Kef LS50....A technical tour de force.

[CnoEvil]

Thanks to the AVI forum, I spotted this link, which may explain why they are so well regarded: http://www.kefamerica.com/july12/LS50%20White%20Paper.pdf

 

[Native_bon]

Well it seems a lot is said of these speakers I may have a demo & hear for myself.. Cause so many hifi stuff have said to be a tech tour de force but turn out not to fit the sums of its parts.. Eg cambrigde Audio 840C player.

 

[CnoEvil]

Well it seems a lot is said of these speakers I may have a demo & hear for myself.. Cause so many hifi stuff have said to be a tech tour de force but turn out not to fit the sums of its parts.. Eg cambrigde Audio 840C player.

IMO. Hifi forums shouldn't be about telling people what to buy, but coming up with good products and giving them a reason to listen.

 

[Native_bon]

Well it seems a lot is said of these speakers I may have a demo & hear for myself.. Cause so many hifi stuff have said to be a tech tour de force but turn out not to fit the sums of its parts.. Eg cambrigde Audio 840C player.

IMO. Hifi forums shouldn't be about telling people what to buy, but coming up with good products and giving them a reason to listen.

Yes Cno thats why am going to have a demo & listen myself. I did hear them once in a shop playing in the background & sounded very refined & detail, but was not a proper demo.

 

[PEAYEL]

So cool. Read the paper and have not read so detailed a paper since I left the field of sound engineering. Although I concentrated on studio/recording room design and build, many of the techniques/measurements used here are those that I used to implement. It must be said that we used spreadsheets and maths, not software modelling to achieve great acoustics.

 

[Covenanter]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting this.

Chris

 

[CnoEvil]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting this.

Chris

You're welcome.

I was hoping people would read it, as it's very interesting. The LS3/5A certainly seemed to loom large in the project.

 

[clinton333]

:cheers:

 

[plastic penguin]

Thanks to the AVI forum, I spotted this link, which may explain why they are so well regarded: http://www.kefamerica.com/july12/LS50%20White%20Paper.pdf

Had a breeze thru and interesting read. The only issue I have with reports (files) such as these is regardless of how good they are, they won't match every system or appeal to all ears.

In addition, what gets up my hooter a little is how Kef bang on about the drive units used in the BBC studio speakers all thoughs decades ago. No doubt they used Kef, but exactly the same as the LS50s drivers?

 

[manicm]

Had a breeze thru and interesting read. The only issue I have with reports (files) such as these is regardless of how good they are, they won't match every system or appeal to all ears.

In addition, what gets up my hooter a little is how Kef bang on about the drive units used in the BBC studio speakers all thoughs decades ago. No doubt they used Kef, but exactly the same as the LS50s drivers?

If you 'breezed' through properly you would have noticed that KEF states that technically they share virtually nothing with the BBC speakers and their variants.

Does any speaker match any system or appeal to all ears? No I didn't think so either. Having said that although the LS50 has been designed for ruthless neutrality, some reviews have hinted that it's rather sweet in tone.

 

[plastic penguin]

Had a breeze thru and interesting read. The only issue I have with reports (files) such as these is regardless of how good they are, they won't match every system or appeal to all ears.

In addition, what gets up my hooter a little is how Kef bang on about the drive units used in the BBC studio speakers all thoughs decades ago. No doubt they used Kef, but exactly the same as the LS50s drivers?

If you 'breezed' through properly you would have noticed that KEF states that technically they share virtually nothing with the BBC speakers and their variants.

They do keep banging on about the relationship between the LS50s and the BBC monitors, mentioned in the review "The marketing blurb goes on about connections to the fabled BBC LS3/5a mini monitor (which used KEF drive units)....

I suppose it's good marketing for the gullible types.

 

[manicm]

plastic penguin - yes they bang on the history of the LS3/5a and variants, but I repeat KEF states in that paper the LS50 shares just about nothing with them technically.

They were 'banging' on for comparison with the LS50. Also remember the LS3/5a most definitely was not a speaker for everyman, although its design was licensed by Spendor et al.

Good marketing for which gullible types exactly? Every hifi maker puts out a white paper for their significant new products, so why single out KEF? I would say that the LS50 is targeted to a narrower audience than say a Monitor Audio Silver 2 or 6 which sandwich the KEF pricewise. The white paper seems targeted to those who'd like to know the history and background leading up to the LS50. I don't see any hype there.

 

[plastic penguin]

plastic penguin - yes they bang on the history of the LS3/5a and variants, but I repeat KEF states in that paper the LS50 shares just about nothing with them technically.

They were 'banging' on for comparison with the LS50. Also remember the LS3/5a most definitely was not a speaker for everyman, although its design was licensed by Spendor et al.

Good marketing for which gullible types exactly? Every hifi maker puts out a white paper for their significant new products, so why single out KEF? I would say that the LS50 is targeted to a narrower audience than say a Monitor Audio Silver 2 or 6 which sandwich the KEF pricewise. The white paper seems targeted to those who'd like to know the history and background leading up to the LS50. I don't see any hype there.

