KEF LS50 Actives anyone?

[Frank Harvey]

PFM are hardly their target audience...

I would have thought anyone with £2k to spend is their target.

I wouldn't read much into it either but he/they have actually heard them.

We haven't.

That's all.

He also mentions the TAD speakers didn't do anything for him - so I'm guessing he likes a bit of character to his sound. I thought the TADs were one of the best sounding speakers at Bristol this year.

 

[Andrewjvt]

Over at PFM, one member went to the 'Indulgence Show' where, amongst many others, Kef demonstrated the LS50A.

Not a brilliant first impression but it seems to go hand-in-hand with the usual active traits of control.

Head over to:

http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.co.uk/

I wouldnt read into what he says (even though i have not read it)

I really wouldnt know how you could (in a show demo)
Prefer another amp.

Maybe hes worried the traditional hifi is being taken from him.

There is no way if well designed that they can sound worse off

 

[SemiChronic]

I suspect it'll be the usual re-quoting huge posts again and again, hours of scrolling and bitching, with a good measure of baldness thrown in too apparently.

So yes, usual rules apply 🙂

 

[jaxwired]

I'm a big fan of the passive ls50s so I'm hopeful about these. However, all small actives I've heard in the past I found disappointing and easily out performed by a carefully constructed system with passive speakers. With that said, the convenience is worth some sacrifice in SQ. I use a pair of the new sonos play 5s in my family room and really enjoy them.

 

[Andrewjvt]

I'm a big fan of the passive ls50s so I'm hopeful about these.  However, all small actives I've heard in the past I found disappointing and easily out performed by a carefully constructed system with passive speakers.  With that said, the convenience is worth some sacrifice in SQ.  I use a pair of the new sonos play 5s in my family room and really enjoy them.  

Load of misleading crap

 

[jaxwired]

I'm a big fan of the passive ls50s so I'm hopeful about these. However, all small actives I've heard in the past I found disappointing and easily out performed by a carefully constructed system with passive speakers. With that said, the convenience is worth some sacrifice in SQ. I use a pair of the new sonos play 5s in my family room and really enjoy them.

Load of misleading crap

Yes, but at least it's a full load. No partial loads here.

 

[ID.]

Over at PFM, one member went to the 'Indulgence Show' where, amongst many others, Kef demonstrated the LS50A.

Not a brilliant first impression but it seems to go hand-in-hand with the usual active traits of control.

Head over to:

http://audiophilemusings.blogspot.co.uk/

I wouldnt read into what he says (even though i have not read it)

I really wouldnt know how you could (in a show demo) Prefer another amp.

Maybe hes worried the traditional hifi is being taken from him.

There is no way if well designed that they can sound worse off

I don't think there's enough to go on to start attributing those biases to him.

Personally, I took the fact that he said that they were probably worth another listen as implying that it's hard to make a proper judgment at shows and that the room wasn't really any good for them.

As for preferring another amp, as someone already said, he may prefer something with a bit more character/colour, or whatever.

It's really hard to judge because he doesn't say what amps, but I do recall a review where passive ATCs outperformed their active equivalents, albeit on the end of some very expensive amplification. Really he didn't say enough to get much of a takeaway from his blurb other than the passive version didn't wow him and neither did the active version.

 

[ErwinC]

I want to know what options are in the "expert" section of the set up app...

These are a few settings *biggrin*:

 

[ErwinC]

I have the KEF LS50 wireless for about 2 weeks now and all i can say is that these are incredible speakers. By far the best compact speakers i ever had in my setup.

I compared them with the passive LS50 in combination with the Musical Fidelity Encore 225 and i found the wireless LS50 better in all areas.

There are still a few bugs in the android app though and gapless playback is not (yet ?) supported.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Looking forward to hearing these - should have a pair around middle of the month.

 

[nopiano]

I have the KEF LS50 wireless for about 2 weeks now and all i can say is that these are incredible speakers. By far the best compact speakers i ever had in my setup.

I compared them with the passive LS50 in combination with the Musical Fidelity Encore 225 and i found the wireless LS50 better in all areas.

There are still a few bugs in the android app though and gapless playback is not (yet ?) supported.

Interesting feedback, thanks. Failure on gapless is unforgivable though. For me that's a bit like offering a cassette deck without Dolby noise reduction (showing my age with that analogy!)

 

[manicm]

I have the KEF LS50 wireless for about 2 weeks now and all i can say is that these are incredible speakers. By far the best compact speakers i ever had in my setup.

I compared them with the passive LS50 in combination with the Musical Fidelity Encore 225 and i found the wireless LS50 better in all areas.

There are still a few bugs in the android app though and gapless playback is not (yet ?) supported.

Interesting feedback, thanks. Failure on gapless is unforgivable though. For me that's a bit like offering a cassette deck without Dolby noise reduction (showing my age with that analogy!)

Funny analogy you use, I never ever used Dolby NR - it sucked the life out of the music. It's like turntable hiss - you soon forget tape hiss is there.

 

[nopiano]

I have the KEF LS50 wireless for about 2 weeks now and all i can say is that these are incredible speakers. By far the best compact speakers i ever had in my setup.

I compared them with the passive LS50 in combination with the Musical Fidelity Encore 225 and i found the wireless LS50 better in all areas.

There are still a few bugs in the android app though and gapless playback is not (yet ?) supported.

