KEF now a £1000 option!

[MiamiBlue]

The (in my opinion) poor KEF system is now a £1000 option!

 

[Vampyre]

this is starting to make the FE look like a bargain.

 

[Nova]

I like the KEF system mainly for the grills. It's pretty.

 

[RoryBellows]

Whats the grille look like for the non KEF

 

[gcmak]

Do we even know if the non-KEF system sounds worse (subjectively/objectively)?
I sort of don't need the booming sound of the seat belt chime at start up that we currently have going on! (yes I know I can belt up before starting lol)

 

[Nova]

Whats the grille look like for the non KEF

90's CD Boom Box Speaker Mesh, looks just like the mesh for the A-pilar tweeter location that's empty on the FE cars.

 

[Nova]

Do we even know if the non-KEF system sounds worse (subjectively/objectively)?
I sort of don't need the booming sound of the seat belt chime at start up that we currently have going on! (yes I know I can belt up before starting lol)

I'd be really surprised if it sounded better than the KEF system. We know it's less powerful, has fewer speaker drivers, and I have no idea what the subwoofer design is - it looks almost as if its just one of the rear speakers, but this is just a guess with a 11.2% confidence.

 

[JimH]

https://www.hifix.co.uk/product/kef-ls50-meta-speakers/ £1199 for a pair of very similar KEF drivers in boxes (and the Emira has 3... plus the two rears and the subwoofer)

 

[digilotus]

KEF Audio is a $2,850 AUD option down under. (Actually over $3,200 once taxes are added).

 

[djprov431]

IMO the Kef in my FE is one of the worst stereo systems I've heard -- my 1/2 price Jeep wrangler from 2019 is sadly much, much better.

 

[SuperchargedLotus]

IMO the Kef in my FE is one of the worst stereo systems I've heard -- my 1/2 price Jeep wrangler from 2019 is sadly much, much better.

I agree… luckily the engine sound more than makes up for it

 

[EZcheezy]

everyone ragging on the KEF and im over here thinking it sounds just fine. even good

 

[Medic518]

im over here thinking it sounds just fine. even good

Could use some more bass, but I just turned the treble down a notch or two, and I'm with you.. Although, it does sort of need to be up to about half to sound "good". Low volume leaves me feeling like its lacking..

 

[Orchardbike]

There are a number of systems that sound significantly worse than the KEF.

 

[Nova]

everyone ragging on the KEF and im over here thinking it sounds just fine. even good

Yea, I also think it's a good system. The bass can be improved, that's about it. 80 percent of the time, however, I have the system off because I like how the car sounds. I have been commuting with my car recently and on the highways, listening to the KEF system has been pretty enjoyable.

 

[Chobfreak]

The JBL system in my Ferrari F12 sounds so much worse than the KEF in the Emira, I guess it really comes down to what you're comparing it to...

 

[Lovora]

https://www.hifix.co.uk/product/kef-ls50-meta-speakers/ £1199 for a pair of very similar KEF drivers in boxes (and the Emira has 3... plus the two rears and the subwoofer)

Hi Jim,
The Meta LS50 speaker is indeed quite nice. Although, the drivers in the Emira are NO WAY near the quality of the LS50 drivers. The (3) Emira drivers are much smaller and utilize a smaller magnet, voice coil and they use an inexpensive plastic chassis. Definitely, a budget driver. The LS50 driver is in another ballpark. (Pictures below, I may have borrowed these from another thread, sorry for not remembering the source) BUT, there is hope. I have contemplated grafting in a pair of LS50 drivers (available through a service center, I have a pair right now). This will entail significant modifications to the existing door panels. Roto tool surgery plus a 3D scanner and then newly 3D printed door panels will be necessary. Then, a full upgrade to a new A2B processor and 10 channel amplifier. It can be done and I have completed many car audio conversions such as this.

I think the more time/cost effective means of improving the overall sound in the Emira is to concentrate on the Subwoofer. My previous industry "inside" information told me that this KEF system should be quite good. Unfortunately, it did not turn out as originally planned. Lotus decided not to take their final advice and a few corners were cut. And the sound does suffer.

They did get their way with the Eletre. That sound is magnificent. I heard one in Italy last year.

