Official Kef LS50 owners thread

I'm still stuck on LS50's vs 107's. I usually pick whichever speaker is currently playing, haha! I guess that's a good thing. I mean, I play the LS50's and I'm like "yeah, these are good...I can live with these."

Then I play the 107's and I'm like, "yeah, i really like these. why would i ever get rid of these?"

And back and forth, back and forth. Wish I could keep them both. I COULD but wouldn't feel right about it. Not right now. In the future when the money situation is (hopefully) a little different, sure.

I find the highs and mids adequate on both. The LS50's are a little better, but can also sometimes sound a little "pinched" or smaller in scale to me for some reason...may be amplification and/or positioning. I'm only giving them 40 wpc and have them sitting on a credenza. The bass, of course, 107's hands down. The LS50's are $400-1,200 cheaper (depending on what I can sell the 107's for).

For now, I get to live with both until April-ish (tax return time). We'll see at that time.

I would LOVE to hear some Harbeths sometime. Can't get enough of these British speakers!

You could sell both sets of speakers and buy the R700's or R900's of course...
 
Man. The fact that they are this close for you and yet the LS50's are not being optimized makes me think that you'd be blow away by hearing them at their best. The best investment I made when I had my LS50's was a pair of 27" tall Skylan stands. They made a big difference in the low end and just overall presence of the speaker. Also, the best I ever heard my LS50's was with the Job225 and Pre2 combo. That fast amp just sounded amazing with the LS50s.

I think if you can dial in the LS50's... you'll cash in on the 107's being sold. My 2 cents.

- Woody

I can relate to that because I know it wasn't an easy choice for me when I had the 107s and the LS50s. My 107s were completely restored too, so it closed the gap. But they are close enough to consider one over the other. For me it was the clarity, treble prowess and stupendous imaging that sold it for me on the LS50s. That and I was in a small room. I can definitely see how one might choose one over the other though.
 
I've got them setup and I've been listening to them for a few hours now. First impressions are very positive! Right off the bat, I was struck by the deep and articulate bass. The passive LS50s have great bass, too, but the wireless models take it even further. This is the first time I've had adequate bass from just a pair of speakers in this room. Very impressive.

The most striking difference I have experienced between these and the passive models would be that the passive models have a haze that these don't. These seem to sound more coherent and more "together". There's a better definition of instruments and vocals.

Listening to these, I basically think, "They've taken a great thing and made it even better". All of the qualities that the passive LS50s are great at, these seem to be better at.

I'll definitely write more once I become more used to the sound, but for now, I am quite happy about the decision. I can tell it was the right way to go.
 
This is my first post on this forum.

I use my LS50's in a dual purpose 2 channel/Home Theater system (with completely separate 2 channel and HT signal paths).

I downsized to LS50s from Paradigm Studio 100 v5 when my daughter was born 16 months ago, and I'm confident that in it's current configuration, my system sounds better than ever with these LS50s (in a much less expensive system).

Their placement on the stand is dictated to a certain extent by our 16 month old daughter that's currently terrorizing our house, but their distance from the wall and the room treatments were carefully calculated considering SBIR acoustic effects, the location of first reflection points relative to the main listening position and the effectiveness of the room treatments at specific frequencies. Also, the speakers are sitting on Auralex MoPad XL isolators angled up 3° directly at ear height.

Main system (bonus room):
KEF LS50 front L/C/R
KEF Q100 surround L/R
Mirage BPS-400 Subwoofer (dual opposed 12", sealed, 400 watt RMS) HT Subwoofer
Velodyne SPL-800R Subwoofer (Crossed @80Hz from front L/R channels) 2 channel Subwoofer (crossed over to main HT sub @ 40Hz for HT)
Denon AVR-X3200
Wyred4Sound STP-SE Preamp
Blue Circle BC-24 tube hybrid 2 channel amp
Outlaw 2200 mono amp for center channel
Cambridge Audio DACMagic + DAC
Oppo BDP-83 Universal Blu-Ray Player
XBOX One S (4K Blu-Ray)
Vizio P70 (4K)
Sound Application CF-X Power Conditioner
Various cables, Bybee AC purifiers
GIK Acoustics treatments all around

IMAG1575.jpg


IMAG1569.jpg


Also, I've often heard that the LS50s are power hungry. I have no issues with driving them effortlessly to very loud levels in my smallish room, but I have an Adcom GFA 7807 on it's way shortly, so I'll be able to test them out with some serious power (450 watts @ 4 ohms) to see how they like that.
 
This is my first post on this forum.

I use my LS50's in a dual purpose 2 channel/Home Theater system (with completely separate 2 channel and HT signal paths).

