KEF LS50 Wireless or LS50 + New Amp?

Nothing to add about the wireless but I just ordered the passive LS50 for my second system. Will drive them with a Rega Elicit R.

 

Excellent. The more converts to active speakers the better. They're absolutely bang on for audiophiles. Sure, you need to do the background checks as with any hifi purchase, but they are an excellent solution in the right setup.

 

Just set up my new LS50 passive speakers. White speakers with white stands. The white and blue scheme looks great.

These are in my second system, which I actually spend a lot of time with. It is a Rega RP1 with Groovetracer upgrades & Ortofon 2M Bronze, Rega Elicit-R, and the LS50's.

These replace Dali Zensor 7 towers, which have a treble boost that was starting to hurt my ears and cause fatigue. I was worried the Kef's might be bright with the Elicit but they make for a very smooth and tonally balanced match.

The transparency, detail, and stereo imaging from the LS50 are phenomenal! You can really peer into the holographic soundstage. Bass is quite satisfying, even when playing Massive Attack. I won't be adding a sub.

They are not at the level of the 805 D3's in my main system, but the LS50's do exactly what they need to. I am loving these!

 

Go for the "Noturne", glow-in the-dark special edition...

 

Welcome to the club! If your pair is brand new, give them some time to break in, and you'll really appreciate what KEF has created in these little gems.

 

Take it from a very happy LS50 owner. You don't think you need a sub (as they are amazing without) until you add one! A good fast one, like my REL T5i. Makes a notable difference.

 

Thanks will think about that.

They are a currenly 2-3' out from the front wall. I am trying to get them out into the middle of the room. It sounds like the music is coming from a foot or two behind the speakers...incredible.

 

Anyone recommend the KEF subwoofers for their LS50W?

I am loving the sound streaming from Audirvana and wonder if adding sub woofer would be even better...

 

The R400b and Q400b both do well with the LS50's. SVS SB1000 and SB2000 also work quite nicely.

 

Q400b in white would be great.

I understand why the awards and accolades on these (LS50 and LS50w) are so abundant.

 

update:

We've been loving the LS50W. I understand it won "system of the year" from What hi fi, from another poster. Goldprint Audio helped us land the Kube 2 subwoofer (12") to add to the system.

It is gorgeous rich bass without over modulation. It handles acoustic bass, classical as well as rattle your ancestors' fillings bass music.

Many thanks to Taylor of Goldprint audio! Fantastic quality.

 

And I am also still REALLY loving the LS-50...

The 3D holographic soundstage is just phenomenal...like unbelievable. And the mids and treble are so darn good.

Still not in the league of my 805 D3's but I cannot get enough of these speakers. They are a joy.

Playing Blood on the Tracks or ZZ Top "Fool for Your Stockings" on vinyl... the sound is so good!

 

Glad you guys are loving the LS50w's and the Kube sub!!

 

i'm currently using a naim muso for my music....
was thinking of letting that go for the LS 50 wls..to also be used with my soon
to be purchased lg oled 65'' tv ....so they'd do double duty as both audio
(i use Roon, Tidal, a microrendu) and for TV....

 

I continue to love this set up. Someone emailed me that the LS50W is slated for another award "...of the year" product. I am not surprised.

The addition of the KEF Kube12b has made it such that there is no turning back.

I publicly thank Goldprint Audio for great deals, but also customer service: answering questions, patience with my ignorance, and so on. I have a large family for Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow and already have some fun playlists made, especially for my grown sons: songs they loved when they were very little. On a few, I will hit the KEF app (or lean over) and increase the sub woofer for fun. Music that was loved at an early age, often gets passed down. Having 8 older siblings, I had lots of exposure to various genre of music and passed this on to them and now my grandchildren.

Happy Thanksgiving.

 

KEF Direct has LS50on sale for $1,000...

 

I've had the passive LS50s ever since they came out and paired them with the Leben CS600 integrated tube amp - never felt the need to upgrade. Perfect in a small room, put them on stands and have them a metre away from the walls. Haven't had the opportunity to hear the active version and won't be going out of my way to do so as I am very happy with what I've got. In terms of value-for-money, the LS50s are the bomb!

I listen primarily to CDs via an Astin Trew AT3500 tube CD player, and use a full loom of Reproformance cables (power, interconnect and speaker cables) available from Sky Audio in Singapore. The cables are the secret ingredient and they will spare you years of needless and expensive tweaking and upgrades.

 

Crutchfield shows a review/listening test with their staff comparing both passive and active LS50 which concludes both have their strengths - unlike what I have read from professional reviewers who state that the W is clearly better. I have a boxed set of the LS50W sitting at home unopened, but am concerned about the reliability issues reported by several users and the short 1 year warranty. I did buy the extended 3 year warranty but am wondering if I’m better off getting the passive pair at the 1k sale price even if adding an external amp and dac like Schitt or Rogue will end up costing the same, at least it would not face reliability issues. What do you folks think? I would prefer the convenience of the W of course but if I plan on keeping the set for many years I’m leaning towards the passive. Another choice would be to get high efficiency speakers like a Tekton double impact and drive with a pioneer elite receiver I already have.

 

I demo'd the passive but was struggling with landing the best amp. But even there, the LS50 were marvelously accurate with a gorgeous sound.

 

I have heard reports of the wireless version being less than completely reliable with some units getting bricked and various firmware bugs.

 

The control app has been a bit quirky from day one. The current version seems to be doing ok however. Those units that had issues with one of the updates (I've only read of a few that had problems with the fimware) was corrected by KEF. I've sold quite a few of these, and not had a single issue yet (other then one having a bad remote out of the box).

The speakers and amps themselves have been working quite well.

 

Glad to hear things are working OK.

 

We did the firmware update and things are going well. The app hasn't had issues since.

 

I was referring more to reports on the Roon forums of distortion from speakers that were replaced by kef within the 1 year warranty period. Some were wondering if the amps or electronics would have reliability issues due to heat and were not happy with just a 1 year coverage of the active parts.

 

According to several comments here, the LS50 has very good bass. Can someone explain how a 5.25 inch driver can do that? I’m interested for a second system. Thanks.