Well sure, it is what it is. But R3 is still a speaker with very smooth directivity and EQ will fix the tonal balance better than radical toe-in you suggested.
These are estimated LW, ER and SP responses. This should sound ok..
Well sure, it is what it is. But R3 is still a speaker with very smooth directivity and EQ will fix the tonal balance better than radical toe-in you suggested.
I did not suggest radical toe in. I suggested they be aimed straight forward. They should be listned to 15-20 degrees off axis. That is how KEF designs speakers.
I second this. I think I've always been big fan of wider directivity speakers.But the directivity characteristics are very different, and that's probably what you're hearing.
@VintageFlanker I never listened to R3's but I have LS50's and imaging is their strong point. Perhaps it's the curved baffle which makes it so. I'm a bit confused about which Focal speakers you have. Could you clarify?
906sI'm a bit confused about which Focal speakers you have. Could you clarify?
I second this. I think I've always been big fan of wider directivity speakers.
That should definitely help. That said @VintageFlanker you might want to try pushing the area aorund 1kHz up a little futher if you still feel they are recessed in the mids. As noted earlier in the thread, it seems some R3 units have a dip in this region that KEF might have fixed in some batches. Mine had a very consistent 1K dip, on both speakers, and in both quasi-anechoic and averaged in-room measurements. As do several other measurements of the R3/R series.
View attachment 66146
Hum.
Listening to R3s right now. Played some tracks few hours after unboxing/installation.
So far: not impressed. It don't think it'll need deep investigation to find out Arias are very different speakers (I'd say not worse nor better, but definetly few in common).
On stands, these take up as much space as big floorstandings. Very, very (too) deep. And quite frankly, they kind of sound like it.
At a glance, first sighted and uncontrolled impressions:
- Need much more power than Arias (literally 10dB more on my ADI-2 to get about the same SPL)
- More bass weight against the Arias (like no contest)
- But somewhat boomy and uncontrolled at times (will have to play with bassports, there's no room to optimize positioning)
- A touch on the brighter side (not "harsh", tho)
- Seems to lack low-mids and body. Sounds almost slightly V-shaped in my room (No kidding)
- Narrower soundstage and spread, it seems way easier to audibly locate each speakers.
- Possibly more "pinpoint" imaging.
- Maybe more accurate for near-field with low-volume listening... But:
- Overall signature is somewhat boring to me.
I had the same impression when I first set up my pair. I was impatient and had extremely high expectation bias. It was a quite short session, and did not set them up properly and was also in a rush because I had a social gathering later the same day. I was not impressed because of the high expectations but at the same time there was nothing wrong with the sound, it was refined just not that amusing.
My impressions changed pretty much the next days after they had played for a few hours, I started to know them and fallen in love with their signature. As the weeks passed by I did better placement and also figured out I was running the AVR with them set as "small" and 80hz LPF, their bass was fine, but after fixing that and listened at full range WOW this bookshelf plays bass like Floorstanders. Then I made some informal REW measurements and found they reach 30hz with room reinforcement without hesitation, there is even some good 20hz output.
I'm still waiting to change the living room furniture to finally get them properly set up and after that doing Room Eq to achieve nirvana.
If you're blocking the ports on the r3, then purely on area the 2x5" beat the single 6.5, but it's also a smaller cabinet so...
But yes it could be another good option for LR as well as centre if you are blocking ports anyway. Speaking of which the uni-q's have an odd number of tangerine waveguides - meaning that they are not symmetric on the x axis when rotated. I assume this doesn't really affect using a R2C as a L/R speaker rotated 90 degrees.
As we are all well aware judging speakers without seeing in-room response is extremely unreliable. Let's wait until he posts in-room response and then we'll have a better picture.
I have some rough and casual measurements. I could try to make a better effort and try several MMM over the listening area and average. I was used to always do Sweep with REW, the first time I've read about MMM was here because of you QMuse (many thanks). Too bad I don't have a mic boom so I could also do several sweeps (like the dirac couch pattern) and average them.
@tecnogadget glad to hear the R3's are doing well in your home. If you can't find nirvana with EQ, find a guru.
I'd really suggest a low q eq at around 30 and another at 150. Play around with gentle eq in this region, it can do wonders to clear up muddiness.
MMM RTA with pink noise doesn't require a boom - you can do it while holding mic in your hand as well, as shown in this video.