The New Uni-Q

KEF’S R SERIES speakers have long occupied the middle range of the British manufacturer’s offerings. While the previous R Series was starting to get a bit long in the tooth, I found the performance of those speakers to be superb, having reviewed the last generation R700 for Sound & Vision’s sister publication Stereophile in 2014.

KEF designs feature a 12th-generation coincident “Uni-Q” driver. Other manufacturers like Tannoy and ELAC employ coincident drivers as well, but KEF, which has spent 25 years optimizing Uni-Q, may be best known for them. With this design, the tweeter is typically mounted at the throat of the midrange cone, with the driver radiating uniformly in all directions without the usual comb-filtering interference common to multi-way speakers with separately situated drivers. By using the surrounding cone as a wave guide, the dispersions of the tweeter and midrange can be better matched at the crossover frequency.

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KEF claims that the new line includes 1,043 changes from the preceding R Series. The updates include the damping of small structural gaps in the drivers, such as between the tweeter and the midrange cone, to reduce distortion. Internal bracing in the cabinets has been further stiffened. Also, the trim around the drivers, which KEF calls a Shadow Flare, has been sculpted to minimize cabinet-edge diffraction. The paper-based cones of the bass drivers are now skinned