I downsized to LS50s from Paradigm Studio 100 v5 when my daughter was born 16 months ago, and I'm confident that in it's current configuration, my system sounds better than ever with these LS50s (in a much less expensive system).

Their placement on the stand is dictated to a certain extent by our 16 month old daughter that's currently terrorizing our house, but their distance from the wall and the room treatments were carefully calculated considering SBIR acoustic effects, the location of first reflection points relative to the main listening position and the effectiveness of the room treatments at specific frequencies. Also, the speakers are sitting on Auralex MoPad XL isolators angled up 3° directly at ear height.

Main system (bonus room):
KEF LS50 front L/C/R
KEF Q100 surround L/R
Mirage BPS-400 Subwoofer (dual opposed 12", sealed, 400 watt RMS) HT Subwoofer
Velodyne SPL-800R Subwoofer (Crossed @80Hz from front L/R channels) 2 channel Subwoofer (crossed over to main HT sub @ 40Hz for HT)
Denon AVR-X3200
Wyred4Sound STP-SE Preamp
Blue Circle BC-24 tube hybrid 2 channel amp
Outlaw 2200 mono amp for center channel
Cambridge Audio DACMagic + DAC
Oppo BDP-83 Universal Blu-Ray Player
XBOX One S (4K Blu-Ray)
Vizio P70 (4K)
Sound Application CF-X Power Conditioner
Various cables, Bybee AC purifiers
GIK Acoustics treatments all around

IMAG1575.jpg


IMAG1569.jpg


Also, I've often heard that the LS50s are power hungry. I have no issues with driving them effortlessly to very loud levels in my smallish room, but I have an Adcom GFA 7807 on it's way shortly, so I'll be able to test them out with some serious power (450 watts @ 4 ohms) to see how they like that.

Wow, nice work. Not enough people consider acoustics in a listening space, and with a speaker like the LS50, you need to take due care to hear what it's capable of. That system must sound excellent. Thanks for sharing.
 
Had my LS50's for a while, but over Xmas I reconfigured the system. Swapped from a Mac 2100 to a Crown XLS2500 and added a Velodyne sub woofer. I have never played with subs before it was a $50 CL investment. It's an older model but I guess it was very expensive in it's day. The biggest changed was the XLS2500 the speakers just came alive, the sub is adding just that little bit at the bottom end. I was always happy with the speaker but now it is finally WOW.

Graham
 

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Day 2 with the LS50 Wireless..

Today I didn't spend a ton of time listening. I had a lot of homework and studying to do so a lot of my time was taken up by that. What time I did have with them I spent tweaking them and tuning the EQ. I really wanted to get my subwoofers tuned and running with them so that's what I did. I still have some work and experimentation to do but it's at least functional. More importantly, I busted out the tape measure and got everything placed with precision.

Interestingly, my frequency response measurements showed a huge dip in the upper treble region (say, around 10-15kHz) when the LS50s were not placed perfectly. But, when you get the distance to the walls and also the listening position right in the middle, you get a perfectly flat treble response. It makes me think that placement is very critical to good treble response. Imaging too, of course.

Anyway, now with them placed precisely equal to each wall and the listening spot, with the subwoofers tuned and the EQ set, things are sounding pretty damn good. I don't think I have found the perfect settings for everything yet, but it is getting there.

So far I would have to say that in terms of sound the wireless LS50 is a phenomenal speaker. The sound is engaging, it's smooth, clear and detailed. They sound way, way bigger than they look. The passive LS50s had a little bit of that small speaker sound, but not these.

Functionally speaking there are a few small items I would have liked. One is lit buttons on the remote. I like to listen in the dark so having lit buttons would be helpful. Having built-in Apple Music capability would have been great too, as that is the streaming service I subscribe to (and personally I think it is the best sounding out of all the services out there). Also, a source indicator on the app would be nice. But, I generally only use one source so that isn't much of a problem for me.

Overall though these are small gripes. This is a speaker of the future and it sounds like it too. It's marvelous. And the best part of this switch for me? I was already really happy with the passive LS50s, so to get more of that great thing is just awesome.
 
This is my first post on this forum.

I use my LS50's in a dual purpose 2 channel/Home Theater system (with completely separate 2 channel and HT signal paths).

I downsized to LS50s from Paradigm Studio 100 v5 when my daughter was born 16 months ago, and I'm confident that in it's current configuration, my system sounds better than ever with these LS50s (in a much less expensive system).

Their placement on the stand is dictated to a certain extent by our 16 month old daughter that's currently terrorizing our house, but their distance from the wall and the room treatments were carefully calculated considering SBIR acoustic effects, the location of first reflection points relative to the main listening position and the effectiveness of the room treatments at specific frequencies. Also, the speakers are sitting on Auralex MoPad XL isolators angled up 3° directly at ear height.

