Kef Gallery Demo

[toasty]

I’ve just been to the Kef Gallery in London to hear R3 Metas vs Reference 1 Metas, both with KC62 sub, so I thought I’d share.

I have the R3 Metas powered by Naim Uniti Nova and a RELT5i sub. I wanted to know what difference I’d hear from both the Reference 1s and the KC62.

What surprised me was how muddy the R3s sounded in their room with a Hegel H600 amp. This may be due to room acoustics and the fact I toe mine in a little.

It felt bass light, I asked if the sub was switched on. It was, but they turned it up. Better but still not the experience I’d imagined. Only on Erykah Badu’s Rim Shot did I notice that their sub did go a step lower but didn’t have the volume to match. I like to feel a touch of bass, not to home cinema levels, but at least something.

Moving to the Reference 1s, the muddiness disappeared and they were much clearer, especially in the mids and trebles. The soundstage was more focussed than before, yet I could hear separation on Agnes Obel’s Riverside that was missing at home.

But, the groove was gone, the bass was way too lean for my liking. Could this be the speakers, the Hegel or the sub? Some may love the super-analytical cleanness of it all, but I prefer a warmer sound to go with the sparkly higher frequencies.

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend their setup of the Reference 1 system but I would recommend booking a free demo session in you’re in the area.

[PT1984]

That is an impressive facility. Which room did you listen in? For me I don’t think you could have had a better result. If I read that right you prefer your kit in your room.

[toasty]

It's good for a visit if you're in the area but you really need to book if you're going to travel. I was downstairs in the room on the left.

The demo did confirm that my tastes are maybe more bass heavy/warmer than theirs. I could hear the lower notes but not feel them. It would have been great to listen to the same setup with a Naim or Accuphase amp to see if that changed things for the better. The Reference 1s would already be stretching my budget to the limit so moving on to the bigger 3s or 5s is not an option for me.

I am really happy with my setup but the demo did highlight that voices can have more texture and separation could be better. There are so many options.

[stevoknevo]

I doubt it was the Hegel as they're renowned for having a very high damping factor that provides excellent bass control - you'd expect it being KEF's flagship gallery they'd have everything dialled in properly to make their products sound the very best they can but maybe you were sat in a null or the space used wasn't conducive for showing the kit off to its full potential...and as much as the KC62 is a technological marvel, subs are like cars and there's no replacement for displacement! Likely it's excellent in a smaller to medium sized room but gets lost in a gallery type space? Also, any sub with on-board DSP will have latency of the reproduced signal compared to the main speakers, so depending on how the KC62 was connected to the Hegel (either high-level speaker connection or low-level RCA connection) the latency will be less noticeable on the former and more so on the latter, with the latter either needing an amp capable of delaying the signal to the mains which the Hegel can't do, or having the sub close/r to listening position to better align the timing response - I wonder if that was part of the issue for the muddiness/lack of bass also (noting that neither the R3M or the Ref 1 Meta go very low in the bass (R3M is 58hz ±3dB; Ref 1M is 45hz ±DB)

I've also got R3 Meta (on the S3 stands) powered by a Lyngdorf TDAi-1120 with, until very recently, a pair of BK PL12-300 subs that have been replaced with a single Arendal 1961 1S sub - doing so has allowed me to have more space between the R3M thus getting much closer to an equilateral triangle with my listening position, and the single much more powerful sub feels punchier and goes deeper than the pair of BKs despite them all having 12" drivers...but I need to dial in placement before re-running Room Perfect to integrate speakers/sub properly (Lyngdorf's proprietary room correction/compensation software)

Like you, I run with a touch of toe in - KEF recommend having them firing straight ahead but Erin Hardison/Erin's Audio Corner recommends pointing them just beyond about shoulder width and I've had good results with that.

[PT1984]

@stevoknevo. How much of a game changer is Room Perfect? With the voicings can you make the amp sound a ‘warm’ like a class a/b?

[toasty]

Thanks Steve, some good points there.

[stevoknevo]

PT1984 said:

@stevoknevo. How much of a game changer is Room Perfect? With the voicings can you make the amp sound a warm like a class a/b?

It's truly excellent at integrating speakers and sub/s and sorting bass response out - its whole premise is that it doesn't change the fundamental sound/frequency response of your speakers.

This will give you a good idea of how Room Perfect works - https://youtu.be/pkNt5LG0Gks

But the voicings are more to tailor the sound to your preferences rather than trying to get it to sound like a different type of amplifier topology - TBH I've not really done much messing around with voicings, however it has full PEQ capabilities and you can tinker away to your hearts content but you'll need a measuring microphone and Room EQ Wizard to measure the output so you know what to adjust and what filters/slopes/Q values etc to add (it's beyond my basic understanding TBH, but some folk on AVForums have been using AI models to help with creating voicings to good effect...)