KEF LS50 and value for money

[ISAC69]

The OP tried the LS50s with Denon 4520 receiver . IMO AV receiver isn't doing jusice to music listening , he should try to demo them with

decent stereo 2 chanels amp .

 

[CnoEvil]

The OP tried the LS50s with Denon 4520 receiver . IMO AV receiver isn't doing jusice to music listening , he should try to demo them with

decent stereo 2 chanels amp .

Yes I totally agree (if you were talking to me), though I was simply justifying my position, which was being questioned by Tazzo.

 

[alchemist 1]

Being a former LS50 owner, I think that some of the comments in this thread are exaggerated, such as being able to handle 2- channel £1500 - £2500 amps, not in my experience, and definatley not amps/preamps with premium components in that price range, I eventually upgraded.

I also thought the bass was not that great, there is a limit I think as to how good a speaker can get.

I power my LS50's with a £1500 Yamaha amp that works just fine

 

[tazzo]

The equipment I used was as follow's

Roksan K2 CDP

Yamaha A-S500 amp - upgraded with 6 elna silmic 2 capacitors in power supply, PIO capacitors, w10 rectifier, two 6N16 subminiture dual triodes (valves), anode power supply. Cost of upgrade was £320

Yaqin SD-CD3 Tube processor - upgraded with Mundorf Evo in Oil capacitors and Shuguang Premium grade treasure tubes. - RRP - Approx £390 (including cost of fitting caps, the tubes are cheaper now).

Maybe its just tubes the speakers are not well suited too, after I upgraded from the common grade to the premium grade tubes, I could tell that I was not getting the best from my system, and the midrange could be clearer. Beforehand, the speakers were very clear, and the sound was pretty great.

I ended up upgrading to 17 year old Reference Music Systems Revelation One speakers (£2467 when first released) at a cost of £880. Best speakers I have owned, and I am upgrading another tube buffer with Elna Silmic 2 and Elna Cerafine capacitors along with a decent 6922 valve.

 

[CnoEvil]

The equipment I used was as follow's

Roksan K2 CDP

Yamaha A-S500 amp - upgraded with 6 elna silmic 2 capacitors in power supply, PIO capacitors, w10 rectifier, two 6N16 subminiture dual triodes (valves), anode power supply. Cost of upgrade was £320

Yaqin SD-CD3 Tube processor - upgraded with Mundorf Evo in Oil capacitors and Shuguang Premium grade treasure tubes. - RRP - Approx £390 (including cost of fitting caps, the tubes are cheaper now).

Maybe its just tubes the speakers are not well suited too, after I upgraded from the common grade to the premium grade tubes, I could tell that I was not getting the best from my system, and the midrange could be clearer. Beforehand, the speakers were very clear, and the sound was good.

I ended up upgrading to 17 year old Reference Music Systems Revelation One speakers (£2467 when first released) at a cost of £880. Best speakers I have owned, and I am upgrading another tube buffer with Elna Silmic 2 and Elna Cerafine capacitors along with a decent 6922 valve.

That's a very interesting and unusual system, and you are best placed to judge the effect it has had on the LS50s. I am coming from my experience of driving them with SS amps and a decent digital source.

 

[tazzo]

Yea, I think LS50's are better suited to SS amps.

 

[wilro15]

I've recently added a great source to my system (Naim ND5 XS), which when coupled with the SuperNait makes a system worth £4800 (at original RRP! NOT what I actually paid).

My LS50s sound absolutely awesome on the end of this system, simply the best I have ever heard. I don't get the feeling the LS50s are holding back the system nor that it is unbalanced.

So whoever said that the LS50s benefit from expensive amplification (I think it was CnoEvil) is absolutely correct. For a mid-level system, you're better off with the Q Acoustics.

My experience is that the LS50s are high-end speakers, that happen to be priced rather cheap for what they are.

 

[nirvy111]

If value is the issue then the obvious choice for the o.p is the QA concept 40's. Not having to spend more money on amps is a plus.

 

[npoguy]

I agree that the 50's benefit from good amplication, but I wouldn't want to discourage people from trying them simply because they can't afford top notch gear. I've used mine with everything from the NAD3020D to Parasound to Naim UnitiQute2 (currently) to Plinius and even had them briefly hooked up to a Yamaha AVR and I can honestly say that I enjoyed each setup. So yes, buy the best you can reasonably afford, but I wouldn't avoid them (or at least auditioning them) simply because people say that they perform "best" by spending gobs of money.