Of course all manufactuers promote their new products to the hilt, I don't have a problem with that. But why bang on about a speaker that's over 40 years old? Cause the word BBC looks impressive.

Sorry, doesn't wash with me.

"Those" types probably think 'Mmmm... BBC. These must be good...'

 

[manicm]

Of course all manufactuers promote their new products to the hilt, I don't have a problem with that. But why bang on about a speaker that's over 40 years old? Cause the word BBC looks impressive.

Sorry, doesn't wash with me.

"Those" types probably think 'Mmmm... BBC. These must be good...'

Ok, so perhaps they're indulging in a bit of nostalgia and hype, but it's not totally unwarranted. The BBC employed the speaker designed by folk who would work for KEF. If this speaker had no merit then, I repeat, Spendor and a few other well-respected makers would not have licensed this speaker design from KEF.

So don't only accuse KEF of hype, accuse Spendor and others as well. KEF is just bringing the concept to the 21st century and making it available to perhaps a somewhat wider audience. It's still no budget speaker, so one should never equate it, in any carnation, to perhaps the speaker equivalent of a NAD 3020.

 

[chebby]

The BBC employed the speaker designed by folk who would work for KEF. If this speaker had no merit then, I repeat, Spendor and a few other well-respected makers would not have licensed this speaker design from KEF.

The LS3/5A was designed in-house at the BBC's R&D centre in Kingswood Warren. No doubt KEF (as the supplier of the drivers) had people involved in the process but it was still a product of the BBC, designed for BBC internal usage first and licensed production for public purchase second.

Other companies (Rogers. RAM, Goodmans, Chartwell etc.) got a license from the BBC to make the LS3/5As, not from KEF.

Spendor and Harbeth were companies founded by people who had done the research for the BBC on their monitors. (Spendor = Spencer Hughes and wife Dorothy. Harbeth = Dudley Harwood and wife Elizabeth.) They made a range of BBC licensed designs and others derived from them.

I don't recall KEF making a production LS3/5A for publc purchase (despite their involvement). I could be wrong but there is no listing for one in their comprehensive online 'museum' until the 1980s when a KEF Constructor Series kit called the CS1A ('based on' the LS3/5A) appeared.

 

[The_Lhc]

Thanks to the AVI forum, I spotted this link, which may explain why they are so well regarded: http://www.kefamerica.com/july12/LS50%20White%20Paper.pdf

Had a breeze thru and interesting read. The only issue I have with reports (files) such as these is regardless of how good they are, they won't match every system or appeal to all ears.

That's not really a concern for a technical white paper though is it?

In addition, what gets up my hooter a little is how Kef bang on about the drive units used in the BBC studio speakers all thoughs decades ago. No doubt they used Kef, but exactly the same as the LS50s drivers?

They've never said they did use the same drivers or anything else for that matter.

 

[BigH]

Thanks to the AVI forum, I spotted this link, which may explain why they are so well regarded: http://www.kefamerica.com/july12/LS50%20White%20Paper.pdf

Had a breeze thru and interesting read. The only issue I have with reports (files) such as these is regardless of how good they are, they won't match every system or appeal to all ears.

In addition, what gets up my hooter a little is how Kef bang on about the drive units used in the BBC studio speakers all thoughs decades ago. No doubt they used Kef, but exactly the same as the LS50s drivers?

Yes I believe you are correct, the old drivers were made from paper but the LS50s are Kevlar which has its problems, probably why I did not think they were good at lower volumes.

 

[The_Lhc]

Yes I believe you are correct, the old drivers were made from paper but the LS50s are Kevlar

No they aren't.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Of course all manufactuers promote their new products to the hilt, I don't have a problem with that. But why bang on about a speaker that's over 40 years old? Cause the word BBC looks impressive.

Sorry, doesn't wash with me.

No other speaker manufacturers mention links to a studio/company do they?

 

[Frank Harvey]

...the old drivers were made from paper but the LS50s are Kevlar...

That is B&W...

 

[chebby]

Yes I believe you are correct, the old drivers were made from paper but the LS50s are Kevlar ...

...and the 'old drivers' (KEF B110s) had cones made of Bextrene.

 

[BigH]

OK thanks I got that wrong, I knew B&W used Kevlar.

As Kef say "The Uni-Q driver array selected for the LS50 is only similar to the LS3/5A in that it has a 5” nominal diameter midrange unit.

 

[Frank Harvey]

...and the 'old drivers' (KEF B110s) had cones made of Bextrene.

I was always under the impression they were polypropelene...

 

[chebby]

...and the 'old drivers' (KEF B110s) had cones made of Bextrene.

I was always under the impression they were polypropelene...

They were Bextrene.

 

[Sospri]

...and the 'old drivers' (KEF B110s) had cones made of Bextrene.

I was always under the impression they were polypropelene...

They were Bextrene.

I wouldn't know, but unless you were involved in the design or manufacture, how can you be so certain. Don't believe everything that you see on the internet..............