KEF System Casual Analysis

[Eagle7]

Hey Eagle7,

How does the Eventuri look in the flesh? This is my next purchase because it looks awesome, should give a little gain and better induction noise. Would you say it's worth the high price tag?
Installation looks straight forward - I took a wheel off + the arch liner and everything is within easy grasp.

Cheers.

The Eventuri is a work of art. It looks and feels premium. It's a shame the best looking part is hidden under the engine surround cover, although the molded silicone tube that connects it to the manifold is also a very nice piece; solid and well made. Everything about this down to the brackets is top notch first class. I'll have to wait and see what the dyno results show to say if it's worth the cost, but I suspect it will prove itself to be a very nice way to boost power and torque without touching the engine or exhaust. I just had this feeling (same feeling I had when I first saw the Emira and immediately called and placed a deposit) that this is going to be in demand once the results are published, and I didn't want to get stuck in a long back-order queue.

 

[Eagle7]

Hey Eagle7,

How does the Eventuri look in the flesh? This is my next purchase because it looks awesome, should give a little gain and better induction noise. Would you say it's worth the high price tag?
Installation looks straight forward - I took a wheel off + the arch liner and everything is within easy grasp.

Cheers.

I posted photos of it on a weight scale in the Eventuri thread. Didn't want to hijack this thread which is about KEF. On a side note, you don't have to take the wheel off or the arch liner.

 

[Porter]

Meanwhile, another Geely company is taunting us with online ads...

 

[EMIRADILEMMA]

Meanwhile, another Geely company is taunting US with online ads...

View attachment 46324

Based on my experience with the B&W system in the XC90, this should sound epically good. One of the best in-car systems I've heard along with the early 2010 B&O systems in Audis. Based on all the feedback from audiophiles on this forum, it is a pity that Lotus decided to experiment with a sound partner that's new to the market instead of going with one of the more established ones.

 

[Nova]

B&W are, IMO, a bunch of hacks of dubious talent. Very few people knew how to design speakers properly in the 70s and 80s when a lot of the underlying research and work was being done by various well known individuals and companies. B&W was among those companies but they pretty much stopped being a product and engineering driven company. They have been resting on their name recognition and producing objectively poor performing products. If a B&W car system sounds good, it's because someone else built/tuned it and rented their name, because badge engineering may be the only effective engineering they are engaged in these days.

I say this as a fan of B&W in the 90s, having owned multiple pairs of their speaker, and auditioned many more. It's truly sad what that brand has become.

 

[TomAce]

I maybe do not have an overview about the high end systems available on the market, haven't heard a B&W in the 5-series or B&O so far.

But I think the KEF audio in the Emira is still decent sounding, it's no surround sound style, but a well staged stereo setup in my eyes, especially at standstill.

After my service at Sportivo Leipzig it now sounds great in comparison, they have sorted out the issues with resonating parts near the subwoofer.

I now use the following equalizer setup:

treble: -2
mids: -1
bass: +1

I really like good recorded live-sessions as you get almost drawn into the stage.

What the system does not do is sounding, a lot of average sound systems exaggerate the bass to the point that there is no differentiation possible, bass always sounds the same, 0 or 1. I find that's kind of annoying.

So in this way the sound system is very in line with Lotus, no exaggerations, no overwhelming torque but linear power when it is needed.

 

[TomAce]

B&W are, IMO, a bunch of hacks of dubious talent. Very few people knew how to design speakers properly in the 70s and 80s when a lot of the underlying research and work was being done by various well known individuals and companies. B&W was among those companies but they pretty much stopped being a product and engineering driven company. They have been resting on their name recognition and producing objectively poor performing products. If a B&W car system sounds good, it's because someone else built/tuned it and rented their name, because badge engineering may be the only effective engineering they are engaged in these days.

I say this as a fan of B&W in the 90s, having owned multiple pairs of their speaker, and auditioned many more. It's truly sad what that brand has become.

Do you know Klaus Heinz?

He more or less reinvented the AMT which is used by loudspeaker producer as ELAC or Burmester. As far as I know even the Burmester sound systems in Porsches use the AMT for the high frequencies.

Klaus Heinz founded ADAM Audio and now has a new collaboration with his son.

HEDD Audio

Handcrafted professional studio monitors and headphones made in Berlin since 2016.

hedd.audio

There are more into studio monitors, but I think they really are engineering driven, espicially the HEDDphone is very interesting as the AMT is covering all the frequencies from bass to the highest highs.

