KEF ls50 - Highly Recommended

[proffski]

Fully agreed, I heard them a couple of weeks ago and was stunned!

The sheer accuracy and articulation was just amazing, fantastic on orchestral and jazz to boot, bargain!

I hope that they bring you a great many years of service, amazing transducers indeed and then some!!!

 

[NHL]

Have anyone had the opportunity to compare Neat Iota with the Kef ls 50 :quest:

 

[moon]

Yes, and as mentioned elsewhere, looking froward to your initial thoughts and then when they are fully run in.

Should be very interesting..................

One thing I have found that high quality speakers do way better than others is to reproduce electric guitar distortion more accurately. That might sound stupid, but I find it is one tell tale sign of a loudspeaker if it just sounds like a distorted mess with electric guitars. That makes no sense, but I know what I mean! Maybe those that play guitar will know what I mean.

Yup this is something I notice as well, and is one of my reference points for a good loudspeaker.

Try Jeff Beck live at Ronnie Scott's and then give me some opinions......if you get time.

 

[Frank Harvey]

One thing I have found that high quality speakers do way better than others is to reproduce electric guitar distortion more accurately. That might sound stupid, but I find it is one tell tale sign of a loudspeaker if it just sounds like a distorted mess with electric guitars. That makes no sense, but I know what I mean! Maybe those that play guitar will know what I mean.

Yup this is something I notice as well, and is one of my reference points for a good loudspeaker.

Try Jeff Beck live at Ronnie Scott's and then give me some opinions......if you get time.

Unfortunately I don't have that, but a customer did bring it in for demo a few weeks ago. I don't think I've heard any Jeff Beck since the Guitar Shop album and his stint with Roger Waters for the excellent Amused To Death album.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Have anyone had the opportunity to compare Neat Iota with the Kef ls 50 :quest:

They're quite different speakers really. The Iota is excellent for such a small speaker, but will be limited on bass output. It really is designed to be used close to a wall. The LS50's have size on their side, as well as other aspects which make it a beter speaker overall. Excellent treble on the Iotas though, nice and open too.

 

[moon]

One thing I have found that high quality speakers do way better than others is to reproduce electric guitar distortion more accurately. That might sound stupid, but I find it is one tell tale sign of a loudspeaker if it just sounds like a distorted mess with electric guitars. That makes no sense, but I know what I mean! Maybe those that play guitar will know what I mean.

Yup this is something I notice as well, and is one of my reference points for a good loudspeaker.

Try Jeff Beck live at Ronnie Scott's and then give me some opinions......if you get time.

Unfortunately I don't have that, but a customer did bring it in for demo a few weeks ago. I don't think I've heard any Jeff Beck since the Guitar Shop album and his stint with Roger Waters for the excellent Amused To Death album.

It just sounds excellent..... very atmospheric... i have a CD copy but it is available on Spotify if you fancied a low fat listen.

 

[NHL]

Thanks for the input, David @ Franks!

 

[Frank Harvey]

It just sounds excellent..... very atmospheric... i have a CD copy but it is available on Spotify if you fancied a low fat listen.

I'll have a look on Napster. I cancelled my Spotify account after my first free month recently because I couldn't justify £10 per month just to get 320kbps. I'd have done it for a fiver - I don't need all the mobile rubbish though.

 

[alchemist 1]

So how do the LS 50 compare too say ATC's scm 11's ?

 

[MUSICRAFT]

So how do the LS 50 compare too say ATC's scm 11's ?

Hi alchemist 1

I was waiting for for you

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[alchemist 1]

So how do the LS 50 compare too say ATC's scm 11's ?

Hi alchemist 1

I was waiting for for you

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

Well the 11's ARE one of the bench marks on this forum.

 

[Frank Harvey]

So how do the LS 50 compare too say ATC's scm 11's ?

I think the last line of one of my previous posts back sums that up

 

[jaxwired]

David,

Please post your thoughts on the bass performance when you've had a chance to evaluate. I'm really curious about these speakers but the bass is a big question mark for me. Thanks for sharing!

 

[ErwinC]

So how do the LS 50 compare too say ATC's scm 11's ?

Perhaps this link (bottom of page) answers your question: http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/kef-r300-vs-ls50

It is the opinion of a former scm11 owner.

But you already knew that answer because you asked the same question in that thread. Did you not like the answer?

 

[alchemist 1]

So how do the LS 50 compare too say ATC's scm 11's ?

Perhaps this link (bottom of page) answers your question: http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/kef-r300-vs-ls50

It is the opinion of a former scm11 owner.

But you already knew that answer because you asked the same question in that thread. Did you not like the answer?

Yes, same question. Another persons opinion.

Any way going to find out myself tomorrow demoing LS50's and others, somewhere in coventry.

 

[Frank Harvey]

David,

Please post your thoughts on the bass performance when you've had a chance to evaluate. I'm really curious about these speakers but the bass is a big question mark for me. Thanks for sharing!

Obviously it is early days, but I had a flick through some music last night when I got home before watching a film. Bear in mind that I was just streaming from Napster, so we're talking 128kbps material here.

I tried out a bit of bass orientated stuff last night - Modeselektor, Portishead, Boards Of Canada, and a few other bits and bobs - usually stuff I try out on the R series. Modeselektor's Evil Twin (which I usually reserve for demonstrating the Blades) was missing the very lowest registers of bass, but I expected that anyway. Everything else about the track was stunning, from detail to dynamics. Despite the lack of extremely low bass that the track is known for, there was enough there for the track to not 'sound wrong'. Bass was very tight though.

