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.

 

[AlLangille]

PrylarSwe speaks the truth!

Correct...where's the low END? Suggest looking at Steve Guttenberg's review ON the ELAC UNI-FI REFERENCE UBR62 ... about a third the cost, lows down to 40Hz and better overall sound quality compared to the LS500 META

 

[hapaxlegomenon]

The KEF LS 50 is THE MOST OVER RATED speaker in history.

says the mouth-breather

 

[AlLangille]

I totally agree ... After comparing both speakers, I rated the ELAC UNIFI FI REFERENCE "UBR62" as being the far superior speaker, as do most "OBJECTIVE" REVIEWERS like STEVE GUTTENBERG. The soundstage & imaging have no peers among bookshelf speakers. The lows go down to the 40's which is alot lower than the LS 50's, but, being a bookshelf speaker and limited to woofer size they can certainly benefit from a marriage with a subwoofer ... SVS SB-2000 in my case. Driven with an 80 watt RMS CAMBRIDGE AUDIO CXA81 integrated amplifier the sound is good enough to differentiate between HI RES AUDIO and CD quality music playing from CAMBRIDGE AUDIO CXN V2 streamer. FINALLY... THE ELAC'S WERE DESIGNED BY THE LEGENDARY ANDREW JONES AND ACTUALLY COST LESS THAN THE LS 50'S.