Hi all
Our recent move a few weeks ago from a more conventional-style house with separate rooms to a much more open, "loft-style" apartment has presented me with an opportunity to upgrade the speakers for our hi-fi system. Currently my setup consists of a Rega Brio-R amp, Apollo-R CD player and RP6 turntable and some KEF Q300 speakers. For a while I've been considering upgrading the speakers (I do like the Q300s but feel I could do better), and now that we've moved into our new place I think the time is right. I've had my eye on the KEF ls50s for some time now, so the missus and I went to our local hi-fi retailer to audition them - and we rather liked what we heard. However, the listening room at the shop was somewhat smaller than our new living room-come dining room-come kitchen, so I'm not sure how the ls50s are likely to measure up at home. We chatted to the guy at the hi-fi store and he thought that we might be better off with a set of floorstanders, and suggested we audition a pair of Focal Chorus 714 speakers while we were there. Talk about chalk and cheese: to my ears, the KEFs were cleaner and more transparent, with better soundstaging than the Focals. Yet they also sounded a tad light on bass compared to what I'm used to hearing with my Q300s (admittedly, using different source components and amplification). The Focals, on the other hand, had much more prominent bass, yet sounded a little muddy and congested next to the KEFs.
I asked the guy at the shop about home-auditioning either/both sets of speakers and he thought it should be possible (I should point out that I'm a Brit living in the US and I get the impression that home demos of potential hi-fi purchases are not as common in the US as they are in the UK). In the meantime, however, I'd really appreciate some feedback and opinions from the WHF community. Specificallly:
- Our main living area is a rectangular space approxmiately 40' x 18' and our listening area is to one side of this rectangular space with the speakers facing the shorter of the two sides and our sofa around 9-10' away from the speakers (with around 6' of space behind the sofa before. In our listening environment the Q300s don't sound too shabby at all and have more bass than I was expecting. Will the ls50s perform similarly in terms of bass performance, or do they have noticeably less bass than the Q300s?
- Given our room dimensions, am I definitely better off going with floorstanders rather than standmounters? Are the Focal Chorus 714s likely to be a better fit than the ls50s? Can you suggest any alternatives that are similarly priced (and available in the US)?
- Is my Brio-R capable of driving the KEFs and/or the Focals adequately?
Many thanks in advance and sorry for the long(ish) post!
Cheers
Bogester
Our recent move a few weeks ago from a more conventional-style house with separate rooms to a much more open, "loft-style" apartment has presented me with an opportunity to upgrade the speakers for our hi-fi system. Currently my setup consists of a Rega Brio-R amp, Apollo-R CD player and RP6 turntable and some KEF Q300 speakers. For a while I've been considering upgrading the speakers (I do like the Q300s but feel I could do better), and now that we've moved into our new place I think the time is right. I've had my eye on the KEF ls50s for some time now, so the missus and I went to our local hi-fi retailer to audition them - and we rather liked what we heard. However, the listening room at the shop was somewhat smaller than our new living room-come dining room-come kitchen, so I'm not sure how the ls50s are likely to measure up at home. We chatted to the guy at the hi-fi store and he thought that we might be better off with a set of floorstanders, and suggested we audition a pair of Focal Chorus 714 speakers while we were there. Talk about chalk and cheese: to my ears, the KEFs were cleaner and more transparent, with better soundstaging than the Focals. Yet they also sounded a tad light on bass compared to what I'm used to hearing with my Q300s (admittedly, using different source components and amplification). The Focals, on the other hand, had much more prominent bass, yet sounded a little muddy and congested next to the KEFs.
I asked the guy at the shop about home-auditioning either/both sets of speakers and he thought it should be possible (I should point out that I'm a Brit living in the US and I get the impression that home demos of potential hi-fi purchases are not as common in the US as they are in the UK). In the meantime, however, I'd really appreciate some feedback and opinions from the WHF community. Specificallly:
- Our main living area is a rectangular space approxmiately 40' x 18' and our listening area is to one side of this rectangular space with the speakers facing the shorter of the two sides and our sofa around 9-10' away from the speakers (with around 6' of space behind the sofa before. In our listening environment the Q300s don't sound too shabby at all and have more bass than I was expecting. Will the ls50s perform similarly in terms of bass performance, or do they have noticeably less bass than the Q300s?
- Given our room dimensions, am I definitely better off going with floorstanders rather than standmounters? Are the Focal Chorus 714s likely to be a better fit than the ls50s? Can you suggest any alternatives that are similarly priced (and available in the US)?
- Is my Brio-R capable of driving the KEFs and/or the Focals adequately?
Many thanks in advance and sorry for the long(ish) post!
Cheers
Bogester
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram