World War II vet & BBC engineer Raymond Cooke was the first to make bass-rich home speakers 75% smaller; his successors have just released a tribute speaker on top of 55 years’ continued innovation.
After testing them, we’re confident they’re the best-sounding affordable bookshelf speaker for bass lovers…
Just as soon as Raymond Cooke founded KEF in 1961, they began pioneering new technologies in hi-fi—including producing speaker cones made from materials other than paper, and drivers that could deliver more bass from a smaller package.
After 8 years of innovations like these, Raymond and his team had cut their teeth enough to produce something very special; in 1969 they released the KEF Concerto speaker.
Quickly the Concerto became known for extending into deep bass registers despite being a quarter of the size of every other home speaker. How was that possible? By using techniques Raymond developed for putting monitor speakers into cramped broadcast vans.
“I think I was the first person to realize that you didn’t have to have a 15 inch loudspeaker to get down to 20 Hz.” —Raymond Cooke, circa 1994
The Concerto brought an 8-year streak of red-hot innovations together into homes everywhere in the form of deeper, more controlled bass and blissful realism. Aptly, their newest affordable bookshelf is named in its honour.
The Q Concerto Meta is a culmination of 55 years of innovations since its predecessor…resulting in the most bass-rich variant of what may be the world’s best-sounding affordable speaker range.
What innovations you may ask? KEF was already capturing imaginations and being awarded several Queens Awards for exporting successful products around the world. How much improvement was possible, really, on what was already such outstanding performance?
To imagine this, you must first remember that music reproduction—high fidelity—its potential is set by human ears, brains and imaginations. 85 million years of evolution and we can map our auditory surroundings well; we can detect subtleties and paint vivid, emotional pictures without the need for sight, smell, taste, touch.
So as far as KEF had carried high fidelity sound forward in those first 8 years, there was much more to uncover.
Raymond Cooke’s successors at KEF have continued to innovate, with their latest Q Meta series taking things so much further in the budget-friendly category.
Since the original Concerto, KEF has introduced the Uni Q: a speaker design that allows two drivers to play from one acoustic centre. This took the compact speaker performance to another level; crisp, high-fidelity sound matching that of any full-size bookshelf speaker could now come from a smaller unit.
Also, more recently, they’ve introduced the Metamaterial Absorption Technology based on an engineering marvel used in HVAC. It prevents unwanted air movement inside the box from distorting a speaker’s performance. When we compared the previous Q series with the new Q Meta (fitted with metamaterial) the difference in detail was jaw-dropping.
For those who love bass, and its ability to create a sense of magnitude—but still enjoy realistic, true-to-music sound quality—the new Q Concerto Meta is a dream come true.
Upon testing the Q Concerto Meta ourselves, it was clear they had bass lover’s appeal. Bass guitars, contrabass lines, synths and more extended much lower than expected from a medium sized bookshelf unit. And in no way bullying the details; vocal and percussion tracks were crystal clear and centred—which is characteristic of the entire new Q Meta line up.
On that note, KEF’s Q series sound signature has also always been warm and room filling in the mids…making the Q Concerto Meta an awesome pairing with vinyl playback.
A modern (and upgraded) tribute that you must hear to believe…
If you’d like to explore the Q Concerto Meta further, the best thing you can do is hear them yourself. We recommend checking for your nearest hi-fi specialist who stocks KEF and paying them a visit. If you’re in the Sydney area we’d love to host you in our showroom; give us a call and we’ll make sure your demo space is ready when you arrive.
