Brand & Product Overview

This article covers the new R series of speakers from our friends at KEF, called the R Meta Series. The Audio Advice team visited the KEF USA facility back in 2022 and we were all very impressed with KEF’s dedication to pushing the state of the art of sound to its limits. KEF, like a handful of other great speaker companies, will spend a lot of time and effort on R&D for a flagship speaker and then take what they learned into more affordable products. This is exactly the case with the new R Series, which benefits from many concepts they developed for the top-of-the-line Blade model. With a 5 year span since the release of the original R Series, KEF has continued to push the envelope and it looks like the new R Meta is going to be a big jump up over the original R Series.

The new R Meta models consist of 3 tower speakers, one bookshelf speaker, two center channels that can both also serve as LCR’s, and a cool new multipurpose speaker for Dolby Atmos effects.

If you are brand new to KEF, you may not be aware of their famous Uni-Q design. Many people believe the perfect speaker would be a sphere that radiated sound from its entire surface. In 1988, KEF invented the Uni-Q which comes very close to this dream design with the tweeter sitting inside the midrange driver, perfectly time aligned. This creates a much wider listening field and a flatter frequency response. Their Uni-Q design has won countless awards and is now in its 12th revision.

We had a unique opportunity to speak with one of the KEF engineers to get the inside scoop on everything that is new for the R Series. They were also so enthusiastic about their technology, we learned some things we did not know before that carry over from the previous R Series that are pretty cool too.

We will first go over the tech shared by all of the models, then get into each individual speaker to help you decide which ones would fit your needs the best. There is a lot to cover, but we think you will enjoy learning about KEF’s speaker technology if you are an audio geek like we are here at Audio Advice.

KEF R Meta Series Features & Technology

The big deal for the new R Series is a completely redesigned Uni-Q driver. Many of the upgrades for this driver filtered down from the much more expensive Reference series. We love it when companies take things they learn in a higher-end product and figure out a way to get part of that great new tech into more affordable models.

KEF Metamaterial Absorption Technology

KEF first introduced Metamaterial Absorption Technology, or MAT for short, in 2020 with the LS50 and then added it to the Blade and Reference models shortly after. MAT material is designed to reduce 99% of the unwanted sound that comes from the rear of the tweeter. The result is a tweeter that measures flatter, and has a more natural and pure sound quality.

The first R models get the new MAT material, and you may think that is all KEF did since they are calling these the new R Meta Series. Nothing could be further from the truth as the entire Uni-Q driver is upgraded in several different areas.

KEF Uni-Q Driver

Another upgrade is related to the tweeter gap area. With the Uni-Q driver having the tweeter sitting inside the midrange driver, there needs to be a small gap as those two can not touch each other. In a testament to KEF’s drive for improvement, they worked on different designs to reduce any resonances that might occur in the gap. They wound up actually making the gap slightly wider and putting foam damping on the underside in two different places which greatly reduced resonance, giving an even cleaner midrange.

In the Uni-Q driver for the Reference models, KEF added a copper ring in the midrange motor assembly to minimize inductance. This neat trick reduces total harmonic distortion and improves the efficiency of the driver. The R Meta models also get this new tech.

New Midrange Chassis & Crossover

Finally, and this is one we thought was really cool, is the KEF decouples the midrange chassis. This also came from the new Reference models. The midrange basket has 4 bolts that mount it to the motor. At each mounting point, the basket has what looks like a wave with the bolt in front of a convex shape with a concave shape on either side. This focuses the energy into damping material to reduce resonances with the listening result being a clearer midrange. That is just taking things to the nth degree which is just too cool!

The other big upgrade in the R Meta models is a completely new crossover. The engineers at KEF apparently spent hundreds of hours both testing and listening to new types of crossover components to decide on the combination that both measured and sounded the best. They had at their disposal new modeling tools that allowed them more flexibility in design, but they still trusted their ears for the final product. The tweeter bypass capacitor even uses a very expensive British brand called Clarity Cap. No one will ever see these, but the fact they include more expensive parts to get better sound speaks a lot to how serious KEF is about making better speakers.

KEF R Meta Series Design & Build Quality

The bass drivers and cabinets are the same as the original R series, but it is worth pointing out some things about them. The R Meta uses slightly different-sized woofers based on the model, but they all are small and made of a hybrid aluminum and paper material. This design is self-damping with no resonances until you get well above the point where they crossover to the midrange. KEF uses multiple small woofers in the tower speakers to give you super fast bass with a similar surface area to one large woofer.

One final point that is great about the KEF R Meta Series is the fact they are all perfectly matched sonically and also match up with an entire range of architectural speakers that use the Uni-Q driver. This gives you a lot of choices when putting together a complete KEF home theater system.

That covers the tech all of these great new R Meta Series speakers share, now let's take a look at each model.

KEF R Meta Speaker Series Overview

You will need a decent amplifier to get the best out of them as they are not super sensitive at 87 db, but when you pair these with an amp or home theater receiver that can provide good current, they are a super impressive bookshelf speaker.

We see these being used as the primary speaker on stands or as a surround or rear channel as well.

