KEF, the renowned manufacturer of innovative, reference-quality loudspeakers, has announced the global release of KEF Blade, a revolutionary loudspeaker combining unmatched precise sound imaging and elegant design. KEF Blade, which is the result of five years of intensive R&D efforts, will be branded as the first product for KEF’s 50th anniversary which KEF celebrates this year, and will be available exclusively to Hear No Evil in the Denver area in September 2011.
KEF Blade is the evolution of KEF’s widely acclaimed Concept Blade which was first shown in 2009. It offers the highest quality sound reproduction available through KEF’s Single Apparent Source technology. Single Apparent Source technology ensures the entire frequency range radiates from one point in space, creating a sound picture that is virtually indistinguishable from a live performance. KEF Blade is further enhanced by a glass-reinforced composite cabinet that matches the speaker’s high performance sound quality with elegant industrial design.
KEF’s Single Apparent Source ensures that individual driver sections – for bass (LF), midrange (MF) and treble (HF) – of a multi-way loudspeaker work together and produce sound-fields that appear to come from the same point and place, which is especially important at the crossover frequencies where the sound output switches between drivers. The Single Apparent Source is a perfect extension of the new, fully pistonic KEF Uni-Q® MF/HF array, and includes the bass drivers for the first time. Together they combine to form a seamless point source driver array that can handle the entire frequency range.
Four 9” (22.5 cm), newly developed bass drivers deliver the KEF Blade’s distortion-free low frequency response. The engineering principle behind their configuration is simple – let the huge forces of each moving cone cancel each other out by arranging them in opposed, symmetrical pairs – but its effective implementation is fraught with engineering obstacles. The force produced by the bass drivers is so strong that the massive rear magnets have had to be bonded directly to each other to obtain the full benefit of this technology. They are side firing so their acoustic center coincides with those of the all-new, latest generation Uni-Q midrange driver and tweeter – forming the ground breaking Single Apparent Source technology.
KEF is celebrating their 50th Anniversary on September 27, 2011 and to help celebrate this momentous occasion, Hear No Evil will be showcasing Blade and KEF Reference at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest at the Denver Marriot on October 14-16.