My game plan on the Emira is to remove the very substandard, (thank you bean counters) 6x9 "fresh air" woofer and bypass the existing subwoofer amp. The "fresh air" concept is quite unique and when done properly, it is very impressive. The Volvo XC90 B&O system uses a "correctly designed" 11" subwoofer that might work in the Emira. I have one for testing. I have had to cut and 3D model a new port manifold to use the existing Emira exit port. A search for a replacement subwoofer amp is ongoing. Kicker (who in my professional opinion) has made and can make some very good equipment. They now offer a monaural DSP subwoofer amp with a "self learning" mode which is sort of a poor man's Audyssey home theater acoustical equalizer. This amp is better suited to a lower impedance load than the nominal 4 ohm load of the Volvo sub, but it should prove to offer much better sound. I'd like to thank Nova for turning me on to the Kicker sub amp. An Australian company "mObridge" makes some really fantastic DSP audio amplifiers. I may step up and go all in with their 9 channel DSP amp as soon as I can make the digital output of the Emira radio play nice with the digital amp. I'm pretty sure they use the same "language", some configurations may be needed.

I used to work for two of the top rated automotive audio companies in the 1990's and 2000's. I was a speaker engineer so you can understand my interest in making the Emira sound better. Upgrading the lower octaves via a subwoofer improvement is going to make a tremendous improvement. Adding sound deadening panels will help too. The front speaker staging is actually pretty good. Haphazardly adding tweeters in the A pillars is not the way to go. A coaxial speaker design (like the KEF Emira and KEF LS50 drivers) is in theory the best and easiest to make sound good in a car. Less points of sound help to improve a variety of shortcomings. An automobile is one of the most difficult listening environments to make sound good. The acoustics of a car are terrible. Carnegie Hall in NYC is widely regarded as one of the best designed concert halls in the world. Often, the use of loudspeakers is not even required. In order to make a car sound even close to a high end concert hall will require well placed loudspeakers, computer manipulation (DSP) and most importantly, a knowledgeable acoustic design team.

I too remember some impressive sounding cars on the IASCA car audio competition circuit in the mid 90's. One Buick Grand National car built by a friend of mine really was super impressive and won many sound contests. And it did not have tweeters in the A pillars or even in the dash. Without getting too technical, this car used custom modified professional "compression horn" loudspeakers mounted down low in the passenger and driver footwells. This "mechanical" time alignment made both drivers closer to equi-distant which the human ear/brain detects as arriving at the same time. Thus, Left to Right imaging was improved and a female singer sounded like she was sitting on the hood. It was uncanny. Humans have ears on the "sides" of their heads which allows for more precise L/R sound detection. This was helpful to avoid hostile animals back in the day. Humans cannot judge up/down sounds as well. Incidentally, the Buick used a derivative of the subwoofer design in the Emira. No box, just a isolated "infinite baffle" woofer with a resistive membrane. This was later developed into the "fresh-air" subwoofer (by Erik Thorsel of Australian based, Bluac) that is used in our Emira and the Volvo XC among others. Some things never change........

I have heard many of the old school car audio systems with simplistic audio components (The Buick Grand National car) and I have heard the best of the new computer controlled systems. Go listen to a Lincoln Navigator with the Revel Audio System. If this does not impress you, I do not know what to say. LOL

I will keep you posted on what I direction I decide to go. A big shout out to all the contributors (Nova and Jim H) and the great ideas on this subwoofer thread. It is getting interesting.

 

[Rapture]

Hi Jim,
The Meta LS50 speaker is indeed quite nice. Although, the drivers in the Emira are NO WAY near the quality of the LS50 drivers. The (3) Emira drivers are much smaller and utilize a smaller magnet, voice coil and they use an inexpensive plastic chassis. Definitely, a budget driver. The LS50 driver is in another ballpark. (Pictures below, I may have borrowed these from another thread, sorry for not remembering the source) BUT, there is hope. I have contemplated grafting in a pair of LS50 drivers (available through a service center, I have a pair right now). This will entail significant modifications to the existing door panels. Roto tool surgery plus a 3D scanner and then newly 3D printed door panels will be necessary. Then, a full upgrade to a new A2B processor and 10 channel amplifier. It can be done and I have completed many car audio conversions such as this.

