Munich High End Show: KEF’s £20,000 Blade gets real

May 20, 2011 — Article

After five years of testing, KEF has finally announced that its Blade speaker will move from concept to reality as part of its 50th birthday celebrations.

KEF Blade

The seriously high-end speaker has been doing the rounds of hi-fi shows for a couple of years, but the company never promised that it ever be available to buy, until now.

The ‘big idea’ behind the KEF Blade is its ‘Single Apparent Source’ technology. This extends KEF’s Uni-Q technology, which places the tweeter at the centre of a midrange driver, by bringing the bass driver into the same array.

The company claims the result is unparalleled accuracy in delivering the entire frequency range from a single source point.

The four side-firing 9in bass drivers are arranged in opposed, symmetrical pairs to cancel out the forces moving each of them and so reduce distortion. KEF says that 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 the technology.

The rigid, curved cabinet is made from a polished glass reinforced composite. The drivers are fully decoupled, meaning that sound is only generated from driver movement and not from the cabinet.

The KEF Blade should be available at the end of July for £20,000.




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