If someone asked me to describe KEF loudspeakers, I would need a minute or two to respond. In addition to its regular active and passive product lines, the company produces some of the funkiest and most striking designs on the market—in the Muon and Blade series. Yet, KEF has three ranges of more traditional box-style cabinets—the Reference, R, and Q series—which exude style thanks to the use of leading-edge materials.

From the nineteen sixties until now, this British brand has had many loudspeaker industry firsts, including advanced cabinet materials, loudspeaker cone material and, of course, the ‘Uni-Q’, or concentric mid/tweeter drive unit arrays that were first in 1988. As many audiophiles know, KEF was started in 1961 by ex-Wharfedale man Raymond Cooke and, to date, has collected over 150 patents for its innovative approach to loudspeaker design.

UP CLOSE

Reviewed here is the latest KEF Q Concerto Meta loudspeaker from a series that first appeared in 1968. This is the ninth generation of the company’s entry-level hi-fi range, and the version tested here costs $2,000 per pair plus $450 per pair for the optional speaker stands. Mid-sized for a stand mounter measuring 415mm high x 210mm wide x315mm deep, it comes in three finishes – satin black, satin white and walnut – and weighs 9.5kg.

What looks like a standard 2-way loudspeaker is, in fact, a 3-way, thanks to KEF’s Uni-Q technology. The mid/tweeter array sits above the bass driver, and the rear panel hosts the port and a terminal plate with a single pair of binding posts. The crossover points are specified at 430Hz and 2,900Hz, and the drive unit sizes are 165mm for the bass driver, 100mm for the midrange and 19mm for the dome tweeter. The drive units feature an aluminium-based cone or dome material.

The quoted sensitivity of this loudspeaker is a fairly low 85dB (2.83Vrms at 1m) with a nominal impedance of 4 ohms, dipping to a minimum of 3.2 ohms, also on the lowish side. You’ll need a powerful amplifier (KEF recommends 100W RMS per channel) with good current driving ability. Frequency response is 48Hz to 20kHz, with 36Hz being 6dB below flat. That’s pretty good for a stand mounter of this size and shows that KEF engineers have sacrificed some ease-of-drive to get deeper, more extended bass than you’d expect from a cabinet of this size.

Calvin Lee from KEF's global distribution arm provides further insights into the development of this speaker. Almost a decade after the eighth generation Q Concerto, the new Q Concerto Meta is jam-packed with new KEF technology. This includes the latest Metamaterial Absorption Technology – MAT – which is said to absorb almost all unwanted sound from the rear of the drive units. The 3-way design incorporates a bass driver optimised for powerful low-frequency performance, and the 430Hz crossover point is said to reduce demands on the Uni-Q drivers and deliver lower levels of midrange distortion. The Uni-Q array is now in its twelfth generation, no less.

The rear-ported design introduces the ‘shadow flare’ port, where the internal cylinder transitions to a wider flare exiting the cabinet. KEF includes port bungs to allow installation of this speaker closer to the rear wall if room space constraints dictate. The company says it has spent much time optimising the 3-way crossover to improve the off-axis response and listening experience. Internally, the cabinet separates the Uni-Q array and the bass driver with an MDF partition using a brace bar to improve rigidity and contain vibration. The old ‘knuckle wrap’ test emits only a brief thudding sound.

For the purposes of this review, my demonstration pair of Q Concerto Metas were powered by a Primare 100W integrated amplifier fed by a Bluesound Vault 2i streamer. KEF’s own purpose-designed stands, along with Les Davis Audio Entropic isolators underneath them and the electronics, were initially used. Tributaries Series 8 cables completed the system. On-axis or off-axis, the KEFs provided a consistent and accurate sonic picture, but swapping to my shot-filled Solidsteel stands improved the overall sonic precision, giving greater bass definition plus better mid-band and treble clarity. 

THE LISTENING

This loudspeaker has a deceptively wide frequency response, with smooth and clean treble, clear and fast midband and extended, deep bass. It gives a grown-up, refined sound that doesn’t shout at you, yet there’s plenty of pace and dynamics to make music fun. For example, Some Devil by Dave Matthews served up a live, open hall sound per the recording. The soundstage was broad and high, with a pleasingly spatial feel to the proceedings. Instruments and vocals sounded highly realistic, without a hint of forwardness to vocals. The realistic attack and decay of instruments enhanced the impact of the performance.

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio’s Memphis got my feet tapping immediately. The Q Concerto Meta produced a cohesive rendition of the three-piece band playing in unison. The bass weight was impressive and extended, and the track maintained a rhythm as the organ flipped and flopped between loping through or driving the track. The guitar had the expected edginess I usually hear from this recording, but never sounded sharp. The percussion was carried clearly, whether it was in the upper registers or deep down low.

Drive unit integration proved excellent for a speaker of this price, as Fault Line by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club proved. This is a downtempo piece of music, but the Q Concerto Meta reproduces it delicately. The barking harmonica playing can often unsettle the listener, but in this case, proved surprisingly couth; this was a testament to how well KEF has developed its Uni-Q array. Likewise, Marlon William’s Beautiful Dress was a pleasure to hear, thanks to its excellent vocal handling. The way the singer flipped between gentle and fragile to powerful and expressive was quite a thing to listen to – and never failed to sound detailed and natural.

Phone Call From Leavenworth by Chris Whitley is an unrestrained recording with a broad vocal range, fierce twanging steel guitar and powerful drum work. The KEF stood up and took charge, delivering fine instrumental separation between the bass and drumming. Steel guitar notes had a ferocious attack and a lovely lingering decay. At the same time, the vocals had an authentically raw feel to them that let me enjoy this track to the full.

THE VERDICT

A relatively compact footprint allied to KEF’s Uni-Q array makes for a seriously expansive-sounding speaker, but the Q Concerto Meta also succeeds in many other respects. For example, it has excellent driver integration and impressively extended bass and treble. At the same time, it’s a musically engaging speaker who doesn’t sit on the music’s natural rhythms and dynamics. You may get ‘bigger’ bass from other similarly sized loudspeakers, but will they be as extended and natural sounding in the bottom end? Overall, this is a highly capable new stand mounter with much to recommend. If you're shopping in this category, this one absolutely deserves an audition.

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