If you’re looking to outfit your audio system with an out of the ordinary speaker, you might be interested in KEF’s new Blade loudspeaker.

The KEF Blade is a revolutionary loudspeaker combining unmatched precise sound imaging and elegant design. The KEF Blade, which is the result of five years of intensive R&D efforts, will be branded as the first product for KEF’s 50th anniversary which KEF celebrates this year.

The KEF Blade is the evolution of KEF’s widely acclaimed Concept Blade which was first shown in 2009.  It offers the highest quality sound reproduction available through KEF’s Single Apparent Source technology. Single Apparent Source technology ensures the entire frequency range radiates from one point in space, creating a sound picture that is virtually indistinguishable from a live performance. KEF Blade is further enhanced by a glass-reinforced composite cabinet that matches the speaker’s high performance sound quality with elegant industrial design.

KEF’s Single Apparent Source ensures that individual driver sections – for bass (LF), midrange (MF) and treble (HF) – of a multi-way loudspeaker work together and produce sound-fields that appear to come from the same point and place, which is especially important at the crossover frequencies where the sound output switches between drivers. The Single Apparent Source is a perfect extension of the new, fully pistonic KEF Uni-Q MF/HF array, and includes the bass drivers for the first time. Together they combine to form a seamless point source driver array that can handle the entire frequency range.

Four 9” (22.5 cm), newly developed bass drivers deliver the KEF Blade’s distortion-free low frequency response. The engineering principle behind their configuration is simple – let the huge forces of each moving cone cancel each other out by arranging them in opposed, symmetrical pairs – but its effective implementation is fraught with engineering obstacles. The force produced by the bass drivers is so strong that the massive rear magnets have had to be bonded directly to each other to obtain the full benefit of this technology. They are side firing so their acoustic center coincides with those of the all-new, latest generation Uni-Q midrange driver and tweeter – forming the ground breaking Single Apparent Source technology.

The KEF Blade incorporates many of the core aspects of the award winning Concept Blade, which was created through a partnership with KEF and Eric Chan of New York based ECCO Design. The design team was challenged to effectively accommodate KEF’s Single Apparent Source configuration without making the cabinet’s upper portion look too bulky. The solution was to produce a cabinet that grows gradually from the base, expands in the middle then tapers to the top. The cabinet’s graceful curves are enclosed in an exceptionally rigid and heavy cabinet made from polished glass reinforced composite. The parabolic curvature of the enclosure increases cabinet rigidity even further and the drivers are fully decoupled, meaning that sound is only generated from driver movement and not from the cabinet. The resulting design gives KEF Blade its elegant sculptural form, epitomized by the single key line that emanates from the base, around the drivers and over the apex. 

The KEF Blade is available in a standard Gloss White and Gloss Black, but will also be available in an array of custom colors including Garnet, Sapphire, Grigio, Racing Red, Racing Blue, Pale Gold, Orange Sorbet, Graphite, Stardust, Lemon Sorbet, Lime Sorbet and Snow White with a MSRP of $29,999 US.

For more information about KEF technologies and Concept Blade, visit http://www.kef.com/us/release/bladeloudspeaker/blade

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