KEF Coda W Review

Introduction

As gaps in the market go, KEF is trying to fill a small one with the new Coda W active wireless stereo speaker system.

After all, this is the company that is already a front-runner where wireless stereo speaker systems at this sort of money are concerned – so how exactly does it intend to differentiate this product from its excellent LSX II LT offering and unlock an entirely different customer base?

Design

• Available in five finishes
• Primary speaker includes physical touch-controls

Comparisons with KEF’s own LSX II LT are inevitable at every stage, naturally – and where design is concerned, the Coda W is a rather more traditional-looking pair of stereo speakers than its slightly more expensive, slightly differently specified sibling.

At 285 x 168 x 268mm (HWD) these are not bookshelf- or desktop-sized loudspeakers – stands are what you need, whether they’re KEF’s own SQ1 model or something by a reputable third-party manufacturer.

And once they’re on your chosen stands, they really look the part – thanks in no small measure to the choice of five quite interesting finishes. You can choose from vintage burgundy (available only from a very few selected KEF outlets), dark titanium (which is the colour of my review sample), midnight blue, nickel grey or moss green. 

The standard of build and finish is very good, and even though the Coda W are nothing like as interestingly curvy as the LSX II LT, there’s a hint of a design flourish in the way the front baffle protrudes and spills onto the front of the top panel.

The primary speaker has some touch-controls on this part of its cabinet – they cover power on/off, input selection and volume up/down/mute (and there’s a proper explanation of what makes a speaker primary in the features section).

Features

• 200 watts of Class D power
• Extensive and wireless connectivity
• Operation via app and remote control handset

Ordinarily with active stereo speakers – those speakers that contain amplification for each individual driver and feature active crossovers – you’d expect to need to supply mains power to each one.

KEF, cleverly, has instead made just one speaker (the primary speaker) require mains power – it connects to its secondary partner via a supplied length of USB-C cable, along which it sends power as well as data.

As well as a socket for mains power, the primary speaker’s rear panel also features numerous other connections and controls. Here’s where you’ll find an HDMI eARC socket, digital audio input, line-level stereo RCA input, a moving magnet phono input on a couple of RCAs,  a USB-C slot (in addition to the USB-C connection used for joining to the secondary speaker), a pre-out for a subwoofer, a grounding post for use with the phono stage, a on/off switch for ground lift, a button to initiate Bluetooth pairing, and a system reset button.

And by way of an encore, this speaker is also where the system keeps its Bluetooth connectivity – it’s 5.4, with codec compatibility all the way to aptX Lossless.

You’ll notice there’s no mention of ethernet, Wi-Fi or network streaming. That’s why there’s no mention of Roon, Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect or similar. KEF is leaving this stuff to the LSX II LT and hopes the provision of a phono stage and top-of-the-shop Bluetooth connectivity makes up for it.

Incoming analogue information is digitised to 24-bit/96kHz standard. The input resolution of the USB-C is 24-bit/192kHz, the digital optical is 24-bit/96kHz and the HDMI eARC is 16-bit/44.1kHz. All source signals are (re)sampled to 24-bit/96kHz before being decoded to the analogue domain the speaker drivers arrays can deal with.

Those driver arrays are the 12th generation of KEF’s widely admired Uni-Q arrangement. Here it features a 25mm aluminium dome tweeter behind a complex waveguide, positioned in the throat of a 130mm magnesium/aluminium mid/bass driver. Each tweeter is driven by 30 watts of Class D power, while each mid/bass driver gets 70 watts. This arrangement is, according to KEF, good for a frequency response of 41Hz – 20kHz.

I’ve already mentioned the touch-controls on the top of the primary speaker, but KEF also supplies a little remote control handset. It duplicates the touch-control functionality (although you can scroll through your input options in either direction this way), and adds play/pause and skip forwards/backwards when streaming via Bluetooth.

And you can also control the system using a quite radically abbreviated version of the KEF Connect control app: it connects using Bluetooth, offers input selection and volume control, lets you to check for updates, and also features a balance control and simple EQ adjustment in the shape of treble cut/boost and bass cut/boost controls. It’s also where you can let the Coda W know if you’ve hooked up a subwoofer.

Sound Quality

• Positive, detailed and entertaining presentation
• Great abilities where soundstaging and frequency response are concerned
• Less adept with vinyl than might be hoped

In the main, the KEF Coda W is a vibrant, direct and very engaging listen. No matter if you serve it a 24-bit/48Hz FLAC file of James Holden’s Contains Multitudesvia its USB-C input, a 16-bit/44.1kHz CD copy of Massive Attack’s Risingsonvia its digital optical socket, or connect it wirelessly to a FiiO DAP and send Animal Collective’s My Girls using the Bluetooth aptX HD codec, it’s an energetic and positive performer.

It’s capable of creating a large and plausible soundstage, and gives every element of a recording the space it needs. It has a fair amount of dynamic headroom available, so big up- or downshifts in volume or intensity are tracked coherently. And it controls its low-frequency activity with such assurance, especially where the attack or onset of sounds is concerned, that rhythms are expressed with real confidence.

There is plenty of detail, both broad and fine, revealed at the bottom of the frequency range too – in fact, the whole of the frequency range enjoys plenty of detail where tone, texture, timbre and all the rest of it are concerned, so each stage enjoys plenty of variation. No occurrences in a recording is too fleeting or too subtle to elude the Coda W.

Frequency response is nice and even, so no area is underplayed or over-egged. The KEF is similarly adept where tonality is concerned – it’s neutral and quite natural, and much more reflective of the tone of the recording than it is of the system itself.

And despite the theoretically unpromising idea of using metal for a tweeter dome, there’s nothing edgy or glassy about the way the top of the frequency range is reproduced here – instead, there’s substance and bite and the sort of crunch that makes for a satisfying listen.

Strangely, a little of that rhythmic positivity goes astray when using the phono stage as an input. Ordinarily the vinyl format is prized to the point of fetishisation for its facility with rhythm, tempo and momentum – but a vinyl copy of Four Tet’s There is Love In Youheard via the Coda W loses some of the flow that you know is there, and it sounds fractionally lumpy and leaden as a result.

And while I’m finding minor fault, it’s worth noting the KEF sounds a little less interested and interesting at lower volumes than it does at more meaningful levels.

Playing at polite, modest or even background sort of volumes it loses a little of its vigour and starts to sound just slightly detached and remote. If you’ve turned it down in order to be able to concentrate on other things, of course, then this is hardly an issue – but it’s worth noting that other systems (including the LSX II LT) don’t exhibit this trait at all.  

Should you buy it?

FAQs