8/16/2023 0 Comments Ls50 meta amplifierOne of those improvements, the tweeter-gap damper, appeared in their latest R-series speakers and now in the LS50 Meta. Since 2012, KEF has introduced various speakers, priced above and below the LS50, that have improved their Uni-Q take on the coincident or point-source driver, mainly in terms of lowering distortion. MAT isn’t the only difference between the drivers in the old and new LS50s. Dickie left B&W to cofound Vivid Audio, which also uses tapered tubes. When he worked at Bowers & Wilkins, Laurence Dickie invented the tapered-tube technology that B&W debuted in 1993 in their Nautilus loudspeaker, and that has been used in their speakers ever since. KEF isn’t the first company to tackle this problem. This energy needs to be absorbed so that it’s not bounced around behind the diaphragm, then reflected forward again to interfere with and distort the front-firing wavefront directed at the listener. Although the tweeter is crossed over at 2.1kHz, according to Oclee-Brown, the MAT disc “can absorb almost 100% of sound from 600Hz up to above 40kHz.” Inside the motor is an opening that allows the rearward energy, or backwave, produced by the tweeter diaphragm to reach the MAT disc, which has 30 tubes optimized in size and shape to completely absorb the air traveling into it. The MAT is a small disc, about 3” in diameter and not quite 0.5” thick, attached to the back of the Uni-Q’s motor structure. My interviews of the two PhDs became part of a SoundStage! InSight video that explains this technology in detail. Sébastien Degraeve started there in 2018 and is a senior engineer. Jack Oclee-Brown joined KEF in 2004 and is now the head of research and development Dr. I visited KEF last March, interviewed the two brains behind MAT, and found out there’s something to it. are made from assemblies of multiple elements fashioned from composite materials such as metals and plastics.” The new LS50 Meta’s tweeter is made using what KEF calls Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT). KEF claims that the first breakup modes of the tweeters in the old and new models occur above 40kHz - not only an octave higher than the top of the audioband (20kHz), but higher than most manufacturers achieve even with costlier beryllium-dome tweeters.īut there’s a big difference between the old and new LS50 tweeters, and it’s what the new model is named for: metamaterial, which Wikipedia defines as “any material engineered to have a property that is not found in naturally occurring materials. Both driver diaphragms are made of aluminum, with shapes optimized to push their resonant modes far outside their operating bandwidths. The original LS50 was specified to have a crossover frequency of 2.2kHz the Meta’s drivers hand off to each other at 2.1kHz. Like the original LS50’s, the Meta’s port has a spongy center tube to reduce resonances, but its aperture is “racetrack” shaped instead of the LS50’s true oval.Ĭentered on the front baffle is a 12th-generation Uni-Q driver array comprising a 1” tweeter sunk deep in the apex of a 5.25” midrange-bass driver. Near the bottom of the rear panel is a single pair of high-quality binding posts and, in the upper left corner, a port. Its smooth, convex front baffle is made of a plastic composite that KEF’s cutaway diagrams show has a ribbed backside, presumably to increase its strength. It measures 12”H x 7.9”W x 12.2”D, weighs 17.2 pounds, and is made mostly of MDF. The LS50 Meta has basically the same cabinet as the LS50, with different finishes (see below). In fact, I’ve known the LS50 so well for so long that I was torn about reviewing the LS50 Meta: Should I focus on how the LS50 Meta’s sound differs from the LS50? Or should I try to wipe the LS50 from my mind and review the Meta with a clean slate, looking at it in the context of the marketplace of 2020, not 2012? Feeling there were benefits to both approaches, here I’ve blended them. (All prices USD.) I was in Munich that May, at High End 2012, when the LS50 was announced I reviewed the speaker in April 2013, and I’ve owned a pair ever since. KEF’s new LS50 Meta loudspeaker was released in October and sells for $1499.99/pair - the same price the LS50, which it replaces, sold for in 2012. Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link. 2018-2019 EISA Awards Video Introduction.
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