Interesting feedback, thanks. Failure on gapless is unforgivable though. For me that's a bit like offering a cassette deck without Dolby noise reduction (showing my age with that analogy!)

Funny analogy you use, I never ever used Dolby NR - it sucked the life out of the music. It's like turntable hiss - you soon forget tape hiss is there.

Not the best choice then! How about like a turntable and cartridge without a stylus?

 

[ErwinC]

Interesting feedback, thanks. Failure on gapless is unforgivable though. For me that's a bit like offering a cassette deck without Dolby noise reduction (showing my age with that analogy!)

I don't understand that new streaming products come out without gapless playback support. *scratch_one-s_head*

 

[drummerman]

I have the KEF LS50 wireless for about 2 weeks now and all i can say is that these are incredible speakers. By far the best compact speakers i ever had in my setup.

I compared them with the passive LS50 in combination with the Musical Fidelity Encore 225 and i found the wireless LS50 better in all areas.

There are still a few bugs in the android app though and gapless playback is not (yet ?) supported.

Interesting feedback, thanks. Failure on gapless is unforgivable though. For me that's a bit like offering a cassette deck without Dolby noise reduction (showing my age with that analogy!)

Funny analogy you use, I never ever used Dolby NR - it sucked the life out of the music. It's like turntable hiss - you soon forget tape hiss is there.

Not the best choice then! How about like a turntable and cartridge without a stylus?

Ah, this is where I went wrong.

 

[Replicant666]

Well lack of gapless support is a deal breaker for me, really suprised at KEF dropping the ball like this

 

[thewinelake.]

Surely they can add it as a firmware upgrade?

 

[MajorFubar]

It's surprising how many hifi manufacturers view gapless as an afterthought. At a different price point, wasn't the Marantz MCR603 similarly crippled, only to be put right by the MCR610? You don't even need a ridiculous amount of onboard memory to buffer a second's worth of the next track in advance. In fact 176,400 bytes is precisely enough.

 

[manicm]

I have the KEF LS50 wireless for about 2 weeks now and all i can say is that these are incredible speakers. By far the best compact speakers i ever had in my setup.

I compared them with the passive LS50 in combination with the Musical Fidelity Encore 225 and i found the wireless LS50 better in all areas.

There are still a few bugs in the android app though and gapless playback is not (yet ?) supported.

Interesting feedback, thanks.  Failure on gapless is unforgivable though.  For me that's a bit like offering a cassette deck without Dolby noise reduction (showing my age with that analogy!)

Funny analogy you use, I never ever used Dolby NR - it sucked the life out of the music. It's like turntable hiss - you soon forget tape hiss is there.

Not the best choice then!  How about like a turntable and cartridge without a stylus?

I meant both turntable and tape hiss never bothered me, after a minute it just disappears into the music.

And I maintain, in my deck at least, that vanilla Dolby NR was cr@p.

 

[Gazzip]

http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2016/10/future-fi-now-kefs-ls50-wireless-active-loudspeaker/

Oooh!

I heard them at the Windsor show last year. They sounded very good with the material they were being fed, but that material seemed to shy away from deep bass lines and low frequency stuff. Maybe I was just unlucky, but I went in to that room several times ( free coffee *biggrin* ) and all I heard was plinky plonky mid and high range music. Like I say that stuff did sound very good!

 

[manicm]

http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2016/10/future-fi-now-kefs-ls50-wireless-active-loudspeaker/

Oooh!

I heard them at the Windsor show last year. They sounded very good with the material they were being fed, but that material seemed to shy away from deep bass lines and low frequency stuff. Maybe I was just unlucky, but I went in to that room several times ( free coffee *biggrin* ) and all I heard was plinky plonky mid and high range music. Like I say that stuff did sound very good!

Yeah, I'm generalising here, but some hi-fi outfits only play Linn type music, and some frown when you bring your rock/high energy stuff.

 

[Replicant666]

Well as far as Im concerned if a product cant do gapless its not hi-fi and just in easy listening mp3/shuffle territory, but I guess it depends on what music youre into

 

[Frank Harvey]

I heard them at the Windsor show last year. They sounded very good with the material they were being fed, but that material seemed to shy away from deep bass lines and low frequency stuff. Maybe I was just unlucky, but I went in to that room several times ( free coffee *biggrin* ) and all I heard was plinky plonky mid and high range music. Like I say that stuff did sound very good!

The pair I get in won't be any stranger to deep bass!

 

[Gazzip]

I heard them at the Windsor show last year. They sounded very good with the material they were being fed, but that material seemed to shy away from deep bass lines and low frequency stuff. Maybe I was just unlucky, but I went in to that room several times ( free coffee *biggrin* ) and all I heard was plinky plonky mid and high range music. Like I say that stuff did sound very good!

The pair I get in won't be any stranger to deep bass!

Give 'em hell David, give 'em hell.

 

[Gazzip]

I heard them at the Windsor show last year. They sounded very good with the material they were being fed, but that material seemed to shy away from deep bass lines and low frequency stuff. Maybe I was just unlucky, but I went in to that room several times ( free coffee *biggrin* ) and all I heard was plinky plonky mid and high range music. Like I say that stuff did sound very good!

The pair I get in won't be any stranger to deep bass!

Give 'em hell David, give 'em hell.

...and report back!