[Hobbsmeerkat]

We recently took a peek into a Kef R11..





All electrolytic caps, a few air-core inductors, but lots of iron core inductors. A shame too, cuz these are $2400 *each*...
But they have really boosted mids and bass on axis, that doesn't budge in the horizontal off-axis while everything above 1200Hz falls off quickly. At 30-40° off-axis, the bass/mids are 5-6dB higher than the rest of the response. (Bass crossover is in the 350Hz range, with 1st order on the mids & 3rd order slope on the bass.)

The woofers are also very a thin aluminum, and with all the tight spaces there's not much room to work with. We decided against upgrading them, as there's far too much risk of damage..

I accidentally dropped one of the mounting screws onto a woofer and that dented it.. 
It fell off the magnetic screwdriver maybe 2-3 inches over the woofer as I was reaching for it...



And if this has happened to me, we can only see it being a bigger issue for end-users even trying to remove the beauty rings or screws from the drivers..

We've had similar issues with our Desktop mini woofers getting dented or punctured. Fingers, screwdrivers, chidren, pets. Etc

They sure look cool, but man, there's just too many problems and risks with these..

[Letitroll98]

The old Meadowlark Audio used good quality wire and components in the crossovers that Paul built to a price point, then he would put out a Hot Rod version with cost no object components for a few hundred more.  Still he didn't like the compromises he had to make with passive crossovers.  He's now making cost no object custom installations with all phase perfect lossless digital crossovers in active speakers.

[Early B.]

We recently took a peek into a Kef R11..

This is why it's important to know what you're buying, and I'm glad we're peeking under the hood of speakers with threads like these.

We all understand the need to build to a price point, but when manufacturers put the same cheap parts in their higher-end speakers than the lower ones, then you gotta question whether or not it's a good purchase decision. It's not a bad thing, just important for consumers to know. For instance, car manufacturers often use the same engine for their mid-size and luxury cars. In that case, the consumer is clearly paying a premium for the look and feel. However, with speakers, we expect to pay for a better look and sound, and cheap crossover parts is one indicator of the quality of sound that you can expect.
 

[Tyson]

Often times more expensive models will have more expensive drivers, a more elaborate (expensive) cabinet and/or more bass (because it's bigger).  Rarely have a I seen anyone use better quality parts in any of their speakers.  If it happens, it's usually with the smaller companies.

[kwhitman]

How about Tyler Acoustics   I watched a video where Danny recommended their T1 Studio Monitors right out of the box.  On the video he said no cheesy parts, pull them out and hook them up. 

Sounds like a good option to me for a guy wanting out-of-the box simplicity.

[wushuliu]

We recently took a peek into a Kef R11..

Ew. I mean they could have at least made some effort in layout presentation.

There are $500 speakers that have better quality crossovers these days. I just don't get why one would use such cheap parts in this price range. Would they really take that much from the bottom line?

[mkrawcz]

Here is the crossover for my old $13k pair of Focal Electra 1038be.

[CSI]

This thread reminds me of my retail audio days. We had an open house featuring the work of a local speaker mfg. whose output was low volume but very high quality. One of our "guests" told the builder he could duplicate his speaker for far less money. Instead of being insulted, the builder just smiled and said, "I encourage you to go ahead and try". Wonderful answer which shut the guy up very nicely.

[Hobbsmeerkat]

How about Tyler Acoustics   I watched a video where Danny recommended their T1 Studio Monitors right out of the box.  On the video he said no cheesy parts, pull them out and hook them up. 

Sounds like a good option to me for a guy wanting out-of-the box simplicity.

Danny has been helping Ty with crossover on more recent models. Many of the older models were calculated based on electrical parameters, so not really ideal, and danny has redesigned crossovers for some of th

The T1 Studio monitor is a killer speaker, in both design and performance. I'd easily put them on par with our fully upgraded X-LS, but they honestly have a much better off-axis response thab our own.

Often times more expensive models will have more expensive drivers, a more elaborate (expensive) cabinet and/or more bass (because it's bigger).  Rarely have a I seen anyone use better quality parts in any of their speakers.  If it happens, it's usually with the smaller companies.

For sure, but I would have expected to at least see some polycaps on the tweeter circuit to pair with the air core inductors. Not sure what the similarly designed Q150 bookshelf had..
But it never ceases to amaze me the quality of parts in supposedly high-end speakers.

Here is the crossover for my old $13k pair of Focal Electra 1038be.

Thats exactly what I would have expected to see in the R11, but I've seen similar in speakers like the Wharfdale Lintons, and other $1500-2000 speakers.

[wushuliu]

This thread reminds me of my retail audio days. We had an open house featuring the work of a local speaker mfg. whose output was low volume but very high quality. One of our "guests" told the builder he could duplicate his speaker for far less money. Instead of being insulted, the builder just smiled and said, "I encourage you to go ahead and try". Wonderful answer which shut the guy up very nicely.

? KEF is owned by a Hong Kong battery manufacturer with 8,000 employees...

[Danny Richie]

How about Tyler Acoustics   I watched a video where Danny recommended their T1 Studio Monitors right out of the box.  On the video he said no cheesy parts, pull them out and hook them up. 

Sounds like a good option to me for a guy wanting out-of-the box simplicity.

Those things are loaded with top level parts (we supply them). For a stand mounting speaker that is ready to play right out of the box those are going to be really tough to beat.

[Doublej]

Lookie here, air core inductors and poly caps.


https://rslspeakers.com/products/cg5-bookshelf-speaker/?attribute_pa_color=black

[Jan_Mc]

Zu will use clarity caps if you pay for them.

[Danny Richie]

Lookie here, air core inductors and poly caps.


https://rslspeakers.com/products/cg5-bookshelf-speaker/?attribute_pa_color=black

And nice looking cabinets too.