 

[seriously]

I maybe do not have an overview about the high end systems available on the market, haven't heard a B&W in the 5-series or B&O so far.

But I think the KEF audio in the Emira is still decent sounding, it's no surround sound style, but a well staged stereo setup in my eyes, especially at standstill.

After my service at Sportivo Leipzig it now sounds great in comparison, they have sorted out the issues with resonating parts near the subwoofer.

I now use the following equalizer setup:

treble: -2
mids: -1
bass: +1

I really like good recorded live-sessions as you get almost drawn into the stage.

What the system does not do is sounding, a lot of average sound systems exaggerate the bass to the point that there is no differentiation possible, bass always sounds the same, 0 or 1. I find that's kind of annoying.

So in this way the sound system is very in line with Lotus, no exaggerations, no overwhelming torque but linear power when it is needed.

I use the same settings and turn the volume up.

 

[Nova]

Do you know Klaus Heinz?

He more or less reinvented the AMT which is used by loudspeaker producer as ELAC or Burmester. As far as I know even the Burmester sound systems in Porsches use the AMT for the high frequencies.

Klaus Heinz founded ADAM Audio and now has a new collaboration with his son.

HEDD Audio

Handcrafted professional studio monitors and headphones made in Berlin since 2016.

hedd.audio

There are more into studio monitors, but I think they really are engineering driven, espicially the HEDDphone is very interesting as the AMT is covering all the frequencies from bass to the highest highs.

I tried working with AMT tweeters maybe 10 years ago. They can definitely be used very effectively in excellent designs. However, my experience is that for the same price range, regular dome tweeters have better selection and performance, and they are more of a tried and true design with better design tool support. AMT can offer some unique performance characteristics, such as wide dispersion, but it can also have challenges, such as unpredictable diaphragm diffraction because it's not a circular shape, and lack of low end extension in a loudspeaker tweeter. In the end, it's more of a marketing thing IMO. But that's just IMO.

 

[SteveFromNY]

Has anybody considered adding a self powered subwoofer? I’m ok with the speakers, and I think adding a Kicker Hideaway 10” behind my seat should make things sound better.

 

[Davebeats]

Has anybody considered adding a self powered subwoofer? I’m ok with the speakers, and I think adding a Kicker Hideaway 10” behind my seat should make things sound better.

A few of us have

I’m happy with the results

 

[SteveFromNY]

A few of us haveView attachment 46560

I’m happy with the results

Nice! What are the specs on your setup? Did you wire into your battery, ground, and tap into the rear speakers?

 

[Davebeats]

Nice! What are the specs on your setup? Did you wire into your battery, ground, and tap into the rear speakers?

Giving credit to @KJWEmira , he has a few pictures floating around the forum that shows the panels removed

Once the panels are removed you can run a power wire to the battery in the back, and we tapped into the existing subwoofer wiring to grab audio signal.

I went with P300-10 from Rockford Fosgate, the amp has hi level signal inputs and also turns on and off (no remote wire needed), I'm sure the Kicker has similar feature

 

[KJWEmira]

Has anybody considered adding a self powered subwoofer? I’m ok with the speakers, and I think adding a Kicker Hideaway 10” behind my seat should make things sound better.

Hi Steve,

As mentioned above by a few other members, many of us have ventured down this route already.

Have a look at this thread which covers the complete audio upgrade carried out to my own Emira :-

KEF Audio Upgrade Parts - Now Available!

As promised, here are the final 3D printed versions of the front and rear speaker mounts, & Amp Mount, allowing you to upgrade your KEF audio to a far superior system. The front mounts allow you to transform from a 3" speaker to any 6.5" speaker, and the rear mounts allow you to install any far...

www.emiraforum.com

 

[SteveFromNY]

Hi Steve,

As mentioned above by a few other members, many of us have ventured down this route already.

Have a look at this thread which covers the complete audio upgrade carried out to my own Emira :-

KEF Audio Upgrade Parts - Now Available!

As promised, here are the final 3D printed versions of the front and rear speaker mounts, & Amp Mount, allowing you to upgrade your KEF audio to a far superior system. The front mounts allow you to transform from a 3" speaker to any 6.5" speaker, and the rear mounts allow you to install any far...

www.emiraforum.com

Thanks!