Main system (bonus room):
KEF LS50 front L/C/R
KEF Q100 surround L/R
Mirage BPS-400 Subwoofer (dual opposed 12", sealed, 400 watt RMS) HT Subwoofer
Velodyne SPL-800R Subwoofer (Crossed @80Hz from front L/R channels) 2 channel Subwoofer (crossed over to main HT sub @ 40Hz for HT)
Denon AVR-X3200
Wyred4Sound STP-SE Preamp
Blue Circle BC-24 tube hybrid 2 channel amp
Outlaw 2200 mono amp for center channel
Cambridge Audio DACMagic + DAC
Oppo BDP-83 Universal Blu-Ray Player
XBOX One S (4K Blu-Ray)
Vizio P70 (4K)
Sound Application CF-X Power Conditioner
Various cables, Bybee AC purifiers
GIK Acoustics treatments all around

IMAG1575.jpg


IMAG1569.jpg


Also, I've often heard that the LS50s are power hungry. I have no issues with driving them effortlessly to very loud levels in my smallish room, but I have an Adcom GFA 7807 on it's way shortly, so I'll be able to test them out with some serious power (450 watts @ 4 ohms) to see how they like that.

Welcome Nick. Over at AVS you mentioned you had got a Dirac unit, have you had a chance to play with that yet? Was it a no-go?
 
Welcome Nick. Over at AVS you mentioned you had got a Dirac unit, have you had a chance to play with that yet? Was it a no-go?
Unfortunately the motherboard in my Asus Zenbook crapped out over the holidays (conveniently a couple months after the warranty was up) and I haven't replaced it yet.

Right now my DDRC-22D is in my desktop system with my KEF Egg Wireless and Totem Kin 8" Sub. It does an amazing job, but those speakers are unfortunately very limited without the ability to high pass at 120Hz or so (they run full range no matter what, even when a subwoofer is connected). I'm really looking forward to plugging the 22D into my main system, but it'll have to wait until I pick up another laptop.

I'm also in the process of upgrading my bedroom system (I just picked up a pair of Polk Audio LSi 9 with upgraded crossovers and now I'm on the hunt for a new sub). It never ends, so it might be a couple months before I pick up a new laptop.
 
Unfortunately the motherboard in my Asus Zenbook crapped out over the holidays (conveniently a couple months after the warranty was up) and I haven't replaced it yet.

Right now my DDRC-22D is in my desktop system with my KEF Egg Wireless and Totem Kin 8" Sub. It does an amazing job, but those speakers are unfortunately very limited without the ability to high pass at 120Hz or so (they run full range no matter what, even when a subwoofer is connected). I'm really looking forward to plugging the 22D into my main system, but it'll have to wait until I pick up another laptop.

I'm also in the process of upgrading my bedroom system (I just picked up a pair of Polk Audio LSi 9 with upgraded crossovers and now I'm on the hunt for a new sub). It never ends, so it might be a couple months before I pick up a new laptop.

Oh hey Nick, I didn't realize this was you. I'm the gentleman who sold you the LSi9s.
 
Oh hey Nick, I didn't realize this was you. I'm the gentleman who sold you the LSi9s.
Hey! Small world.

Unfortunately I put those LSi9s up for sale tonight (at the urging of my wife). The tweeters were way off axis in my bedroom system on those 24" stands so I picked up 30" stands to get the tweeters on axis.

They sound fantastic on the 30" stands with the tweeters pretty much right at ear height, but they're a little top-heavy on the 30" stands with my 16 month old daughter running around.They were a lot sturdier on the 24" stands.

If they don't sell quickly, I'm going to have to put some effort into trying to fill those stands (or picking up fillable 30" stands) and maybe using a bunch of blu tak or something to somewhat secure the speakers to the stands.
 
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Hey! Small world.

Unfortunately I put those LSi9s up for sale tonight (at the urging of my wife). The tweeters were way off axis in my bedroom system on those 24" stands so I picked up 30" stands to get the tweeters on axis.

They sound fantastic on the 30" stands with the tweeters pretty much right at ear height, but they're a little top-heavy on the 30" stands with my 16 month old daughter running around.They were a lot sturdier on the 24" stands.

If they don't sell quickly, I'm going to have to put some effort into trying to fill those stands (or picking up fillable 30" stands) and maybe using a bunch of blu tak or something to somewhat secure the speakers to the stands.

No problem at all, you'll be able to get your money back at the very least. Filling the stands and using blue-tak would probably do the trick, I think.

