What's Inside the KEF R11s? | Quality or Garbage?

I have a pair of KEF 103/3’s from the 80’s and they are built like a tank. I had to take one apart to replace the binding post and was very impressed with the way were braced and put together.

Crossover is actually pretty good quality, Clarity Cap on tweeter which is the most important part for good components. Plus the Kef R range measure really excellent. You'll find speakers costing many times the price with nowhere near the crossover engineering put in. For off the shelf speakers these are a home run, although DIY is where the real value and quality comes into play.

GREAT video my friend 😊👍.... You did an incredible job between managing taking apart the speaker... The tools... and the camera. I've done that before and I know that it is CRAZY hard.

I’ve had these speakers for a while. I purchased them after multiple auditions comparing them with similar priced speakers from the likes of B&W, Q Acoustic, ATC Etc. I was impressed by their transparency, dynamic capability, inert cabinet, driver configuration and ability to retain excellent tonality at low listening levels. They represent high value, high performance, outstanding build quality and aesthetics and offer uncompromising ‘bang for your buck’. I’ve no idea of the quality of the components used to fabricate the crossover network, I just know it works. If Kef have cut corners with the crossover components, which I doubt, it will have been because they were attempting to keep the retail price competitive. I’ve not seen these speakers dissected prior to this video. It’s not a task that I’d undertake myself. I’ve always regarded those speakers as ported, which they are. Vut, until I saw you open them up, I didn’t realise that only the 2 inner bass compartments are ported. The 2 outer compartments are sealed. That’s really interesting. Goes some way to explaining their bass weight, yet precision and agility. If I had to criticise them, I’ve found they lack a little in ‘mid-bass punch’. I listen to a lot of female vocal trance, with it’s synonymous 120BPM. They do punch, but lower down, in the stomach, not the chest!

People saying the quality of the components being subpar are those poor rich people that got baited into buying a Reference 5 or insane B&W 801, of which yes and likely, the components are of a better build quality, but it's nowhere close or worth fourfold the price. It's just the idea that counts to these people, and that's why they will tell from any other speaker that they're 'bad quality' when in reality they are practically just as good.

That Uni-Q trim ring isn't designed to just cover up the screws of the drivers. The trim ring is called the Shadow Flare. Surface tension causes sound energy to travel along the front surface (baffle) of a loudspeaker cabinet causing diffraction. Upon reaching the edge the energy re-radiates acting like a series of additional drivers along the edges of the cabinet. This re-radiated energy competes and interferes with the current driver output. The result is time-smearing that impairs clarity and diminishes soundstage. The problem is multiplied the greater the distance between the edge of the cabinet and the driver. This becomes problematic with mid-range and HF drivers, such as the Uni-Q driver array, because they are inherently smaller than the LF drivers and therefore leave greater space from driver edge to cabinet edge. The Shadow Flare acts like a waveguide for the Uni-Q effectively narrowing the cabinet width. The Uni-Q Mid-Frequency driver acts as a waveguide for the High-Frequency driver. The combination of the Shadow Flare and the surface design of the MF driver completes a waveguide that attenuates diffraction to an inaudible level at the listening position. Shadow Flare elevates the standard trim ring beyond aesthetic dressing to an integral performance component.

The gauge of wire is fine. In terms of comparing to speaker wire, the reason it needs to be thicker (but let's be honest, most of us run too large-gauge wire for our purposes) is to keep resistance low as distance increases. For short runs, like on the inside of an enclosure or other very short distances, using smaller gauge is perfectly fine, as the length of wire is also very small, so cumulative resistance is kept low regardless. Same for tuning: The ports might seem short, compared to how we usually think of them on subwoofers or larger speakers, but as the airmass in the enclosure goes down, and tuning frequency goes up, port length goes down. Usually you can look at the -3 dB point of the bass in the speaker, and the port tuning will be somewhere around that. IMO they seem to have made sensible choices for the internals, and as you say the quality is there in the most important bits, the drivers and the enclosure.

Cool video. Btw Can’t get around physics no matter what your mind wants to think. Those leads are more than enough for the length of the run. especially with you using 12 or 14 gauge to the speaker.

thanks, glad to have seen this, i have the kef r3, have to believe they are built to this quality too, they sound good as well.

First time watching one of your videos. Very informative and enjoyable. Thanks for your hard work. 🙏

Great video!! Interesting to see how they are made

can't go wrong with KEF, they make quality products

Good video not sure I would take apart my speakers. As for Cross-overs its a common area to put in less quality parts because its generally not seen. I just ordered a set of the Meta 3 which kef states they have improved the crossover components using cleary capacitors. I am sure you will still see iron-core inductors and sand caps. That's just the breaks. One can do a complete cross-over redesign, but the warranty will be gone. I myself just may do that. I had the R3 and found them ear-bleeding fatiguing. I auditioned the new Meta, they have made strides in improvements. I am waiting on the indigo blue. Good video.

Great video! Yes Xover parts make a big difference but like everything else KEF has to meet a price point and those would cost another $1000+ by the time they hit the retailer using some top shelf components. It really is worth it IMO if you really enjoy a speaker and want to keep them. Even buying more expensive speakers likely have same issues. Enjoyed your video!

You can say that about 90% of the commercial speakers out there. “Better crossover parts needed”. Honestly I’ve tried No-Rez from GR-Research in place of the cheap damping material and it helps. Parts express has there version. The one thing I noticed which impressed me about Canton speakers is that the internal wire is always soldered to the drivers and binding posts.

For the love of all that’s Holy. Please get an extension bit driver for your drill before you damage a speaker or cabinet with the spinning chuck. ☮️

Very good video. I was wondering what is inside the Kef speakers. I used to own Kef small bookshelf speakers. They sounded very good to me.

The main purpose of shadow flare is to extends the waveguide effect of Uni-Q. The tweeter no longer has line of sight of the cabinet edges, creating a ‘shadow region’ at the points where the potential for diffraction is highest, minimizing the acoustic impact to negligible levels. In other words it's main purpose is for better sound quality.

Fun video! I'm considering buying the Meta version of these and so I found your video very informative.

nice review and the internals is good to see whats inside