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KEF LS50 Meta
£999
Somehow, unbelievably, this iteration of our beloved LS50s is even better than the one that first landed in 2012. With these Metas, KEF has improved upon an already winning formula.
Looks-wise at least, the LS50 Metas are hard to differentiate from their predecessors, KEF having concluded that little could be improved on its beautifully made enclosure. The only obvious changes are to the back panel, which has been tidied up and made to look neater. The Uni-Q driver array, though, has been thoroughly reworked, taking in the refinements KEF has developed over the past few years and, crucially, adding something new in the form of MAT (Metamaterial Absorption Technology).
Here, the rearward sound feeds into something about the size of a hockey puck that looks like a plastic circular maze. It is layered and made up of 30 tubes, each tuned to absorb a different frequency. KEF claims that, once combined, the tubes absorb a wide range of frequencies – from around 600Hz upwards – much more effectively than alternative methods. The result should be cleaner, less distorted highs.
And, sure enough, it doesn’t take long to realise
