Напольная акустика — KEF Blade One Meta

The KEF Blade One Meta is the larger of the two Blade models, released on 18 February 2022 at the same time as its smaller Blade Two Meta sibling and the Reference Meta series. KEF presents Blade as the first Single Apparent Source loudspeaker, and the One Meta targets larger listening spaces. The launch price was USD 35,000 per pair, and each speaker is engineered and hand-assembled at the KEF plant in Maidstone, England, where pairs are tested to match within 0.5 dB.

Key specs that matter

The enclosure is ported and the driver arrangement three-way. A 12th generation Uni-Q array places a 25 mm aluminium dome tweeter with MAT at the centre of a 125 mm aluminium midrange cone, and four 225 mm force-cancelling bass drivers take care of bass, divided from the midrange at 350 Hz, with the tweeter handover at 2 kHz. Response is 35 Hz to 35 kHz within plus or minus 3 dB, the free field range is 27 Hz to 45 kHz, and in-room bass reaches 20 Hz at minus 6 dB. Sensitivity is 88 dB at 2.83 V and 1 m. Nominal impedance is 4 ohm with a minimum of 2.8 ohm, KEF suggests 50 to 400 W of amplification, and maximum output is 117 dB peak at 1 m. Harmonic distortion is quoted below 0.5 % from 40 Hz to 100 kHz, below 0.2 % from 200 Hz to 2 kHz and below 0.1 % from 2 kHz to 20 kHz. Each cabinet measures 1590 x 363 x 540 mm and weighs 57.2 kg.

Engineering and use context

The Single Apparent Source idea puts the Uni-Q array on the front baffle and moves the four woofers to the cabinet sides, where they are braced against each other so that their mechanical forces cancel instead of shaking the enclosure. Metamaterial Absorption Technology, developed with the Acoustic Metamaterials Group, sits behind the tweeter and according to KEF absorbs 99 % of the unwanted rear output. For the Meta generation the Uni-Q driver received a new decoupling approach and new motor systems, and the crossovers were fully redesigned with low-distortion components. The sculpted cabinet tapers from a gentle front radius and avoids acoustic discontinuities on its surface.

Pairing

Because the impedance dips low, the Blade One Meta favours solid-state power, either a stereo unit or monoblocks, that stays in control when the load falls under 3 ohm. Eight colour schemes are offered, from Piano Black with Copper to Arctic White with Champagne, and at launch KEF listed four standard and four special order finishes plus custom options.

Alternatives

The Blade Two Meta keeps the same concept at a smaller scale, with four 165 mm side woofers and a height of 1461 mm.