More details for KEF Audio

[Gooner]

I’m currently in discussion with a very well regarded installer about an upgrade.

We’re going to try keeping the existing speakers but changing over the amp, adding a 10” sub, plus install sound deadening.

At the moment the view is to disconnect the centre speaker entirely as in his experience these can cause more harm than good. My only hesitation is that I believe the centre speaker to be one of the 3 Uni Q units in the car and it would be a shame to waste it.

There is an option to give it a go with the centre speaker but I’d need to upgrade the amp and adding a a bit of additional labour time which we may not end up going with after testing.

Before I make a call on which way to go, I wanted to see if anyone had already carried out what ok looking at (either with or without the centre) and had a view at all?

 

[Honcho]

I’m of the opinion that no matter how good the sound system it doesn’t matter if it’s in a car as loud as the Emira. With a better system you could turn up the volume and get good sound but also long term hearing loss.

 

[seriously]

I’m of the opinion that no matter how good the sound system it doesn’t matter if it’s in a car as loud as the Emira. With a better system you could turn up the volume and get good sound but also long term hearing loss.

Sound deadening will likely help this

 

[Subw00er]

I’m currently in discussion with a very well regarded installer about an upgrade.

We’re going to try keeping the existing speakers but changing over the amp, adding a 10” sub, plus install sound deadening.

At the moment the view is to disconnect the centre speaker entirely as in his experience these can cause more harm than good. My only hesitation is that I believe the centre speaker to be one of the 3 Uni Q units in the car and it would be a shame to waste it.

There is an option to give it a go with the centre speaker but I’d need to upgrade the amp and adding a a bit of additional labour time which we may not end up going with after testing.

Before I make a call on which way to go, I wanted to see if anyone had already carried out what ok looking at (either with or without the centre) and had a view at all?

I used to compete in car audio and I think your installer is likely taking the right approach. The amp in this car is clearly pretty "sub" par and a good amp can make a crappy speaker sound pretty good, so that should really help. When looking at amps, choose one that tends to be on the "warmer" side as opposed to "accurate and bright or forward" as it will tone down the shrillness of the KEFs a bit. I've listened to a bunch of KEFs from best buy specials to their high end Blade. To me, their only decent speaker as far as I can tell is the R1 bookshelves, and even the well regarded LS50 is really pretty crap. Their tweeters tend to be very forward and harsh to my ears. Anyway, I highly recommend you get a "softer" amp.

The sub section of the amp is also severely underpowered and even if it had power, I presume it would still stink based on its proximity to the car vent - so either block that path to the speaker or just make another box (a lot easier).

With respect to the center speaker, I've played with this a bit in the past. I think I had a 3 way "mixed mono" setup at one point but AudioControl used to (circa 1990's) make a better LR mixer for the front speakers to give you a center channel. I doubt its still made, but if you can find an ESP-3, that would be a fun piece to play with. It had some other spatial effects processing stuff too. Maybe there is something modern out now that does this?! With all of that said, unless you are really into the hobby side of car audio, perhaps the center channel is realistically best left unpowered. You will have to buy another amp and deal with its associated costs (distribution blocks, mounting etc). You could always add this later with little affect on the current install - just let the installer know so he doesn't cut all the wires off indiscriminately or something. Let us know how it works out!

 

[Evotion]

The setup is lacking in power but overall I am now enjoying it enough to leave it alone.
It got better from the off after a number of months seemingly to bed in.

 

[KJWEmira]

I’m currently in discussion with a very well regarded installer about an upgrade.

We’re going to try keeping the existing speakers but changing over the amp, adding a 10” sub, plus install sound deadening.

At the moment the view is to disconnect the centre speaker entirely as in his experience these can cause more harm than good. My only hesitation is that I believe the centre speaker to be one of the 3 Uni Q units in the car and it would be a shame to waste it.

There is an option to give it a go with the centre speaker but I’d need to upgrade the amp and adding a a bit of additional labour time which we may not end up going with after testing.

Before I make a call on which way to go, I wanted to see if anyone had already carried out what ok looking at (either with or without the centre) and had a view at all?

Hi Gooner,

Where are you based? The reason I ask is because I've changed all the speakers in my Emira, added tweeters to the A Pillars, added a 10" sub and an additional amp + added sound deadening to the whole of the rear and both doors - it's now a proper sound system!

Should you wish to come and have a listen to my system before spending any money then just shout - I'm in Kent, Maidstone area.