By Ron Lennox
No, we do not sell Car Audio…nor do we plan to. So, why are we sharing this article about the KEF speaker system in the upcoming Lotus Eletre? Let me tell you.
We are a KEF hifi equipment dealer for home audio; we love the speakers, and we use a lot of them in our high end stereo systems and a lot of us are car guys… myself definitely included. (Possibly not important, but I’ll include this info anyway). So, what’s the point? This is part of how a company like KEF can stretch out their engineering muscles and do something a little different that can ultimately help make their brand better.
It is one thing to design music playback gear like speakers for the relatively easy space that is your living room. It is all together another set of issues to try to get that kind of sound in the confines of an automobile. Just to start, there is no extra space, things have to fit where they can. They need to be very lightweight while still sounding great.
Now, let’s add a bunch of intermittent vibrations from the car moving, and then why don’t we throw in a noise level that is dozens to hundreds of times louder than the room in your house. You need to consider the engine noise, AC noise, potholes, maybe you want the windows down, and more. Now throw in a little weather; it is rarely well below freezing or over 100 degrees in your house, but these are not uncommon things in your car, the speakers need to last years and perform daily.
This is a great way to take new ideas about small drivers with lightweight materials and test them in a very harsh environment. It is also a way to take something like KEF’s Uni-Q driver technology and test its design and excellent dispersion characteristics in new ways.
So no, we are not selling car audio, or cars. We are just excited to see one of our partner companies that has a long and storied tradition of engineering excellence for the development of new concepts in audiophile equipment test their abilities in an all-new way.
By the way, in just a few weeks the all-new KEF LS60 will be on display in our hifi shop. This is a new, very small, speaker with a new version of the famous Uni-Q driver, 4 small new woofers and a lot of power all built into a very cool and small cabinet available in a few unique colors.
Learn more about this on the links below:
New Lotus SUV Gets Super-Charged KEF Sound System
Ron Lennox – Ron is VP of Business Development at BTA and is always trying to save the world from bad Hi-Fi!
