Sound & Vision (2019-04)

test report

KEF’S R SERIES speakers have long
occupied the middle range of the British
manufacturer’s offerings. While the
previous R Series was starting to get a bit
long in the tooth, I found the performance
of those speakers to be superb, having
reviewed the last generation R700 for
Sound & Vision’s sister publication Stereo-
phile in 2014.
KEF designs feature a 12th-generation
coincident “Uni-Q” driver. Other manu-
facturers like Tannoy and ELAC employ
coincident drivers as well, but KEF, which
has spent 25 years optimizing Uni-Q, may
be best known for them. With this design,

the tweeter is typically mounted at the

throat of the midrange cone, with the

driver radiating uniformly in all directions

without the usual comb-filtering interfer-

ence common to multi-way speakers with

separately situated drivers. By using the

surrounding cone as a wave guide, the

dispersions of the tweeter and midrange

can be beer matched at the crossover

frequency.

KEF claims that the new line includes

1,043 changes from the preceding R

Series. The updates include the damping

of small structural gaps in the drivers,

such as between the tweeter and the

The New Uni-Q

By Thomas J. Norton

KEF R5 SURROUND SPEAKER SYSTEM

RATING

Speakers

PERFORMANCE

BUILD QUALITY

VALUE

RATING

Subwoofer

PERFORMANCE

FEATURES

BUILD QUALITY

VALUE

(^52) [ April May 2019 [soundandvision.com