What a pity, what a mess ! Total disappointment for what stands a premium UK hi-fi brand and more than a grand! Connectivity is a total disaster bringing nothing more than headache. AirPlay keeps on failing pushing you to endless resets and reconnections…
Review KEF LSX AirPlay - Sad and hopeless!
- Thread starter Nuri
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- kef lsx airplay
nopiano
Well-known member
How are you finding the other inputs? Are they better?
What does your dealer say - does it reflect their experience?
What does your dealer say - does it reflect their experience?
Thank you for your questions. I can’t comment unfortunately on other inputs since their intended use in my case is WiFi connection. The dealer confirmed several WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity issues including one ongoing case with Bluetooth failing randomly. They will solve the issue with a Bluetooth dongle…
daytona600
Well-known member
nopiano
Well-known member
I’m glad they offer you a solution, but disappointed that KEF isn’t better as supplied, or perhaps they might be correcting with a firmware update.
manicm
Well-known member
Being owned by a foreign entity is one thing. Defining the business you’re in is another thing. When you read the interview of Grace Lo (President of KEF) she defines KEF as UK’s leading HiFi speaker brand. When you buy at this price level you don’t expect a cheap product from a Chinese battery manufacturer, you expect “…speakers that inspire listeners… timeless design and great user experiences… perfect sound solution… magical experiences“ (interview with Grace Lo February 2023).
Deliriumbassist
Well-known member
What actual network troubleshooting happened in your home? Can you actually get the speakers onto the network, and if so, what does the network speed test in the settings say?
Just going off my experience as a retailer when networked products were just starting to proliferate to the wider market, it was very rarely the product itself that was the issue.
Just going off my experience as a retailer when networked products were just starting to proliferate to the wider market, it was very rarely the product itself that was the issue.
daytona600
Well-known member
( President of KEF) she defines KEF as UK’s leading HiFi speaker brand.
Made in China by a Chinese company is not the same as made in the UK by a UK Company employing Uk workers & paying Uk tax
UK speakers like Rega , Harbeth , Proac and many others can be purchased for the same or lower price
Made in China by a Chinese company is not the same as made in the UK by a UK Company employing Uk workers & paying Uk tax
UK speakers like Rega , Harbeth , Proac and many others can be purchased for the same or lower price
manicm
Well-known member
daveh75
Well-known member
Absolutely this.
It's the same with reporting broadband faults, and why ISPs often make you jump through hoops and expect you to run tests hardwired to the router before raising a fault, i.e it's often the customers WiFi network that's the source of the issue...
davidf
Well-known member
davidf
Well-known member
The Reference, Blade, and Muon models are all designed and hand made in the U.K., with the rest of the models designed in the U.K. and made in China at their own factory/factories. Which of those brands you mentioned have an active speakers for £1200 which has onboard streaming and wireless functions? Two of them don't even have speakers under a grand, and nor would KEF if they were made in the U.K.
Deliriumbassist
Well-known member
I've said for years that hifi dealers need to be network experts, because the general public never will be as a whole (I'm not presuming absence or presence of networking nous with anybody, I'm just being realistic). In 2009 I made the pitch to our area manager to have every staff member go through even just basic network training. And honestly, the basic stuff fixes almost any common issue (by basic, I mean the furthest one goes is changing the channel within a band on the router).
daytona600
Well-known member
The Reference, Blade, and Muon models are all designed and hand made in the U.K., with the rest of the models designed in the U.K. and made in China at their own factory/factories.
Which of those brands you mentioned have an active speakers for £1200 which has onboard streaming and wireless functions? Two of them don't even have speakers under a grand, and nor would KEF if they were made in the U.K.
£395 Chord Electronics Mojo 2 USB DAC/Headphone Amp
£420 REGA IO Stereo integrated amplifier
£399 REGA KYTE Bookshelf Loudspeakers
Total £ 1214
Which of those brands you mentioned have an active speakers for £1200 which has onboard streaming and wireless functions? Two of them don't even have speakers under a grand, and nor would KEF if they were made in the U.K.
£395 Chord Electronics Mojo 2 USB DAC/Headphone Amp
£420 REGA IO Stereo integrated amplifier
£399 REGA KYTE Bookshelf Loudspeakers
Total £ 1214
Messiah
Well-known member
Pretty sure BT does not need line of sight. I remember this being one of the benefits when it was widely introduced.
jjbomber
Well-known member
davidf
Well-known member
AirPlay doesn't as its network based, but Bluetooth doesn't have the same luxury. I don't necessarily mean it's like a remote control, you might be able to use it from behind a bookcase or room divider or something, but when you introduce walls into the equation, things become less reliable.
Let me share my experience. I have ca. 30 devices connected to my network among which 5 are AirPlay enabled. They all work seamlessly except the KEF LSX! Take a look at the different forums on the LSX and you will see that it is the product which is systematically the issue…
davidf
Well-known member
Make sure something else on your network is using the same IP address.
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Unfortunately not the case!
See my previous reply…
“Let me share my experience. I have ca. 30 devices connected to my network among which 5 are AirPlay enabled. They all work seamlessly except the KEF LSX! Take a look at the different forums on the LSX and you will see that it is the product which is systematically the issue…”
nopiano
Well-known member
Deliriumbassist
Well-known member
Just because something else works on a network doesn't mean it's going to be the case for something else, which is why I asked whether you had run the network speed test in the KEF Connect app.
Here's two real life examples I had involving wireless audio products when I was a retailer:
1) Router was in room one, product was in adjoining room. Could play lower res music, but hires was really spotty. I visited - the separating wall had a room width mirrored closet. The metal backing was essentially acting as a shield. Not 100%, but enough for the bandwidth to drop off enough to make playing hires audio an issue. And yes, it worked a charm after opening the closet doors.
2) Mesh network, customer was wondering why, even though they had max connection bars to closest node almost everywhere in the house, their network was doing shenanigans. This home was almost all poured concrete walls, which WiFi does NOT like. Not one bit. So even though the connection to the closest node (in the same room) was maxed out, the bandwidth the node was working with was decimated because the connection back to the main router was hugely compromised.
I'm not saying it ISN'T the product - what I'm saying is that it's easy to erroneously blame a network product, as networks are, let's say... 'fun.'
I'd also take a lot of the online mentions with a pinch of salt, but also need to consider that bad news travels quicker than good news, especially when people cross post perceived issues to different fora. I'd wager a pretty huge chunk of these speakers have been sold since their inception, so you will naturally see more reports, whether founded or unfounded.
Hi,
Just to be precise:
- It is not "something else" but "everything else works" (even my 10 years old Marantz)
- I have tested many times signal strength, it is way beyond what CD quality audio requires. No IP address conflict also. By the way when I do a full reset of the KEF LSX they work perfectly well for a certain period of time (they should sell those speakers with a silver toothpick). These are type I and when I purchased them 4 years ago they kept functioning more than a year before it was necessary to reset them. Nowadays I need to reset them every 2-3 weeks. This is where it gets "sad and hopeless"!
- Thank for your examples but as I said I've checked many times signal strength...
- Of course no other network component to get in the way!
- I'm fully aware of the Brandolini's law and believe me there's no conspiracy against the KEF LSX they simply don't make it! Even my Hi-fi reseller who should be positive for a component he sold is "sad and hopeless"... too many disappointments.
- I also agree with you: these are complex speakers, they can be connected in many different ways and give full satisfaction in certain situations... Airplay is definitely not their strong suit!
Regards
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