There can be few design-led manufacturing projects in this world where the central aim is to create an ‘ultimate’. But this was precisely the goal at KEF when the company commissioned the visionary industrial designer, Ross Lovegrove, to develop with them the Muon – perhaps the most extraordinary audio speaker ever conceived.
Muon is the most remarkable achievement of sound-engineering and cutting-edge design. Rarely in the world of commercial products does one find such a sublime marriage of form, function and manufacturing integrity. Carefully tested in KEF’s highly accurate anechoic chambers, each loudspeaker is individually crafted and comes with a certificate showing its unique frequency response curve, signed by the skilled craftsman who made it in KEF’s workshop. One of the reasons for the superlative sound quality of Muon is that it functions beyond the normal range of the sound frequency spectrum. What this means is that it reproduces sound so low or so high that the human ear cannot register it. Nonetheless this sound is still there and when included in the audio-mix it has an enriching effect, making what you hear more vibrant and more real. To this extent Muon radically enhances the listener’s audio experience. The beautiful form of also sets a new aesthetic standard for the audio industry, which for too long has relied on either the ‘dumb box’ approach or over-the-top styling. Instead, Ross Lovegrove has intuitively wrapped form around sound to create a poly-sensorial convergence that gives the Muon a powerful yet elegant presence.
This product can be seen as iconic of the 21st century not only because outwardly it is state-of-the art in every respect, but because its design and manufacture would not have been possible without the latest, highly sophisticated CAD/CAM software and technology. Guided by logic and aesthetics, the is as much an extraordinary piece of sculpture as it is the ultimate sound provider – an exquisite example of British engineering and design at its very best.