ArticleManagerThe bookshelf box with a price of 50,000 to 100,000 is the top series of bookshelf boxes that many traditional European old brands focus on, although 50,000 can buy a three-way floor box of one or two levels lower than the same brand, but why can these top bookshelf boxes of traditional European old brands be hot in the market? The reference series is the reference series, although as the entry level of the reference series, only the speaker unit is relatively small, the cabinet is smaller, but the technical essence has not shrunk, that is to say, the top series of these traditional audio old brands in Europe even if it is a bookshelf box, represents their own strongest technical use, not the technical decentralization of the next level of products, whether in the unit technology, crossover components, cabinet structure and materials or workmanship, are no different from their own series of high-grade floor boxes!
Since its establishment in 1961, KEF, a British premier Hi-Fi audio brand, has been standing in the audio industry for 60 years with its unique technology and research and development strength, and has been constantly innovating and surpassing itself. As the representative of KEF’s reference level, the top series Reference series has been launched in 1973 for 48 years, a brand of products has 48 years of vitality, KEF can be described as unique, active in the audio industry audio brands more than 40 years of history are very few, let alone a series of products. Reference reference series is a very important advanced series in the KEF product line, which plays a role in connecting the latest innovative technologies of KEF in each period, that is, applying their latest top-of-the-line technology to slightly lower-level high-level products, and then transplanting this reference-level technology downward to the first-level products. This is also the highlight of the publicity of many speaker manufacturers who can design and manufacture their own speaker units today. To sum up, each manufacturer has its top flagship products representing its most powerful technology, but the volume is generally relatively large and the price is high, only a few audiophiles can afford to spend, manufacturers will transplant their latest technology down to a slightly lower level of advanced series, with a reasonable price to become the most important product line of manufacturers, not only other audio brands are doing this, camera brands are also the same. KEF product positioning is similar, and this article is evaluating a pair of KEF Reference 1 reference bookshelf boxes.
There are many British audio brands, it is really difficult to survive in the industry without exclusive technology that can be obtained, KEF’s exclusive technology Uni-Q coaxial coaxial co-point unit developed by KEF for decades is its brightest golden signboard, Reference 1 will KEF’s latest 125 mm (5 inch) medium / The high-frequency Uni-Q coaxial commonpoint driver is perfectly combined with the excellent new 165mm (6.5″) alloy cone woofer, on the surface Reference1 is two speaker units, in fact it is three, because the proud 5-inch midrange driver is coaxial with the 25mm aluminum tweeter, so the Reference 1 can be regarded as a three-way design of 1-inch tweeter + 5-inch midrange + 6.5-inch bass. Reference 1 will KEF’s latest technology of three-way unit perfect combination into “two”, so that the front barrier version of the cabinet can be more simple, the height and width ratio of the cabinet reaches more than 2 times, this proportion of bookshelf boxes often seen in other brands of speakers, the design of the metal sandwich composite front baffle is still the benchmark of KEF, Reference 1 cabinet width 205mm and height of 440mm, equivalent to 2.35 to 1 widescreen movie screen ratio, but KEF Reference1 reference bookshelf box cleverly uses the golden section, using different sizes of circles to perfectly embed three horn units in two circular outer frames, plus the same color side panels as a continuation of the front baffle, so that the box looks that the ratio of width to height is not so large. Uni-Q coaxial coaxial co-point unit has inherently wide and uniform diffusion characteristics, reproduced on the slender front baffle can reduce mid-high frequency diffraction and easily create a deeper sound field depth, and the higher and deeper cabinet than the bookshelf box of the conventional unit of the same size has a larger content area, which can release a sense of low-frequency energy beyond the visual volume. The biggest highlight is the Uni-Q coaxial unit of coaxial co-point, as KEF’s proud technology is also the soul of KEF speakers, the Uni-Q coaxial coaxial coaxial coaxial speaker unit adopts a new cone disc diaphragm and cantilever, and is equipped with a tapered neck decoupler and a new magnetic circuit system, using advanced Shadow Flare diffraction control technology, adding a new tweeter gap damper to improve the linear accuracy of air gap motion, bringing unprecedented high resolution, high definition and powerful dynamic expression.
In a small audition room in front of Guangzhou Yinsheng Club Intelligent Audio and Video Technology Co., Ltd. on the first floor of Haiyin Audio Plaza, the staff used the British ROKSAN Blake CD player + Blak Black merge amplifier, plus this pair of KEF Reference 1 reference bookshelf boxes to form a set of British combination. 8 ohms load output 150W power per channel, 4 ohm load output 230 watts per channel of Blak Black combined power amplifier in the British system combined power amplifier has been the output power is not small positioning is not low, although the audition room also has more expensive German brand CD player and amplifier, the reason why the use of ROKSAN Blak Black series CD player and combined amplifier with KEF Reference 1 reference bookshelf box, in addition to a set of British combination is more tasteful, I also want to try the front-end system, without investing too much, it can play KEF Reference1 to a few percent quality. Teresa Teng’s “Repayment” album is one of my favorite Teresa Teresa Chinese albums, this “Repayment” song has 11 Japanese songs from her singing, 1 “Lost Spring” written by Zhuang Nu and composed by Gu Jiahui, the style consistency of the whole album is very good, the arrangement has reached the peak of Teresa Teng’s period, and the recording is also very good. I am Teresa Teresa fans everyone knows, many audiophiles say that Teresa Teng’s recording with 3/5a plus 300B gallbladder machine is mesmerizing for three days without knowing the taste of meat, but don’t forget that several authentic 3/5a certified authentic 3/5a in the UK use KEF speaker units! KEF Reference 1 replayed Teresa Teng timbre real reproduction more simple and mature Teresa Teng timbre, after the American vocal master pointed out Teresa Teng pronunciation is more scientific than before, so after 1984 Teresa Teng singing voice is no longer as gorgeous as before, no longer has too many decorative sounds, from the dantian breath to the lip tooth sound, the faint details of the head cavity resonance can not escape the powerful resolution of the Uni-Q coaxial coaxial common point speaker unit, and there is a sense of flesh, the voice and emotion are more natural, At this time, Teresa Teng has a more accurate and neutral timbre than the previous Teresa Teresa, and there will be no “first-line sky” voice with excessive lip and tooth tones and metallic voices of some high-analysis speakers, perfectly replaying Teresa Teng who is extremely healthy in both singing skills and timbre! I don’t know how audiophiles think of Teresa Teng’s timbre, Teresa Teresa in different periods has different tastes, but from the perspective of a super Teresa Teresa fan, Teresa Teng from 1984 to 1987 has the most healthy Teresa Teng timbre and singing method! Although the ROKSAN Blak Black CD player + Blak Black Combined amplifier is not a very expensive device, with the KEF Reference 1 at the very representative Teresa Teresa is very flattering.
