T.H.E. Show Newport 2013

KEF’s R900 speaker

Jason Victor Serinus  |  Jun 10, 2013

KEF, the loudspeaker company that has made sure that every audiophile on Planet Earth knows about their Blade loudspeaker, held a premier of sorts: the first showing of the KEF R900 ($5000/pair). The results were mixed. I’m a little unclear about the amplification—I was told that it was a Chord CPM 3350 integrated—but whatever it was, paired with a Chord Chordette DAC, Parasound Halo CD-1, and Wireworld cabling, I was surprised to discover that the CD player produced much smoother sound than the PC running J River Media Player.

Offering up my CD of the Bobo Stenson Trio playing “Send in the Clowns,” I noted lovely overall tonality, but a bit of tinny-ness on top and booming on the bass. I wanted to listen more, but the sound of the second KEF room next door was way too loud for lingering.

COMMENTS
jason_sct's picture
Submitted by jason_sct on June 10, 2013 - 2:38pm

I heard "tinny-ness" in the vocal range while auditioning KEF R300 bookshelfs.  I suspect they have the same aluminum main drivers as these floorstanding speakers. For me tinny-ness is a purchase deal breaker.  

Is tinny-ness inherent to all aluminum drivers?  

KEF Blade's main drivers are very similar yet don't produce "tinny-ness" (in my opinion).  If that improvement is due to their "Li-Mg-Al /LCP hybrid cone" material composition then I'd vote KEF migrate the next generation of the R-Series to the same hybrid material.  

...interesting note, the well reviewed, KEF LS50 have different Mg-Al alloy drivers.

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