KEF LS50 Meta

[Surly Sid]

Heard these earlier today. Maybe my ears were totally wrongly calibrated, might be the case, but still I have a question - the speaker struggles to reproduce anything under 80ish Hz. Or in simple words - where is the bass? And female voices sound... like all the ladies sing through their noses. So... I have to ask... how can a speaker with such major flaws get such appraisal in all the reviews??? I mean, c'mon!

PrylarSwe speaks the truth!

 

[Sliced Bread]

Our

Heard these earlier today. Maybe my ears were totally wrongly calibrated, might be the case, but still I have a question - the speaker struggles to reproduce anything under 80ish Hz. Or in simple words - where is the bass? And female voices sound... like all the ladies sing through their noses. So... I have to ask... how can a speaker with such major flaws get such appraisal in all the reviews??? I mean, c'mon!

Just out of curiosity, what amp / source was used?

 

[lyons238]

Heard these earlier today. Maybe my ears were totally wrongly calibrated, might be the case, but still I have a question - the speaker struggles to reproduce anything under 80ish Hz. Or in simple words - where is the bass? And female voices sound... like all the ladies sing through their noses. So... I have to ask... how can a speaker with such major flaws get such appraisal in all the reviews??? I mean, c'mon!

Heard these earlier today. Maybe my ears were totally wrongly calibrated, might be the case, but still I have a question - the speaker struggles to reproduce anything under 80ish Hz. Or in simple words - where is the bass? And female voices sound... like all the ladies sing through their noses. So... I have to ask... how can a speaker with such major flaws get such appraisal in all the reviews??? I mean, c'mon!

No these definitely play down lower than 80hz, they're fairly adequate down to about 50hz maybe a touch lower...you're probably underpowering them. I'm running a Parasound Halo P6 Preamp with a Parasound Halo A23+ 160wpc amp and these LS50 Meta's are chewing up every watt and spitting it out ever so eloquently. I was really surprised at first even with the Q150's insensitivity, then I upgraded to the LS50M's and they'r even harder to drive! But when you can give them good, clean, and controlled power. They sound phenomenal. I do also have a subwoofer but I don't use it all the time.

 

[Patrick dv]

Ok... BUT... why did they not improve the Bass extension? Now if you are using a sub.... then this may be ok. But if you are trying to survive of only a pair of bookshelf speakers, there are better options at 1000 and certainly better options for 1500. B&W 707s2 better for same money, Wharfedale Evo4.2 better for less money. If you really want a kef... save some more money and buy Kef R3 which is outstanding.
Just heard them today, by the way. Transparent, almost ribbon-ish, but again it is like being served a hamburger with no bun.

Spot on reply

 

[TrevC]

Ok... BUT... why did they not improve the Bass extension? Now if you are using a sub.... then this may be ok. But if you are trying to survive of only a pair of bookshelf speakers, there are better options at 1000 and certainly better options for 1500. B&W 707s2 better for same money, Wharfedale Evo4.2 better for less money. If you really want a kef... save some more money and buy Kef R3 which is outstanding.
Just heard them today, by the way. Transparent, almost ribbon-ish, but again it is like being served a hamburger with no bun.

Laws of physics? You use them with a sub. Personally I think they're overpriced/ overrated, having heard them.

 

[CABigmike]

It would be good to fix the retailer links for the What-hifi US site. The Best Buy and Crutchfield links are for center channel speakers.