They definitely do sound fantastic, I was listening to them for a bit before I put them up for sale and I was kind of surprised that my friend wanted to let them go. Hopefully, they work out for you in the end. I think it'll be tough to find something around that price range that sounds as good as they do. But your daughter comes first!

For the sub, what are you after? Something cheap and cheerful or are you looking for something quality?
 
Well I'm always on the market for something that's both cheap and quality!

Especially since the birth of my daughter I've been buying a lot of used gear. I have a cheap Earthquake SUB-80x (8" downfiring, front ported, 150W RMS) in there right now, but it's not doing a good job of keeping up with the LSi9s, so it's for sale. The bedroom is definitely more of a "budget system." Having said that, those LSi9s don't exactly perform like your average budget speakers, although I did get them for a budget price. :thumbsup:

I just missed out on a used Martin Logan Dynamo 1000 (12" compact sealed, 500W RMS 1000W peak) for $220 CDN by about an hour on kijiji on Friday. That definitely hurt as that's exactly the type of sub I'm looking for. Tight & tuneful yet powerful enough to crank it up on occasion when I have the house to myself. I'm definitely partial to sealed subs. That would have made for a budget system of a lifetime for those speakers and that sub.

If I can sell these LSi9s (which my wife would definitely prefer), I'll probably try to find a good deal on a pair of used tall towers for the bedroom as towers are usually quite a bit more stable than bookshelves on 30" tall stands. Depending on what I end up with, I might not need a sub in there right away.
 
Well I'm always on the market for something that's both cheap and quality!

Especially since the birth of my daughter I've been buying a lot of used gear. I have a cheap Earthquake SUB-80x (8" downfiring, front ported, 150W RMS) in there right now, but it's not doing a good job of keeping up with the LSi9s, so it's for sale. The bedroom is definitely more of a "budget system." Having said that, those LSi9s don't exactly perform like your average budget speakers, although I did get them for a budget price. :thumbsup:

I just missed out on a used Martin Logan Dynamo 1000 (12" compact sealed, 500W RMS 1000W peak) for $220 CDN by about an hour on kijiji on Friday. That definitely hurt as that's exactly the type of sub I'm looking for. Tight & tuneful yet powerful enough to crank it up on occasion when I have the house to myself. I'm definitely partial to sealed subs. That would have made for a budget system of a lifetime for those speakers and that sub.

If I can sell these LSi9s (which my wife would definitely prefer), I'll probably try to find a good deal on a pair of used tall towers for the bedroom as towers are usually quite a bit more stable than bookshelves on 30" tall stands. Depending on what I end up with, I might not need a sub in there right away.

Ah man, I hate to be that guy but it was me who ended up with the Dynamo. I run a distributed bass system with three subs and when I saw an opportunity to upgrade I jumped. Figured it would be a perfect partner with the wireless LS50s and it definitely suits them well. I was gonna say that I have a spare subwoofer now as a result but, now I wouldn't feel quite right offering that to you considering why. Sorry Nick! If you do happen to see another one, definitely snap it up. It is a good sub.
 
Ah man, I hate to be that guy but it was me who ended up with the Dynamo. I run a distributed bass system with three subs and when I saw an opportunity to upgrade I jumped. Figured it would be a perfect partner with the wireless LS50s and it definitely suits them well. I was gonna say that I have a spare subwoofer now as a result but, now I wouldn't feel quite right offering that to you considering why. Sorry Nick! If you do happen to see another one, definitely snap it up. It is a good sub.
Haha I had a feeling when I saw it in your signature. Well done, that's the kind of deal that doesn't come up too often (or ever). I had a fair chance at it, I saw it the night before but it didn't really register as the price was so low. By the time I saw it again and realized what it was, it was already gone. I might switch things up in my other systems and move my Rythmik L-12 into my bedroom system, but I haven't decided yet. I don't really think I need that much sub in my bedroom, I have my eye on a Dynamo 700 that will probably do the trick (for $130 more) :mad:.
 
Every day it's LS50 that or LS50 blah, blah, blah. Enough already! I just placed my order for a pair and I'm so looking forward it.
I hope no one took offense to my intro. Just kidding. I'm anxious to do battle with my ATC 7&11s.

R1

Since I got the LS50s, the SCM11s has been boxed since, its either the 50s are THAT good or I'm just too lazy to unboxed the 11s...the jury is still out :jump:
 
I'm in the same predicament, almost. I guess I expected the skies to open after reading so many +reviews. Don't get me wrong, they are really good but there's hundreds of really good speakers. I was " Oh Boy" new speakers and now I'm like meh. I'm on the fence. It's possible some AK'er may get a deal in the near future. I tend to undersell myself. I'll see how the week goes......
 
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