More details for KEF Audio

[OneThreeOne]

Nope, if you click on the link you will find it was part of a discussion about the KEF sound system.

of course if Tom wants to copy and paste it into another thread then that’s fine but I don’t have priviledges to do that.

Haha... dug through the threads, makes sense now.

 

[NicolasB]

I have already solved audio in previous Lotus.

View attachment 20802

... But illegal

 

[Porter]

I tested the stereo a bit on my test drive last month.

The radio audio was garbage, the tuner seems to output very compressed audio. Totally fine for very casual radio or listening to a news report, but very bad for fidelity. Radio as a format is fairly limited anyway, but some manufacturers use a bunch of DSP trickery to "expand" the radio signal a bit and restore the perception of audio fidelity where none exists in the source signal. Honestly maybe the original ICE team at Geely just used some "on-chip" radio capability that was built into whatever components they had available and called it done, rather than prioritizing it. BMW is a bit of an outlier on this, they really do seem to focus on radio quality as a requirement for their in-car systems, and it shows in the experience.

Plugged in and using Android Auto (wired), the experience was completely different. With a high quality streaming source (Tidal HiFi, lossless) it sounded legitimately hi-fi, particularly in the midrange. Female vocals were balanced and well-textured, and the overall presentation lacked the odd 3D DSP reverb weirdness that some manufacturers introduce in their attempt to use all the speakers in a 5+ channel "surround" setup.

I can't comment too much on the stereo imaging aspect (soundstage) because I didn't spend enough time with it, but it did seem to have some rudimentary center channel mix separation, and possibly some time alignment in play. I would have to have switched seats to learn more about what it is (and isn't) doing, and I lacked the time with it to do that. It did seem quite front-biased in presentation, which is perfectly fine with me. I personally prefer a well-defined front soundstage image for stereo source material, and I'm not interested in hearing sounds coming from beside or behind me unless it's a surround mix. Even with headphones, I want a well structured front "head stage" to match the original recorded intention.

I didn't get a chance to explore the bass response much, but noted that it wasn't absent. It didn't seem particularly thin or anemic but it wasn't immediately remarkable in terms of impact or presence either. Which might be a good thing, some car systems are just excessive with the bass to overcome road noise and they end up sounding muddy. I haven't played enough with the Emira/KEF setup to know whether it could be considered full range below 80hz or not, but what I heard didn't jump out at me as obviously wrong. I'd love to see an RTA graph from the cabin.


I suspect there will be some tuning opportunities for this thing once people figure out how to directly interact with the Harman DSP unit. If it's determined that there are big gaps in the audio tuning, maybe down the road someone will come up with a set of optimized config settings that can be loaded to that unit, after working with an RTA in cabin to figure out appropriate correction factors. That's a long way off but something to look forward to.

 

[donskibeat]

Can anyone tell me what file formats the Emira recognizes for audio on USB memory stick? can't seem to find it mentioned in the manual online

 

[Eagle7]

This is what the manual says:

I would expect "any recognised audio file" to include AAC, mp3, wav, and it would be great if it also supports aif and m4a.

 

[donskibeat]

Yes I found that part in the manual but it isn't exactly helpful hence asking the question, hoping someone who already has an Emira might be able to provide a more accurate answer so I can start preparing my music ready in advance. .MP3 is pretty much a given but not great for quality so was hoping it would support .FLAC or .AAC so any confirmation of that would be appreciated if anyone knows. Thanks

 

[GetawayDriving]

... But illegal

Fair! Although in the Eliges it's pretty hard for a cop to see inside the car.

 

[duff]

.FLAC or .AAC so any confirmation of that would be appreciated if anyone knows. Thanks

Yes, you can play FLAC from a USB stick.

Also more generally when playing off USB I found 50% volume to be loud. On a wet motorway at 70mph 60-70% volume covers almost all road, tyre, wind, engine, etc noise.
Pushing above gets way too loud for me - everything is relative but my family usually think I have the volume way too loud if they get in my daily.
Clarity is good at the higher volumes and playing with the EQ you can crank the bass in a strong and clear rather than body shaking boomy way - think nearfield audio monitors for mastering rather than a club sound system.

When using CarPlay the attainable volume seems to be lower - although this may be something I have set or something that gets ironed out in the next update (end of Jan/early Feb) which I believe will bring some infotainment tweaks/fixes..

 

[donskibeat]

@duff - thank you

 

[VL3X]

Didn't one of our forum members reach out to KEF directly about the initial complaints? Any response yet or still radio silence (no pun intended)?

 

[ADC]

Didn't one of our forum members reach out to KEF directly about the initial complaints? Any response yet or still radio silence (no pun intended)?

Guess they ran into some impedance...

 

[FederGigant]

Didn't one of our forum members reach out to KEF directly about the initial complaints? Any response yet or still radio silence (no pun intended)?

That was @Eagle7 and his last report was that the KEF guy on the phone promised that he will reach out to their engineering team and come back to him thereafter, which never happened. And now it seems as if @Eagle7 is not very active on here anymore and we might never get any update, if there ever was one.

 

[VL3X]

That was @Eagle7 and his last report was that the KEF guy on the phone promised that he will reach out to their engineering team and come back to him thereafter, which never happened. And now it seems as if @Eagle7 is not very active on here anymore and we might never get any update, if there ever was one.

Maybe someone from KEF showed up in a Lotus at his door and threw a bag over his head? He's probably tied to a pre-prod Emira seat at this very moment forced to endure deafening KEF sound tests 24/7 until he learns to truly appreciate and respect the power that is KEF!