Like all of the models in the new R Meta Series, they come in black gloss, white gloss, walnut, and the R3 Meta is supposed to have a special edition gloss Indigo finish. The matching stand comes in Slate Grey, Mineral White, and Matte Indigo.

KEF R5, R7, & R11 Meta Floorstanding Speakers

There are three tower speakers in the new line, the R11 Meta, R7 Meta, and R5 Meta.

The choice between these three will depend on the size of your room and budget. What is great about all three is that the midrange and treble sounds virtually identical on all of them, but there are some big differences in the bottom-end output.

The R5 Meta is a three-way design with two 5 ¼” hybrid aluminum cone low-frequency drivers. This 54-pound speaker has a very slim front profile being just under 7” wide, about 40” tall and 13 ½” deep. We like the outrigger feet that come on all of the towers which provide a high degree of stability. They come with spikes for carpet or if you have hard surface floors, a flat pad the spike sits in.

The R5 Meta is the easiest speaker to set up in the tower series. With the smaller woofers and somewhat limited bottom end, it will not interact much with the walls around it, giving you the flexibility to put it closer to a rear wall. If you are putting them into a room larger than around 12’ by 15’, we would recommend that you add a subwoofer.

The R7 Meta is probably the sweet spot in the tower series. The dual 6 ½” hybrid aluminum cone woofers give it much more authority. These are a little harder to place than the R5 Meta as you will need to get them at least about 20” off the rear or side walls, but if you take the time to dial them in, you will be super happy with the results. They work well in family rooms and even larger rooms.

The R11 Meta, at a whopping 80 pounds per speaker is a beast! The 4 6 ½” woofers give it much more bottom end, but it does come at a price of needing careful setup. These will interact with the room a lot more than the R7 Meta, meaning you will need some space around them if you really want to hear what they are capable of. We see these being used in a large family room or bonus room. You would certainly not want to try them in a 10’ by 12’ office as they would just overpower the room.

One of the first speakers in this line we got in to check out was the R11. The first cut we tried from Crosby Nash is one we use a lot, called Lay Me Down. When the system is right, this track has a huge soundstage with a liquid midrange. The R11 blew us away with the size of the soundstage, the dynamics it could portray, and how neutral and revealing they were. After hearing these, we felt like they should call this new line Reference Lite!

KEF R2 & R6 Meta LCR Center Channel Speakers

For 2023, KEF finally adds a bigger center channel model to the R Meta Series, which we see as a very nice addition. The two LCR models are the R2 Meta and R6 Meta. And yes, you heard right, these are LCR capable which means you can use these vertically as left and right channels as well, or even put three in the vertical plan behind an acoustically transparent screen that would be mounted out from the wall.

You might see lots of speakers that call themselves LCR’s that have a tweeter centered between two mid/bass drivers. The problem with that design is you get a lot of what is called lobing due to the fact the bigger drivers need to be crossed over higher since the tweeter can only go so low. You can fix this with what is called a D'Appolito Array where you have woofer, midrange, tweeter, midrange, woofer, but when you do that you have limited horizontal dispersion. The Uni-Q solves all of this due to its very unique design and in our opinion is the best application of this type of LCR speaker out there. This concept also applies to all of the towers in the KEF R Meta Series as well.

They are both also a sealed box which gives even more placement options. We could see these going into a built-in cabinet system with a flat panel TV and a pair of these on either side vertically with another one serving as the center channel above or below the TV. With no rear-firing port like a lot of bookshelf speakers, you do not have to worry about having the port too close to the back wall. Now, like any speaker, they will sound better outside of a built-in unit, but with the way KEF makes these cabinets so anti-resonant, they make a great choice if your environment dictates this kind of placement, which is actually very common in traditional family rooms.

As you might have guessed the R2 Meta has the same Uni-Q driver paired with two 5 ¼” hybrid aluminum woofers and the R6 Meta gets two 6 ½” hybrid aluminum woofers. If you have the space and budget we would definitely recommend going with the larger model for its higher output and deeper bottom-end reach, especially if you are more of an action-type film fan.

Custom Home Theater Solutions

That concludes our overview of the new KEF R Meta series. These new models represent a big jump up in performance over the already great original R series. They are certainly going to pose some tough competition as these beautiful and well-made speakers have the sound that has made KEF famous for less than you might think.

When you purchase your KEF, or any speakers for that matter, from us - you get a group of passionate music lovers behind you. We have decades of experience in speaker placement and setup which means you have access to pick our brains with any questions you have on how to get the best performance in your room. Our team looks at pictures of listening rooms and home theaters every day and we love helping our customers get the best sound possible with our setup tips.

If you are reading this and want to learn more about home theater in general, check out Home Theater Central. Here we have lots of articles on how to design your dream home theater. We even have a free 3D design tool so you can visualize how the screen and speakers should be placed for optimum performance in your room.

If you have any questions about building a theater or choosing your speakers, give us a call at 888.899.8776, chat with us, or stop by our award-winning showrooms. We live and breathe audio and home theater and love to help our customers find the right products for their situations. Once you have your speakers in place, you can use our free guide of the best home theater audio upgrades & optimizations to perfect your sound.