has been the exclusive preserve of speakers costing many times more.

At its heart is a brand new Uni-Q driver array. Derived from the Concept Blade project, with a new, larger, high performance vented tweeter mounted at the acoustic center of a new metal cone LF/MF driver, it combines lavishly extended bandwidth with effortless dynamics, imperceptible distortion and outstanding acoustic clarity.

These are speakers with the power to strike a chord in your heart. Off-axis dispersion is unrivaled, so everyone in the room enjoys the same exceptionally realistic sonic imaging, wherever they sit. And with 30% larger capacity cabinets for even gutsier bass and minimalist crossovers assuring deliciously fluid transitions, new Q is both more eloquent and more emotive than its illustrious predecessor.

Movies or music, Mahler or Massive Attack, what you experience is the captivatingly sweet, accurate and natural live sound of the original performance.

X300A

Featuring KEF’s state-of-the-art Uni-Q driver, supported by two amplifiers in each unit, the X300A is a true audiophile speaker for your PC, Mac, MP3 player or smartphone. Enjoy true high definition sound from source to output.

With state-of-the-art technology that’s normally reserved for high fidelity, high quality audio equipment, X300A brings an exceptionally accurate sound to your desktop. Each speaker features twin class AB amplifiers – one dedicated to high frequency (HF) signals, the other to mid and low frequencies (LF/MF). The amplifiers' power supply uses a high performance toroidal transformer to minimize hum noise and electro-magnetic interference.

Enjoy your music, movies and gaming exactly as the creators intended. Using a 96kHz/24-bit input with digital inter-speaker connection – X300A retains, from source to output, every single byte of information without loss or distortion. To avoid signal jitter, which is created by the internal digital converter in your computer, smartphone or MP3 player, X300A has its own high quality DAC. All of which means, the sound you hear is exceptionally accurate. To get the very best from the twin class AB amplifiers, an award winning Uni-Q driver design adapted from KEF’s flagship Blade speaker is featured in the X300A.

With X300A you don’t need to be an expert to enjoy audiophile sound quality. Simply connect the speakers directly to your computer (and to each other) using an all-digital USB link. Then plug them into a power source and you’re ready to enjoy a genuine hi-fi experience. X300A also includes a backup analogue input so you can connect any smartphone or MP3 player and switchable EQ modes allow you to easily optimize the sound wherever you place your speaker (on a desk, against a wall or in free space).