I certainly did! I didn't get quite as much time as I'd have liked with them, but I will do soon.The LS50 sound isn't the sort of sound thats going to be instantly impressive. The presentation of these is something you have to listen to and adjust to for a while, a little like ATC, as many people will not be used to this sort of sound because many speakers out there are far from neutral.They're quite weighty little things, and "knocking" the cabinet like a door produces nothing more than a totally dead sound as though they're solid through and through. In fact, I'd say that they're just as well built, if not slightly better (due to their size), than the Reference series in this respect. At least you know the cabinet is having no effect on the end result...I played quite a few different tracks, some on the Naim ND5XS/Naim Nait XS, but mostly on the Audiolab 8200CDQ/8200P. As I did with the Concept Blade when I first heard them, I could appreciate what they were NOT doing. I don't think many people looked at the Concept Blade in that context, they were just treating it as another speaker and were expecting to be wowed because they were expensive. Nothing wrong in that, but these sorts of speakers need a slightly different approach when listening, I think.Straight away you can tell that there's no "bloom" to the midrange. It's clean, revealing, and lacking the warmth that shouldn't be there. I tried them with the bungs out - it'll be interesting to try them with the bungs in, as this should only affect the bass depth, and not the tonal balance of the LS50 due to it's design. Stereophonics' Mr.Writer, which isn't the best recorded track and can be quite muddled sounding, you can hear a lot of detail in what was going on, and I could hear the cymbal work more clearly, which sounded a little different than I've heard before on many speakers. Sneaker Pimps 6 Underground sounded nice. There's always lots of detail in overdubbed/sampled music which usually gets lost on bassy speakers, but it's all here. FNDMNTL's Serv It also sounded great, but in our demo room didn't quite hit the lower notes (like the lower note in 6 Underground), although I'll reserve judgement on the low bass until I can get a pair home and try them out properly in my own room, as my R300's at home are much clearer with better presence in the lower bass than the R300's in our demo room.
The Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magic was sounding nice and tight, with nice weight to the kick drum, and with as much detail as I have heard on the snare drums (on more expensive speakers, I mean). The only boom I was hearing was our demo room, which isn't perfect. The first couple of tracks of the Atticus Ross/Trent Reznor Social Network soundtrack, whilst not having the scale and depth of the Blades, seemed just a detailed and energetic - the LS50 has even more in common with the Blades than the R series does.
I also think that the UniQ's benefit of it's wide dispersion and imaging is realised more fully with the LS50's, which I think is down to the fact that the cabinet is playing no part in the presented sound. Like the Blade cabinet, the front facia curves back from the driver, eliminating reflections that a flat front panel would normally introduce.
For AV, I like a lot of detail. Many hi-fi speakers don't cut it for me, but the R300's have been pretty amazing. Having recently tried out the Audiolab 8200AP in my system, they're sounding even better than ever, and have really opened up purely because of this processor. I could quite happily live with the current sound that I have. But after what I heard earlier, I need to get a pair of LS50's home and try them out directly against my R300's. As I mentioned earlier, I think time spent with these will reveal their true strengths, as they're not immediately apparent.Music used:Boards Of Canada - Music Has The Right To ChildrenFNDMNTL - SubductionRed Hot Chili peppers - Blood Sugar Sex magicQueens Of The Stone Age - No One KnowsSneaker Pimps - Becoming XStereophonics - Just Enough Education To PerformTrent Reznor/Atticus Ross - Social Network OST
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