KEF R8 META - PAIR

Kef R8 Meta Atmos are the Dolby Atmos speakers of the newly renewed Maidstone R Series. Designed for Home Cinema rooms, they can be placed on top of the R5, R7 and R11 Meta front speakers or, thanks to the inserts on the back, hang them on the wall. Available in pairs and in classic black or white lacquer and walnut finishes, they are the de facto crown jewel of any modern home theater application.

Description

Kef R8 Meta: the best Atmos speakers for Home Cinema

The Kef R8 Meta Atmos loudspeakers of the just renewed Kef R Series bring the incredible quality of the line to which they belong and a very high acoustic fidelity.

With R8 Meta you will give your Home Cinema system a three-dimensional, spacious, detailed acoustic result, with voices and cinematic effects more realistic than ever.

Thanks to the possibility of using these loudspeakers "free-standing", to obtain a Dolby Atmos system it will not be necessary to drill any wall or ceiling: just place these Atmos loudspeakers on the floor-standing HiFi speakers to bring all the magic of great cinema into the your living room.

Alternatively, it is possible to hang them on the wall thanks to the insert on the back of the speaker, to obtain an uncompromising 5.4.1 or 7.4.2 audio system.

The angled front panel makes it the perfect match for a wall-mounted surround speaker or a floor-mounted Dolby Atmos® module.

The Kef R8 Meta Atmos speakers are extremely performing thanks to the famous "concentric technology" of the Uni-Q drivers. Thanks to this award-winning patent, here in its latest and most refined version, combined with the innovative revolution of Metamaterials, the sound image generated is precise and broad.

The result is a loudspeaker recommended by the most authoritative reviewers worldwide. R8 Meta is a flexible solution for anyone who wants to bring an immersive cinematic experience into their home.

Kef R8 Meta… not only Atmos!

With the possibility of wall mounting (everything is already included in the package, no additional brackets are needed), Kef R8 Meta can be used as a surround, side or rear speaker in any Home Theater installation, for a result of the highest level.

In fact, thanks to its natural inclination with respect to the support surface, once hung on the wall of the room like a simple painting, R8 Meta will be natively turned about 25 degrees towards the listener.

Alternatively, symmetrically, when placed on top of another speaker, be it a bookshelf or floorstanding speaker, this Atmos speaker will bounce sound off the ceiling, bringing Dolby Atmos affect into your home without even breaking ceilings or requiring a customized installation by specialized personnel. Kef R8 Meta Atmos can be placed on the front speakers as well as on the rear ones.

Installation is really easy. If you're already familiar with Atmos speakers and have set up the receiver, it's a breeze. Otherwise Dolby publishes installation guidelines and Kef includes clear instructions.

The use of 2 R8 Meta Atmos modules in 5.1.2 configuration is a good compromise if the situation of the room requires it (system in the living room, in an apartment building, where it is not possible to drill holes in the ceiling, for example). But to create a “complete” Dolby Atmos system, it is suggested to equip yourself with at least four modules because with films characterized by elaborate sound design (as in the film “Gravity“) there is really a lot to hear… To obtain an immersive 3D result with reflected sound, the correct configuration is therefore at least 5.1.4.

If the amplifier is set up correctly with these speakers you will get an unprecedented three-dimensional Atmos effect as they are extremely performing and can play even at very high volumes.

The Meta revolution also comes in R8 Meta Atmos

Combining the technological innovations of the line that defines the acoustic standards of the English brand day after day and, after all, of the entire market, the R series is reborn. The heart of this renewal, which gives it the same name, is the implementation of the use of MAT™ technology, a revolutionary Kef patent, already used in Reference Meta, Blade Meta, LS50 Meta and Wireless II and in the brand new active LS60 Wireless.

In collaboration with the Metamaterials Group, Kef has developed a new type of material, obviously equipped with specific physical characteristics, which has been recognized as innovation of the year in 2020 by the magazine What Hi-Fi?

The Meta R series loudspeakers therefore enjoy a very complex structure, placed behind the Uni-Q driver, which manages to absorb 99% of unwanted vibrations and distortions – against only 60% of normal loudspeakers – for a decidedly more natural, pure, detailed and faithful than ever!

Shadow Flare and Flexible Decopuling Chassis

Another reference technology applied to these Kef R8 Metas is the Flexible Decoupling Chassis – i.e. the construction of the cabinet using a very rigid external structure but inside a damping system with softer materials, to obtain an inert chassis and therefore a sound absolutely neutral.

Finally, the Shadow Flare – the ring that connects the Uni-Q to the front – has been further optimized to minimize any diffraction created by the cabinet. Discover all the technologies of Kef Serie R Meta.

R8 Meta Atmos with the 12th generation Uni-Q

R8 Meta is to all intents and purposes a two-way HiFi loudspeaker, in a closed box, with tweeters for high frequencies and woofers for medium frequencies, mounted concentrically. This special setup forms the iconic Kef driver called Uni-Q, now in its twelfth version. Equipped with a 130 mm cone and a 25 mm tweeter, the peculiarities of this patent have always been an exceptional breadth of the sound front and an incredible level of detail.

But now it has been redesigned to integrate MAT™ technologies in the best possible way. It's easy to understand why the R8 Meta is a superlative Atmos speaker!

