Wed 8th November 2023 12:30 – 13:30. This seminar will be in person (Peel Building room 338). A teams link is also available to join online. The seminar will be followed by an audio demonstration of the KEF LS60W in the Listening Room (Newton Building room G22) 14:00 – 15:00.
Speaker
David Bosch, Senior Research & Development Engineer at KEF
“Uni-Core® might seem a wonderfully simple idea, but the engineering challenge involved in getting an uncompromised performance is immense.” – November 2022, What Hi-Fi?
Abstract
Opposing LF drivers are widely used to cancel the transmission of vibration into the loudspeaker cabinet and can further be used in full-range speakers to reduce the distance between LF and MF drivers and the width of the front baffle, improving the speaker’s directivity. This driver configuration was part of the design brief for the KEF LS60 Wireless, which also required a very slim cabinet for aesthetic reasons. This rendered the volume displacement from four regular 5.25″ LF drivers insufficient and thus prompted the design of a novel slimmer dual opposing LF driver arrangement with high excursion. The result is Uni-Core, a dual opposing LF driver array with increased excursion for any given enclosure width. It utilises a single motor with two overlapping voice coils of different diameters and its design requires a careful understanding of the two drivers’ electroacoustic behaviour to function correctly.
Biography
David works in KEF R&D developing active and passive speakers, including their driver motors and moving parts, crossovers, cabinets and DSP and has worked on LS50 Meta/Wireless II, KC62 subwoofer, LS60 Wireless, Blade and Reference Meta and lately the new R Series Meta. David has been a keen enthusiast of loudspeaker design and construction from a young age which led him to come to the UK to study acoustical engineering. His main interests are driver motor design, DSP and crossover design.