I think the more time/cost effective means of improving the overall sound in the Emira is to concentrate on the Subwoofer. My previous industry "inside" information told me that this KEF system should be quite good. Unfortunately, it did not turn out as originally planned. Lotus decided not to take their final advice and a few corners were cut. And the sound does suffer.

They did get their way with the Eletre. That sound is magnificent. I heard one in Italy last year.

My game plan on the Emira is to remove the very substandard, (thank you bean counters) 6x9 "fresh air" woofer and bypass the existing subwoofer amp. The "fresh air" concept is quite unique and when done properly, it is very impressive. The Volvo XC90 B&O system uses a "correctly designed" 11" subwoofer that might work in the Emira. I have one for testing. I have had to cut and 3D model a new port manifold to use the existing Emira exit port. A search for a replacement subwoofer amp is ongoing. Kicker (who in my professional opinion) has made and can make some very good equipment. They now offer a monaural DSP subwoofer amp with a "self learning" mode which is sort of a poor man's Audyssey home theater acoustical equalizer. This amp is better suited to a lower impedance load than the nominal 4 ohm load of the Volvo sub, but it should prove to offer much better sound. I'd like to thank Nova for turning me on to the Kicker sub amp. An Australian company "mObridge" makes some really fantastic DSP audio amplifiers. I may step up and go all in with their 9 channel DSP amp as soon as I can make the digital output of the Emira radio play nice with the digital amp. I'm pretty sure they use the same "language", some configurations may be needed.

I used to work for two of the top rated automotive audio companies in the 1990's and 2000's. I was a speaker engineer so you can understand my interest in making the Emira sound better. Upgrading the lower octaves via a subwoofer improvement is going to make a tremendous improvement. Adding sound deadening panels will help too. The front speaker staging is actually pretty good. Haphazardly adding tweeters in the A pillars is not the way to go. A coaxial speaker design (like the KEF Emira and KEF LS50 drivers) is in theory the best and easiest to make sound good in a car. Less points of sound help to improve a variety of shortcomings. An automobile is one of the most difficult listening environments to make sound good. The acoustics of a car are terrible. Carnegie Hall in NYC is widely regarded as one of the best designed concert halls in the world. Often, the use of loudspeakers is not even required. In order to make a car sound even close to a high end concert hall will require well placed loudspeakers, computer manipulation (DSP) and most importantly, a knowledgeable acoustic design team.

I too remember some impressive sounding cars on the IASCA car audio competition circuit in the mid 90's. One Buick Grand National car built by a friend of mine really was super impressive and won many sound contests. And it did not have tweeters in the A pillars or even in the dash. Without getting too technical, this car used custom modified professional "compression horn" loudspeakers mounted down low in the passenger and driver footwells. This "mechanical" time alignment made both drivers closer to equi-distant which the human ear/brain detects as arriving at the same time. Thus, Left to Right imaging was improved and a female singer sounded like she was sitting on the hood. It was uncanny. Humans have ears on the "sides" of their heads which allows for more precise L/R sound detection. This was helpful to avoid hostile animals back in the day. Humans cannot judge up/down sounds as well. Incidentally, the Buick used a derivative of the subwoofer design in the Emira. No box, just a isolated "infinite baffle" woofer with a resistive membrane. This was later developed into the "fresh-air" subwoofer (by Erik Thorsel of Australian based, Bluac) that is used in our Emira and the Volvo XC among others. Some things never change........

I have heard many of the old school car audio systems with simplistic audio components (The Buick Grand National car) and I have heard the best of the new computer controlled systems. Go listen to a Lincoln Navigator with the Revel Audio System. If this does not impress you, I do not know what to say. LOL

I will keep you posted on what I direction I decide to go. A big shout out to all the contributors (Nova and Jim H) and the great ideas on this subwoofer thread. It is getting interesting.

I'd be very interested to see if you can get that Volvo sub to fit. It's pretty tight in that cavity. I hope you can.

Do you know the specs on the different factory amps in the car, and if one can be removed and another be retained? If one is purely for the factory sub, and not used for any other functions maybe there is a shot at fitting that larger free air sub.