KEF

1960s In 1961, Raymond Cooke and Robert Pearch founded KEF Electronics Ltd. in Kent with a view to creating innovative loudspeakers using the latest in materials technology. KEF was situated on land adjacent to the River Medway in Tovil which at the time was owned by Kent Engineering & Foundry (a company owned by Robert Pearch and founded by his father Leonard) which at the time manufactured agricultural equipment and industrial sweeping machines. KEF derived its name from that firm. Cooke was a Royal Navy WWII veteran and was a design engineer at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for a year. He was later Technical Director at Wharfedale, then a leading British loudspeaker manufacturer. Following corporate change at Wharfedale, Cooke left to see his own ideas realized. Cooke decided early on that huge potential benefits could be reaped from selling raw drivers to competitors, benefits that more than outweighed the potential cannibalisation of their own market position. In a relatively short time, many major and renowned loudspeaker manufacturers came to source their drive units from KEF. Users included illustrious British brands such as IMF, Rogers, Celef, and Monitor Audio, as well as manufacturers outside UK, including Sonus Faber and Wilson Audio. Linn Sara, and Linn Kan speakers. KEF's KEFKITs also provided many hi-fi hobbyists with the means to apply their woodworking skills to making their own speakers. At its peak, production of drive units reached 10,000 units per week. In 1992, KEF was acquired by Gold Peak Group. The new technology has been implemented in the new LS50 collection, which consists of the LS50 Meta and LS50 Wireless II. In 2021, the Michael Young–designed KC62 subwoofer was launched with a new technology called "Uni-Core", which combines both drivers into a single motor system, allowing cabinet size to be reduced by over a third, while also increasing excursion to generate greater output and depth. In the same year, KEF announced its first automotive partnership with Lotus, bringing its Uni-Q technology, in a 10-channel sound system, to the Lotus Emira premium sport car. In 2022, the release of new LSX II and LS60 wireless speakers, also designed by Michael Young, received favourable reviews in the specialist and general press, with Wired magazine calling the LS60 an "Absolute Triumph". The LS60 Wireless received the EISA Best Product 2022–2023 award in the Wireless Floorstanding Loudspeakers category. ==Technology==

Timeline In the 1970s and 1980s, KEF was one of a group of British loudspeaker makers, including such companies as Bowers & Wilkins and Celestion, that pioneered the use of advanced materials and techniques in audio. In the early 1970s, KEF became the first company to use computers for the testing and design of loudspeakers, leading to a methodology called "Total System Design". Production techniques such as driver "pair matching" were implemented in the Model 105 system, released in 1977, which was one of the most highly regarded loudspeakers of its time. Other technologies developed and brought to the market by KEF have included: • driver decoupling (Model 105.2, 1979), a technique of reducing cabinet coloration by mounting drivers via controlled lossy coupling • coupled-cavity bass loading (Model 104/2, 1984), a technique of pairing two bass drive units and feeding their output via a single port • conjugate load matching (Model 104/2, 1984), a crossover optimisation technique that presents a constant (albeit low) ohmic load to the amplifier • the "KEF Universal Bass Equaliser" (aka "KUBE") (Model 107, 1986), a technique to overcome the unavoidable phase lag present at low frequencies • Uni-Q (C-Series, 1988), an implementation of coincident midrange and tweeter drivers that strives to preserve phase integrity and match dispersion between the drivers, resulting in improved stereo imagery and an enlarged optimum listening area • Acoustic Compliance Enhancement (ACE) (Muon, 2005), a technology delivering the bass performance of a conventional speaker of twice the size • Single Apparent Source Technology (Blade, 2011), a technique of configuring speakers to cover the entire bandwidth of the loudspeaker, which enables all frequencies to appear to radiate from one single point • Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT) (LS50 Meta 2020), a complex maze-like structure where each of a number of channels absorbs a specific frequency, combining to eliminate unwanted sound coming from the rear of the tweeter, thereby reducing distortion and improving sound clarity • Uni-Core (KC62, 2021), a patent-pending technology that combines the dual force-cancelling drive units into a single motor system with the overlapping voice coils concentrically arranged, thus reducing the size of the speaker or subwoofer cabinet Uni-Q Technology Developed in 1988, the Uni-Q driver array combines the midrange and tweeter to avoid the driver-to-driver interference created in conventional loudspeakers where mid and high frequencies radiate from different locations. Uni-Q places the tweeter at the centre of the bass/midrange cone, dispersing the different frequencies from a single point source, a design intended to reduce interference and deliver a more accurate and realistic sound than is possible in conventional loudspeakers. Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT) Metamaterials are materials engineered to have properties that are typically not found in naturally occurring substances and that derive not from the properties of the base materials but from their arrangement as intricate structures. KEF was the first loudspeaker manufacturer to deploy such materials in Hi-Fi speakers. MAT is a maze-like structure where each of the intricate channels absorbs a specific frequency. Sitting behind the tweeter, it absorbs unwanted sound radiating from the rear of the driver, reducing distortion and preventing audio distraction. The technology was declared Innovation of the Year in the 2020 What Hi-Fi? Awards, Uni-Core Technology Uni-Core technology combines two force-cancelling drivers into a single motor system. Overlapping voice coils, of different diameters and concentrically arranged, allow for more output and depth to be delivered from a small cabinet. The first product with this technology, the KC62 subwoofer (2021), is the size of a football. It received Best in Category awards from EISA and StereoNET. Single Apparent Source Technology KEF's Single Apparent Source Technology is intended to eliminate the interference caused by the interaction of drivers producing different frequencies, by ensuring that the entire frequency range radiates from a single point. The aim is to create a highly accurate sound across a wider area. To achieve this, four low-frequency drivers, in symmetrically opposing pairs, are placed around a two-way driver where the mid-frequency and high-frequency share the same acoustic centre. When implemented in the Concept Blade in 2011, KEF called that the world's first Single Apparent Source loudspeaker. == Products ==

HiFi Speakers • Muon • Blade and Blade 2 Meta • The Reference • R Series • Q Series • LS50 Meta • T Series (2022) Wireless HiFi Speakers • LS60 Wireless • LS50 Wireless II • LSX • LSX 'Soundwave Edition' • LSX II • EGG Duo Headphones • Mu3 TWS • Mu7 Over-Ear Subwoofers • Reference 8b • KF92 • KC62 • KUBE • T2 Architectural • THX Extreme Home Theatre • In-wall Speakers • In-ceiling Speakers • Outdoor Speakers ==References==