Albums from the likes of Boards Of Canada, like Geogaddi, always throw up something new when you listen to them on a revealing pair of speakers, and when I say revealing, I'm not usually talking about a speaker at this sort of price point. It's just little bits you've never noticed before, whether its a bass note, a bit of distortion, a sample that now has a defined stop and start point complete with hiss or whatever. While the treble and midrange impress, the bass seems to impress more because of its ability to stop and start, and lay bare any texture within the note too.

It was pretty much the same with Portishead too. The lowest notes weren't present, but everything else was there, and a whole lot more too that you just don't get at this price point.

While it misses out on the lowest of the lows, there's no issue with tonal balance. The bass they have is strong, but never overbearing. I've seen references to speakers sounding like headphones with regards to detail and control. This is what you'll get from the LS50. And they're passive :shifty:

One thing I will say (linked to something someone said earlier), is that for this money, these have no equal. With the R series, I remember pitching them against the SCM11 when they came in and they were of similar quality, but tonally quite different. Using the full bungs with the R300's made them sound very much like SCM11's, particularly in the bass. While the LS50's don't compete with the R300's in this area, they are better in pretty much every other way. As I've mentioned many times though, I wouldn't recommend full bungs as they tend to rob the life out of a speaker, making them sound flat and dull. The drivers of a speaker are usually optimised for use in either a ported or sealed cabinet - change that cabinet in any way and the speaker is no longer working optimally.

I'll post up a bit more when they're run in better, but after watching Payback last night with a DXD12012 on the end of them, I hate to think how good these are going to get!

 

[alchemist 1]

How are the LS50's for positioning ? [min. dist. from wall]

 

[Frank Harvey]

Mine are placed about 8/9" from the wall - I don't really want to put them any closer as the right one will then be set back slightly compared to the sub sitting next to it - I like speakers to have a clear dispersion with nothing hindering them. Also, the front of them is pretty much where the front of my R300's came to. If I ever move the sub somewhere else I'll move them back an inch or two, but I doubt that'll be happening any time soon. The bass wasn't an issue even when they weren't bunged at all - I removed them when I was listening to music after I'd finished watching a film around 10pm.

 

[BenLaw]

So how do the LS 50 compare too say ATC's scm 11's ?

Perhaps this link (bottom of page) answers your question: http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/kef-r300-vs-ls50

It is the opinion of a former scm11 owner.

But you already knew that answer because you asked the same question in that thread. Did you not like the answer?

Yes, same question. Another persons opinion.

Any way going to find out myself tomorrow demoing LS50's and others, somewhere in coventry.

Which other speakers will you be demoing?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi David,

8/9 inch frm the wall with the bung out, dont you get boomy sound?

Mine was placed like yours, but sounded boomy.

Then i put in the inner bung (half bung), then it sounded ok.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Initially I ran them with just the outer bung, but I took the bungs out later in the evening when I was playing them at a lower volume. I think if I was playing at my normal levels, I would need the outer bung

 

[BenLaw]

Initially I ran them with just the outer bung, but I took the bungs out later in the evening when I was playing them at a lower volume. I think if I was playing at my normal levels, I would need the outer bung

So in a fairly normal domestic setup, when changing volume one may need to fiddle round the back of the speakers (5 in your case) inserting or removing bungs? Doesn't sound very domestic friendly....

 

[alchemist 1]

So how do the LS 50 compare too say ATC's scm 11's ?

Perhaps this link (bottom of page) answers your question: http://www.whathifi.com/forum/hi-fi/kef-r300-vs-ls50

It is the opinion of a former scm11 owner.

But you already knew that answer because you asked the same question in that thread. Did you not like the answer?

Yes, same question. Another persons opinion.

Any way going to find out myself tomorrow demoing LS50's and others, somewhere in coventry.

Which other speakers will you be demoing?

Acoustic energy's REF1'S, Atc19's plus any other's suggested on the day.

 

[lindsayt]

I think that the KEF LS50’s may well be the best book-shelf sized speakers that you can buy new for under £1000 from your local specialist hi-fi store.

I think that the designer has done a remarkably good job of balancing the compromises in a speaker such as this.

The LS50’s have a good amount of clarity, have a good overall balance between bass, midrange and treble with none of them dominating the tonal balance.

Are they the best sounding speakers you can buy for £800? No I don’t think so. Compared to speakers that I’ve bought 2nd hand for £500 the LS50’s are dynamically compressed. They are coloured with what sounds like a peak in their frequency response from 100 to 250hz with another peak or two in the midrange and one in the treble, with troughs inbetween them. Subjectively this creates a lack of smoothness across the midrange. They do the leading edge of bass guitar notes well, but are not good at the trailing, decaying parts of these notes. They lack the air pressurising authority that a much larger speaker would have for bass drums and bass synths. They also lack sweetness in the upper midrange and treble – when recreating sweet sounding instruments. Part of this will be down to the solid state amps that I heard them with. But then at 84 dbs/2.83v/1m efficiency they do nudge you towards the solid state amplification route. At lower volumes I noticed an interesting effect: the bass disappears somewhat, as if they need generous volumes to get the reflex port to wake up and come on song.

Having said all that, I still found them likeable speakers and can understand why many people would be very happy with them.

 

[Frank Harvey]

So in a fairly normal domestic setup, when changing volume one may need to fiddle round the back of the speakers (5 in your case) inserting or removing bungs? Doesn't sound very domestic friendly....

Always the negative eh Ben?

No. As they're running in, I'm experimenting. Chances are, I'll settle on just the outer bungs, as I did with the R300's.

I had the rear R300's fully bunged as they were either side if me and positioned right up against a solid wall. The fronts I just used the outer bung as that was the better balance for my room and preference.