Streaming - KEF Speakers - Roon Labs
Streaming music has rapidly become a very popular choice for music lovers as part of a good sounding hi-fi system, thanks to huge improvements in streaming sound quality and the wealth of music available. The term "streaming" basically refers to the fact that you're playing music from a digital device stored elsewhere - be it your NAS drive (which can store your CD collection, high res files and other music), from online services (Tidal, Spotify, Apple Music, or the thousands of internet radio stations available), or from files stored your Mac or PC (iTunes or Media Player). Even if you have a large vinyl collections, you can "rip" these onto your Mac or PC for easy access at the touch of a button.
KEF is a British speaker manufacturer developing industry-leading products for over 50 years. KEF has received a host of awards and stellar reviews and currently offers a wide range of hi-fi speakers and AV speakers.
The flagship KEF Blade and smaller KEF Blade 2 speakers are renowned for their excellence and superb reproduction, and their advanced pioneering technologies and Uni-Q Driver Array designs have filtered down into lots of KEF’s consumer-end products, such as the KEF LS50 wireless speakers.
In 1961, KEF was founded by Raymond Cooke OBE an ex-BBC Electrical Engineer and headquartered the company near Maidstone, Kent. The company was set on the banks of the River Medway in the premises of a former metal working company, Kent Engineering & Foundry. Overtime by experimenting with new technologies and materials, Cooke aimed to produce superior acoustic quality with recordings reproduced to the exact nature of the original performance.
KEF became the first company to utilise the stability of Bextrene as a cone material, which has since been incorporated in many drivers for many leading audiophile speakers. Another major breakthrough a few years later, KEF became the first to design and test loudspeakers with computer modelling leading the industry in the digital analysis of speakers. Their revolutionary work resulted in KEF being able to match speaker pairs to within half a dB for flawless audio reproduction.
KEF eventually went on to produce their signature technology, the Uni-Q point source driver array in the next decade using NASA-developed magnets that were ten times more powerful than conventional ones. KEF stayed ahead of the game in the nineties with the advent of 5.1 home cinema recording by creating the first dedicated centre speaker in the UK, the Model 100 benefiting from Uni-Q.
Through the years, they have been developing impressive expertise in the use of advanced acoustical, magnetic and mechanical modelling techniques such as Finite Element Analysis resulting in an accuracy that was not previously achievable. Kept under wraps since the 1980s, KEF revealed their ACE technology in 2005 demonstrating the advantages of activated carbon inside a compact speaker enclosure and its effect on internal volume and bass extension.
Now five decades from the company’s inception, KEF's scientific innovation and hands-on experimentation cements their ultimate audiophile reputation and allows them to continue to lead in developing products ahead of the market. We stock the complete KEF range, from the multimedia range (that includes active speakers, headphones and earphones) to the Q series range, LS50 range, both the wired and wireless LS50, R series range, KEF Reference range and KEF Blade, along with custom install speakers and 5.1 speaker packages for a home theatre experience.
Roon Nucleus music servers are a central hub for your music, allowing you to stream your music to Roon network players (Sonos, Devialet, KEF LS50 Wireless, Meridian etc) to fully enjoy stored music, and control it from the Roon app.
Roon Labs was founded by the team responsible for the award-winning Sooloos system, Roon Lab’s aims to provide the listener with the richest and most engaging interaction with your music. Using a Roon Labs server opens up the composition, performance and recording of your music.
The start of these innovative products was in the late 1990’s, when an A&R representative, a record-label owner and a software developer got together with the problem of easily accessing their large music collections. The trio proposed a computer-based platform to that would be able to store and organise a music library giving music lovers the ability to explore their collections in a simple manner.
Nine years after the trio proposed a central database solution to music collections, they conceptualised a music server called Sooloos which was launched in 2008. Sooloos demonstrated the power of computers for accessing music. Meridian Audio subsequently bought Sooloos and two of its original founders remain to continue with product development.
In 2015, the companies agreed that the software developer behind the Sooloos needed to be spun off into a separate company which became known as Roon Labs, with the aim to bring to market software for managing and accessing a music library on any Mac or Windows PC.
The Roon software, expands the Sooloos experience, making it universally available to anyone with a computer. Roon software works by recognising devices and ports them audio which is enhanced for their individual capabilities. The central devices from Roon are the servers from their partners, including a Roon Server pre-installed or available as an option that is installable. With these products, you will be able to enjoy Roon without a PC or Mac.
Streaming and Multi Room audio is the pinnacle of simplicity and innovation. Imagine enjoying the same track in every room as you move throughout your house, or changing what you are listening to from the comfort of your sofa via an app or smartphone/tablet.
We offer a range of NAS (Network Attached Storage) servers and devices, which allow you to rip and store even the largest of CD collections to one place, in high fidelity lossless audio quality. When connected to a streamer or multi room device, you can access an entire music library at your fingertips.
Our range of digital streamers and network players let you access your digitally stored tunes, and are designed with audio quality and hi-fi principles in mind, enabling you to modernise your hi-fi system and bring streaming to your hi-fi without worrying about any degradation of audio quality.
We also offer a range of wireless adaptors, enabling you to add wireless and Bluetooth functionality to an existing hi-fi or AV setup, and start enjoying wireless and streaming audio. As always, we are always happy to offer any advice or support you may need in selecting or trying a product.