Each brand has its own legend, and KEF’s one has to start in 2007.
That year, the first collaboration between KEF and well-known industrial designer Ross Lovegrove was officially unveiled. It was a pair of flagship floor-standing speakers with exaggerated shapes, modeled as MUON. The cabinet design of FKE MUON is very sci-fi. The one-piece aluminum alloy shell, mirror-polished surface treatment, and complex and smooth curved surface shape make the appearance of MUON undoubtedly a dazzling work among many speaker products. This kind of work that perfectly blends Hi-End speakers with art design has become an important step in the history of the KEF brand.
Speaking of Ross Lovegrove, this British industrial designer is known as one of the most imaginative contemporary designers. Not only KEF, he has also designed products for well-known companies such as Apple, Sony, LV, and AirBus. Most of the works present natural beauty and the future of technology. KEF also specially set up a Ross Lovegrove series to specifically list the products jointly launched with it, including not only the flagship KEF MUON, but also the consumer-level bluetooth speaker——KEF MUO. Here is a special sentence. When I first listened to MUO, I defined it as one of the Bluetooth speakers with the best sound quality at the time. It can be seen that KEF is not simply selling design, and the sound level of the product itself is still good.
The time comes to 2021, KEF’s Ross Lovegrove series adds another product, which is a true wireless earphone product——KEF Mu3.
Nowadays, it is not uncommon for traditional audio manufacturers to launch true wireless headset products. The product form of true wireless must be the mainstream trend of subsequent consumer audio. KEF’s launch of true wireless headset products at this node is obviously already half a step slower, but it will The brand’s first true wireless headset product is placed in the Ross Lovegrove series, which also shows how much KEF attaches importance to it.
With a well-known industrial designer, it is naturally a unique product shape. It can be said that the overall design of KEF Mu3 is indeed the most elegant and unique one of the true wireless earphones I have seen so far. You can see many shadows of Ross Lovegrove’s works. The graceful curved outline and silver-gray shell are like a future battleship, ready to go, and there is also the signature of “Lovegrove” on the inside of the charging case to highlight the identity.
The design of KEF Mu3 actually gave many traditional audio manufacturers a revelation, that is, the shape of true wireless headphones is not only available in A and B. It is natural to choose a public model to save costs, but it is more worthwhile to invest in a new design. We advocate. On KEF Mu3, I saw the uniqueness that belongs to KEF, and this uniqueness will also become a powerful advantage for Mu3 in the competition of the same category.
Open the charging case and you see the main body of KEF Mu3, which uses a “bean-like” cavity design. The cavity shell style is consistent with the charging case, and the size is not too large. The official data is 24.5mm x 17.5mm x 26.3mm, it can be worn on the ears more comfortably, and there is a physical button on the left and right cavities, corresponding to different functional operations, such as the left cavity click to switch the noise reduction mode, the right cavity Body click to play and pause, double click to cut the song, long press to adjust the volume, etc. Compared with touch buttons, the advantage of physical buttons is more direct button feedback, which reduces the chance of false touches. However, the use of such push-type physical buttons on true wireless headsets also has disadvantages, that is, it will cause certain It’s painful to wear, not to mention that the buttons of KEF Mu3 are outside the cavity. When pressed, it is equivalent to squeezing the earplug cavity into the ear, which will cause some discomfort. Therefore, it is recommended to choose appropriate size eartips for relief.
In general, the overall texture of the KEF Mu3 is still in place. Not only the shell is handled delicately, but the damping of the shaft is also maintained very well. There is a certain amount of damping from opening to full opening, and it will not shake at all. Many high-priced true wireless headset products may not be able to do it.
As a true wireless headset with an official price of 1888 RMB, KEF Mu3 is naturally equipped with the standard feature of today’s high-end true wireless headsets-active noise reduction. KEF Mu3’s active noise reduction has three modes: noise reduction on, noise reduction off and transparent mode, which can be cycled by clicking the button on the left earphone.
Although the function is there, the active noise reduction effect of KEF Mu3 is not ideal, at least there is a significant gap with Bose QC Earbuds, AirPods Pro, Sony WF-1000XM3, and its low frequency noise elimination is not complete. For example, the roar of the subway when commuting. Even if you wear KEF Mu3 and turn on the noise reduction mode, you can still hear obvious low-frequency noise. Sometimes I even need to increase the volume deliberately to ensure an acceptable listening sound. surroundings. Not only the noise reduction mode, the KEF Mu3’s performance in the transparent mode is also not good, with a strong sense of distortion, and this is the case. The active noise reduction function of Mu3 earphones cannot be its main selling point. My personal speculation is that KEF Mu3 should be the reason for the limitation of the volume of the earphone. It is impossible to integrate more microphones into the cavity, which directly leads to the presentation of the noise reduction effect.
There is another point that I think is a pity, that is, KEF Mu3 does not support wireless charging. This is a bit inappropriate for a true wireless headset priced at 1888 RMB. However, in terms of battery life, a single headset of KEF Mu3 can maintain 9 hours of music playback time (noise reduction is on), which is quite satisfactory to me. The charging case can provide an additional 15 hours of battery life, so that the overall battery life of the KEF Mu3 is 24 hours, and it also supports 5 minutes of fast charging, which can quickly provide users with 1 hour of playback time.
The sound unit of KEF Mu3 uses an 8.2mm dynamic driver. It only supports SBC and AAC in the Bluetooth encoding format. The sound performance will highlight the low-frequency energy and mid-frequency lines, and it is more restrained in the presentation of human voices. Will pay more attention to the naturalness and thickness of the human voice, and will not deliberately narrow the position of the human voice to create the feeling of “poison”. The low frequency part should be regarded as the strongest place of KEF Mu3 energy. The strength is very strong, but the dynamic aspect is slightly weak. This is also a common problem of many true wireless earphones in terms of sound. After all, size and power supply have certain limitations. In terms of the overall sense of hearing, the tuning style of KEF Mu3 is more lively and dynamic. The tri-band is more biased towards the middle and low frequencies, and can be ranked in the forefront in the shaping of the sound field. You can hear the existence of the human voice and the instrument. A certain distance, but it also makes listening to some poorly recorded concerts feel a little hollow.
In the process of actual use, the performance of KEF Mu3 basically satisfied me. It also uses dual-channel transmission technology, which can greatly reduce the delay rate. The measured delay is 103.5ms (test data under the Android model). There is basically no problem with shooting mobile games, so you can rest assured here.
KEF Mu3 has something that shines in my eyes, and it also has something that I regret. The unique design and detailed ingenuity make KEF Mu3 different from other true wireless headphones, whether it is the brand of KEF or the well-known Ross Lovegrove. Designers, they all attached a halo to KEF Mu3, giving it its own unique charm. Maybe it is not perfect under the halo, but sometimes a word of “like” is enough.
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