The new version of the famous Uni-Q equipped by the Meta R Series has been innovated starting from the frontal “Tangerine” waveguide, which makes it unnecessary to listen at the exact center of the two speakers to visualize a wide, realistic, natural and extremely uniform. Furthermore, the waveguide, or rather the "rays" that start from the center of the tweeter, also act as protection from dogs, cats and children: the tweeter is protected from crushing and breakage! With the addition of the damped and vented tweeter loading tube, high frequency performance has improved dramatically over the past, and a new low-distortion inductor on the crossover provides cleaner, deeper bass.

The rear decompression chamber absorbs unwanted distortion and vibration more than ever. This translates into great clarity and linearity in the reproduction of even the highest treble at any volume. Thanks to this patent – which gives liveliness, speed, brilliance and space to the mid-highs – the use of the R8 Meta as an Atmos speaker is highly recommended.

Crashing bass, space-age bangs, cinema the way you like it

The medium-low frequencies of Kef R8 Meta Atmos are entrusted to the midrange with aluminum cone, also revisited. Fast, powerful, detailed and equipped with a very low distortion motor, in addition to the Zeta Flex suspension which gives the driver a very large excursion and at the same time does not interfere with the angular dispersion or hinder it, thus giving full-bodied, deep and precise bass. The frequency extension of this R8 Meta has thus been greatly increased, in order to obtain a realistic and natural reproduction in films.

Meta R Series speakers for the Home Cinema system

The Meta R Series has been redesigned, starting from the reference line of the English brand "The Reference" to offer a sound so pure, so revealing, that every listening or viewing offers straight-haired emotions.

Decades of experience and Kef's unbridled passion for music and industrial design materialize in the already acclaimed R Series, which today becomes Meta. Each element has been specially designed to recreate the purest emotion of listening to music, reproducing the smallest detail with total neutrality, without adding any tonal characterization.

In your Home Cinema R8 Meta knows how to give an edge to the whole system. You can create a top-level Home Theater set-up with Kef's Meta R Series, which in fact offers everything you need to configure both a Hi-Fi system and a multi-channel system, maintaining a sound affinity but also an aesthetic one.

You can place the R8 Meta right on top of the Kef R5, R7 or R11 Meta floorstanding speakers. These three different loudspeakers from the famous Maidstone range are in fact characterized by the same Uni-Q driver and differ substantially in the bass volume.

The Kef R5 Meta are suitable for a room between 20 and 30 square meters, the R7 Meta are perfect for sound environments between 30 and 45 meters. The Kef R11 Meta, the top of the range of the Series, are the speakers for those who don't want compromises and love the most absolute and full body of movies and music, and are suitable for rooms over 40 square meters.

The line, in addition to the acclaimed R3 Meta bookshelf speakers, also includes two LCR models, R2 Meta and R6 Meta, which can be placed inside your environment both in vertical position - such as front, rear or side - and horizontally. They are therefore also perfect as center channels for Home Theater installations!

Top it all off with the right Sub!

To create a configuration suitable for Home Cinema creations, once you have chosen the main speakers and then integrated the Dolby Atmos models, all you have to do is combine one or more of the brand's active subwoofers, essential for obtaining all the punch necessary to enjoy the immersive vision of a good movie. In fact, the addition of a sub will bring the action of great cinema into your room: from the explosion of bombs to the passage of a helicopter, but also simply to listen properly to the rich Hollywood soundtracks.

For the R Series, Kef recommends installing one or more KF92 within your system, but if space is limited, you can opt for the KC62 or KUBE 8B and KUBE 10B models.

Remember that to create a balanced system it is important to combine a subwoofer with power that is always proportional to the size of the room.

Tried and recommended combinations of Kef R8a Atmos

The Kef R8 Meta Atmos loudspeakers are the ideal complement to the rest of the R Meta range, with the aim of maintaining a coherent timbre across the system, but they can obviously also be integrated into any other audio system to obtain high-level quality.

Of course, to best drive Kef R8 Meta it is necessary to have an adequate dedicated audio-video processor that is able to handle Dolby Atmos, Auro 3D signals etc ...

As for power, but also signal connections, Hifight recommends the use of Chord Company cables, starting from the Clearway series or specific cables for audio-video and custom installations.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

WEIGHT 4,5 Kg *per unit

DIMENSION (H X W X D) 174 x 175 x 259 mm with terminal*

DESIGN Two-way closed box

FREQUENCY RANGE 88 Hz – 19.5 kHz (-6 dB)

FREQUENCY RESPONSE 97 Hz – 17.5 kHz (±3 dB)

HARMONIC DISTORTION (90 dB, 1m) <1% 220 Hz and above; <0.5% 320 Hz – 20 kHz

SENSITIVITY 85 dB

MAXIMUM OUTPUT 106 dB

AMPLIFIER REQUIREMENTS 25 – 150W

NOMINAL IMPEDANCE 4 Ω (min. 3.2 Ω)

DRIVE UNITS Uni-Q Driver Array: HF: 25mm vented aluminium dome with MAT, MF/LF: 130mm aluminium cone

CROSSOVER FREQUENCY 2.6 kHz