KEF LS50 Actives anyone?

[Frank Harvey]

Certainly will do! I'll be giving them my usual fed directly via USB from the Zenith.

 

[gowiththeflow]

.....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!

I heard them at the Windsor show too, but all they were playing was bass heavy material. No chance to hear how they handled more delicate or refined.....oops sorry....plinky plonk type music.

z

 

[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!

I heard them at the Windsor show too, but all they were playing was bass heavy material. No chance to hear how they handled more delicate or refined.....oops sorry....plinky plonk type music.

z

Looking at Kefs own (albeit confusing) quoted FR figures I would say bass heavy material would be a stretch for the LS50. They will good for plinky plonky though...

 

[MajorFubar]

To be fair to Kef, no 5.25" driver on this planet is going to give you deep thunderous bass, clearly they're not aimed at that market.

The regular LS50s are £800, and these are £2,000. So what you're getting is a £800 speaker and £1200 worth of electronics. There's more than one way to skin a cat and if I was a magazine reviewer I'd be queuing up to compare these against a pair of regular LS50s mated to a £1200 amplifier.

 

[ErwinC]

The regular LS50s are £800, and these are £2,000. So what you're getting is a £800 speaker and £1200 worth of electronics. There's more than one way to skin a cat and if I was a magazine reviewer I'd be queuing up to compare these against a pair of regular LS50s mated to a £1200 amplifier.

Like i said above, i compared the wireless LS50 with the passive version combined with the Musical Fidelity Encore 225, equivalent amp of MF M6si, and found the wireless clearly better in all areas.

A reviewer on the web (DARKO) compared it with the passive LS50 combined with the Peachtree nova300 and found the wireless better in all areas.

Both the MF and Peachtree amplifiers are far more expensive than £1200 (£2,499 for MF M6si and £1999 for nova300) .

In Belgium the price difference is only 1100 Euro.

 

[ErwinC]

There's more than one way to skin a cat and if I was a magazine reviewer I'd be queuing up to compare these against a pair of regular LS50s mated to a £1200 amplifier.

I think it is very, very difficult to improve on the sound quality of the wireless LS50 by using the passive LS50 and an (expensive) integrated amplifier.

Someone on the web found the wireless LS50 better than a passive LS50 in combination with a Devialet (with SAM).

 

[drummerman]

To be fair to Kef, no 5.25" driver on this planet is going to give you deep thunderous bass, clearly they're not aimed at that market.

The regular LS50s are £800, and these are £2,000. So what you're getting is a £800 speaker and £1200 worth of electronics. There's more than one way to skin a cat and if I was a magazine reviewer I'd be queuing up to compare these against a pair of regular LS50s mated to a £1200 amplifier.

Is that 5.25" with taking into account the rather large central tweeter/surround?

 

[Gazzip]

There's more than one way to skin a cat and if I was a magazine reviewer I'd be queuing up to compare these against a pair of regular LS50s mated to a £1200 amplifier.

I think it is very, very difficult to improve on the sound quality of the wireless LS50 by using the passive LS50 and an (expensive) integrated amplifier.

Someone on the web found the wireless LS50 better than a passive LS50 in combination with a Devialet (with SAM).

You are probably right. However for my money, and at that end of the market, I would go for the passive LS50 and a separate amp any day of the week in order to keep the speaker upgrade door open. The LS50's may well be amazing for their price, but at the end of the day they are still very much a budget loudspeaker in relative terms. Why throw all of your eggs in to one basket? I just don't get it, but I am a perenial box swapper so that may well just be my sentiments.

 

[MajorFubar]

Is that 5.25" with taking into account the rather large central tweeter/surround?

No idea, it's just Kef's spec's.

 

[ErwinC]

You are probably right. However for my money, and at that end of the market, I would go for the passive LS50 and a separate amp any day of the week in order to keep the speaker upgrade door open. The LS50's may well be amazing for their price, but at the end of the day they are still very much a budget loudspeaker in relative terms. Why throw all of your eggs in to one basket? I just don't get it, but I am a perenial box swapper so that may well just be my sentiments.

I have been a box swapper for 20 years, but the performance of the wireless LS50 is so good that using a passive LS50 and integrated amp will be more expensive and certainly not as good as the wireless LS50. So why do it? For me the sound quality is most important. And the VFM of the wireless LS50 is very high. You will need to spend considerably more money (>£5000) in order to improve on the wireless LS50.

The wireless LS50 is perhaps a budget speaker in relative terms, but it can be compared with much more expensive solutions imo. I owned many, far more expensive, setups in the past and none of them were as good as the wireless LS50. If you still want to do some box swapping when owning the wireless LS50, you can always buy other active speakers or buy passive speakers and an amplifier .

I would not be surprised if the wireless LS50 will be a very long time in my setup. It is THAT good. *biggrin*

And i would also not be surprised if the price of the wireles LS50 goes up after some time.