KEF - R2 Meta LCR Speaker (Each) - Walnut

Sound: As a Left & Right Channel pair, Kef R2 Metas produce an impressive level of audio fidelity that brings the theater into your home and envelops you in a bubble of immersion and energy with incredible separation, imaging, and clarity. Sound comes from multiple points around the room and not just from the front of the cones, as they seem to disappear and send effects far higher and wider than what their smaller appearance suggests - an absolute beast of a speaker. Build Quality: They are fairly heavy for their size (34 lbs) and you can feel the robustness and build quality in the wooden cabinet as they feel solid to the touch when handled and look gorgeous in the walnut finish (the walnut isn't reflective or glossy.) Usage/Utility: I'm utilizing a pair in a vertical L/R configuration with no center channel, and the phantom center that is created is unreal. It's wide and crystal clear, as I can't discern that there is no speaker underneath the TV from any seating position from the main viewing seating area roughly 10 feet away. I've seen these advertised as an LCR speaker but couldn't find much info for people who have tried them in that configuration. I can confirm that they absolutely rock as an L/R, but highly recommend a subwoofer to unleash their full potential. Final Thoughts: Amazing in a Left and Right channel pairing that produces incredibly high quality sound. If you need speakers that can be placed close to the wall or in a nook or media cabinet, these are an easy fit for that use case. Pair them with a high quality subwoofer and let them shine. Can't recommend these enough. *NOTE* I have no experience with them as just a center, but imagine it would be of the same quality as what I experienced in a pair. System: Kef R2's are paired with a Marantz Cinema 70S, an Emotiva BasX A5 Power Amp, and an SVS SB3000 Revolution subwoofer. Listening was 80% movies/20% gaming.

Great sound quality and precission for the vocals compared with my svs center used earlier. Good vocal positioning for all listeners in room.

This is well on its way to being a surprise MVP in our recent upgrade. We purchased this in hopes that it would be well matched to our equally new R3 Metas. We did very very well in this regard. I would recommend this speaker to *anyone* given its clarity (consider the intended use and importance in dialogue, particularly, with movies). I'm a know-nothing with regard to audiophile terms and equipment, of course, but I *think* that the KEF Uni-Q driver serves it very well here. I would therefore caution anyone planning its purchase to mount it carefully to height - as I did, exhaustingly, both to listener and with the R3's we got - or to take time to aim it well. I am a slightly hearing impaired veteran and this is opening up the front soundstage again for me. I'm just not sure what higher regard or qualification to hand to you for this speaker: it is making things clear again. I'm just not sure how much it's involved musically as I have not been playing SACD, DVD-A or similar sources yet. But for the primary function of a Center channel speaker, this R2 absolutely excels.

The sound quality is excellent. The only con is size, its big and you have to make room for size and weight but for the quality of the sound this model puts out, we will accommodate!

I had the KEF Q Series center channel for about a week and decided that it was muddy to my ear. I now have the KEF R2 Meta and it is way worth the price. Smaller than the Q Series LCR, the R2 Meta is way more crisp and clear. Conversation sounds like conversation. Now just to be clear, this will not clean up bad source; but, it will make it clearer. If the source is good, this makes it even better and easy to hear. Oh, I forgot to mention, I do have a hearing impairment so I am very sensitive to nuisances in sound. This unit is well worth the money.