The violin we use is also very familiar to everyone, and in the last issue we reviewed the sixties Heifetz recording used in the summer gold medal model KEF R5, the master’s brilliant playing skills at the peak are addictive, since most audiophiles have not heard Heifetz play live, what is the correct tone of his famous piano has always been the mystery of the century. In the golden age of classical records in the sixties, the recording can not be as some audiophiles say to be a little dry, sharp and even with a little “plastic sound” is correct, in any case, good audiophile sound is pleasant, good audiophile sound is different from the high-end recording studio that has an unobstructed analysis for recording “faulty” monitors, just like photography, high-quality lenses High-quality cameras take high-resolution photos, and the beautiful girls who take pictures may not be able to see, and even put the skin pores, Acne are clearly photographed, need appropriate modification, high-quality fever equipment is like this kind of high-resolution photo retouching, the same model different photographer’s aesthetic perspective to understand, out of the photo can still see the same model, but the degree of beautification is not the same, the final photo in the real and beautification between directly must be different. The same is true of the sound system, KEF Reference 1 recreated the Heifez recording of the sixties, shouldn’t the famous piano be able to distinguish the skills and emotions such as strings, bow jumping, and kneading when the master plays, and even close your eyes to see that Heifitz playing in front of your eyes? Could it be that his famous piano is “plastic-smelling”, can’t it be thick, moist and simulated, and create an extremely sensational sense of live music? At least I felt that vibe at KEF Reference1. After more than 40 years of continuous innovation, the reference series has been the new generation of reference series, which has made the use of this series of technologies handily, and the same source evenly spreads the sound throughout the listening space, creating a flawless, natural and realistic sound field, independent of specific location. The new generation of Uni-Q coaxial coaxial co-point unit can capture mid-high and high frequency information including vocals and strings than traditional mid-high discrete speakers, and the amount of information is naturally higher in sound density and richer in overtones, so whether it is Teresa Teng’s singer or Heifet’s famous piano, the details are unobstructed and rich and charming, and have a more sense of presence.
What about a large-scale symphony and a piano that is difficult to broadcast well? Although the front-end system plus the on-site audition room environment is relatively small, it is not enough to play the best performance of KEF Reference1, in fact, we feel a sense of atmosphere close to the sound of natural instruments, the sense of low-frequency scale beyond the box, and it is easy to get a wide and deep sense of stage, but not the kind of exaggerated sense of shape and sound field, such as the shape of the piano will not be too large, high, middle and low frequencies are smoothly connected, and the phase is very accurate, like a unit in sound, no need to concentrate “Grab”, even if you deviate a little from the emperor’s position, you can capture the perfect sound field positioning. The problem of timbre, I personally like this natural and accurate with a little beautification but can not feel the modified bel canto, low frequency energy is strong, but after all, it is a bookshelf box, almost all brands of bookshelf boxes are low-frequency limited class, to get a stronger and richer sense of low volume, KEF Reference reference series also has several models of Big Brother?
Excellent acoustics, many sound systems can do this, and how to compatible acoustics and musicality is art! The sound is designed to replay music services, KEF Reference1 can give you a very balanced quality of musicality and sound, both in terms of workmanship and sound performance! Audio equipment and digital cameras, photography and music also have a lot in common. Just like Japanese digital cameras, compared with European Leica, Hasselblad and Phase One, Japanese machines have good performance and high cost performance, but if you have higher pursuits, such as the pursuit of unique taste or higher-end medium format digital cameras or German Leica cameras, then you can only spend several times or even more than ten times the price… So, if KEF’s god-like “double-knife” blade is KEF’s first large-scale floor box showing technical strength to achieve perfect full-range point sound source sound, which is quite a Hasselblad, Phase One, Leica medium format body, Reference series several models of floor boxes are equivalent to Leica M and Leica SL advanced full-frame body, Reference1 is equivalent to what model in digital cameras? There is no doubt that it is a Leica Q2 level machine, the picture quality and color are very balanced, and the body and the accompanying large aperture lens workmanship is uncompromising, compared to Leica’s own M series and SL series trade-offs can be more value-for-money, and it is also positioned as a portable type in the top camera. As a KEF reference speaker, each Reference is handcrafted by KEF master craftsmen at KEF’s factory in Maidstone, UK, maintaining a dedication to excellence.