All jokes aside, @Eagle7 was active last Friday. I'm sure he'll be back to update us if/when there's an update to give.

 

[Eagle7]

LOL yeah I'm active, just not as active as before. I've greatly reduced my engagement with the forum mostly for my health and sanity, but I check in now and then to see how everybody's doing.

To my great disappointment and surprise, after several inquiries, there hasn't been a single communication back from KEF after that initial first contact. I never would have expected that kind of lack of response from a company with the pedigree of KEF. I honestly have no idea what's going on there. You would think since this is the debut of their entry into the automotive market, they would at least be somewhat interested in talking to their customer base about it. If they are communicating, it certainly isn't with me.

Everything about this car seems to be like something out of Area 51 or the Lockheed Skunkworks. It may exist, it does exist, it may show up, it may not show up. The word "soon" was found etched in a strange looking material out in the desert, and it doesn't appear to be like anything known to man....

(In the voice of Rod Serling) "A remarkably plain and ordinary looking door with the word "Customer Service" on it. Upon entry, there's a lone person behind a desk. All inquiries are welcome, they just won't be acknowledged. And if pressed, they may be acknowledged... soon. If you do get any actual information, it's not likely to be accurate."

I want to make a complaint. "That office is down the hall." The only door down the hall is marked "Complaints and arguments". Once inside... Is this the Complaints and Arguments department? "No, it isn't" But it says so on the door! "No it doesn't".

I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do drugs....I don't remember falling down a rabbit hole.... I think I'm awake... it doesn't feel like I'm dreaming... and yet it seems like I'm on some kind of trip here. How did this happen?

The normal rules of the universe seem to be warped and non-functioning with this car, this company, and anything associated with it. This is the strangest car forum I've ever encountered. People are going through various stages of agony, some bordering on toxic denial. A very few have gotten their fix, and have the idiot grin of the satiated on their face, but everyone else is in various states of.... something. It seems nearly impossible to quit. Some are trying, but they keep coming back. Some are curled up on the sidewalk, asleep. Some are staggering around raging at no one in particular, or maybe just the sky. Some are sitting with their back against the wall, muttering in a low voice to no one. If you lean close enough to hear what they're saying, they seem to be repeating the same word... "emira". The car seems to incur a bizarre obsession with detail like nothing else I've ever seen. I know more details about this car than my own actual car I've had for the last 5 years. Why?? What the hell have they given us?

I went down the hall and looked, but there's no door with the word KEF on it. The only other door has an EXIT sign above it, but when you open it, it's the entrance you walked through in the first place. Why is Hotel California playing continuously on the sound system?? Help MEEEEE.

 

[VL3X]

The normal rules of the universe seem to be warped and non-functioning with this car, this company, and anything associated with it. This is the strangest car forum I've ever encountered. People are going through various stages of agony, some bordering on toxic denial. A very few have gotten their fix, and have the idiot grin of the satiated on their face, but everyone else is in various states of.... something. It seems nearly impossible to quit. Some are trying, but they keep coming back. Some are curled up on the sidewalk, asleep. Some are staggering around raging at no one in particular, or maybe just the sky. Some are sitting with their back against the wall, muttering in a low voice to no one. If you lean close enough to hear what they're saying, they seem to be repeating the same word... "emira". The car seems to incur a bizarre obsession with detail like nothing else I've ever seen. I know more details about this car than my own actual car I've had for the last 5 years. Why?? What the hell have they given us?

This wins my favorite post thus far on this forum! Glad you're still with us but also encourage taking a break now and then. I try to do the same. This car has driven us mad, when it's the car that we should be driving!

 

[TomE]

Years ago I read a short story about an alien invader who tried to subdue humankind by distributing oddly shaped stones. People were strangely compelled to pick them up, turn them over and stroke them repeatedly until they fell into a trance, unable to put them down. Sound familiar?

 

[Wonza]

As I was driving the other day, I looked over at the tweeters on the passenger side. It looked empty in there. So looked at the spec online and it seems that there is only 3 speakers plus a subwoofer. 2 in the doors, one I think on the centre dash and one subwoofer in the rear. But no tweeters . Still sounds good (only if streaming through Spotify). For a moment I really thought they forgot my tweeters.

 

[Porter]

As I was driving the other day, I looked over at the tweeters on the passenger side. It looked empty in there. So looked at the spec online and it seems that there is only 3 speakers plus a subwoofer. 2 in the doors, one I think on the centre dash and one subwoofer in the rear. But no tweeters . Still sounds good (only if streaming through Spotify). For a moment I really thought they forgot my tweeters.

The tweeters in the KEF system are integrated coaxially into the midrange driver. That's the purpose of the "Uni-Q" driver technology, to provide a single point source for the sound.

 

[Wonza]

The tweeters in the KEF system are integrated coaxially into the midrange driver. That's the purpose of the "Uni-Q" driver technology, to provide a single point source for the sound.

I see. So you’re saying 2 way coaxials. I’ve always thought and know that 2 way component speakers are far superior for sound staging. Also why did they put in a tweeter grille when there is no tweeters.

 

[JimH]

I see. So you’re saying 2 way coaxials. I’ve always thought and know that 2 way component speakers are far superior for sound staging. Also why did they put in a tweeter grille when there is no tweeters.

What Is Uni-Q Technology? | KEF UK

Explore KEF's Revolutionary Uni-Q Technology, providing unparalleled audio precision to deliver immersive sound experiences for your home.

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Tweeter grilles are there for the base model audio system when launched……