[roscoeiii]

Well, I couldn't resist the hype and grabbed a pair of KEF LS50s.

John Atkinson raved about them in Stereophile, Steve Guttenberg raved about them as well at CNET and Inner Fidelity. For now I will provide links to their reviews. Then I will come back and report on my impressions once I have broken them in a bit. The speakers on hand that I will be comparing them to are Von Schweikert VR-4 Gen IIs, and SP Tech (later Aether Audio) Minis.

Initial impressions are very positive. Great detail retrieval, nice decay on acoustic instruments. Surprising amount of oomph and dynamics. More to come.

For now, the reviews to whet your appetite:

http://www.stereophile.com/content/kef-ls50-anniversary-model-loudspeaker

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/kef-ls50-50th-anniversary-eidition

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-57561122-47/the-audiophiliacs-speaker-of-the-year-the-kef-ls50/

(with video that started up automatically when I hit the link): http://www.whathifi.com/review/ls50

[opnly bafld]

You left out Sound and Vision. 

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/blog/2012/12/20/review-kef-ls50-speaker?page=0,0

 

[roscoeiii]

Yeah, I was rushing out the door to make my friend's roller derby debut, so the list was hardly comprehensive.

[lonewolfny42]

Interesting.... I'll watch for your  impressions...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MEqh1EqD7U0#!

http://www.kef.com/html/en/showroom/flagship_hi-fi_series/ls50/overview/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwnjKWWfg_w  (jaxwired is a member here...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVTiMCUUCDk

[iluzun]

Hey Wolfie....  The Kefs r a 'growlin good spkr'...  Open, dynamic, detailed, & fun!  Mine have approx. 50hrs on 'em & have opened up &
smoothed out considerably.  Attack & definition is great w/no hint of 'metalic' drivers that was present during the initial run in.  Quick &
rhythmic they convey the 'excitement' contained in the performance.  Forever, by Corea, Clark & White is awash in the musicianship that
is second to none.  Chic's piano is fantastic & Jean Luc's violin visceral & alive.  Instruments r fully & tonally represented w/attack & decay while
maintaining micro detail. Chaka Khan's vocal reproduction on 'I Love You Porgy', is exciting & oh so goooooood!  The LS50s
easily unravel complex passages while throwing a wide, deep, dense & detailed soundstage.
 
I've had the Kefs matched up w/a Yamaha A-S2000 fed via a Modwright Transporter w/Audio Magic Clairvoyant liquid interconnect & spkr. cables in a great room 25' x 30' x 16'.  The Transporter runs balanced into the Yamaha or single ended into a custom dual mono Velvet Touch preamp w/RK-37 tubes & Dueland Cast capacitors into the Yamaha pre-amp ins.   

The Kefs also matched up very nicely w/a Unison Research SR-1, a really fine combination that allowed each to demonstrate a musical finesse & rightness in an emotionally & musically satisfying manner.  In that case the Kefs & Unison were driven by a modded Pioneer PD-65, the 'turntable' cd player, & the same Audio Magic Clairvoyant cables.  The same partnered components drove the PrimaLuna Prolouge II w/big bold tones & nice detail resolution, but without the speed of the more powerful solid state combinations.  This via the 8ohm outs as I tried the 4ohm but felt a 'little hardness' in the presentation.  The Kefs easily reveal what they r being fed; give 'em better upstream & they respond eagerly. 

I've a feeling, though haven't verified yet, that the LS50's would be the 'cats meow' in telling differences when say, tube rolling the front end pre
on the SR-1 ecc82/12ax7s for just the right amount of top end 'sparkle'. 

In a large room, the spacious, powerful, evenhanded nature of the Yamaha is a GFM (great fun match)!  The combination may not 'go the lowest' i've had in room, but does many things better than I've heard 'in room' before.  Percussive attack & decay, coherence top to bottom, agility & resolution, spacious & 'well sorted', vocal 'sumptuousness & presence', treble integration w/surprisingly deep, tight & well articulated bass.  A fuller robustness compared to say, the ProAc Response 1SC, which I have in house.  The treble has opened up beautifully detailed & not at all recessed as some have noted.  It's performance vs price ratio seems really high.  I've as yet, not been tempted to pair them w/my JBL Pro slot super tweeters, they just seem so complete & 'right' on their own.  The same goes for a sub, I'll leave that for others to explore as I have none in house. 

Kef deserves to be applauded for bringing such high tech integration in at such affordable pricing.  Match & pick one of the great many dacs currently afforded; cable match to taste; dedicate a line, or two; condition or not; & you can end up w/a really nice, well balanced, & long serving audio system.  The Kef LS50s r the type of product that restore balance & perspective by delivering high performance/high value transducers that enables one
to re-imagine assumptions one may have formulated as to how & what is 'required' to deliver sustained satisfaction in high-end audio performance. 

The LS50s are 'Zenish'; little speakers w/the spiritual moves of an aikido master.  They can go all downbeat w/Steve Gold for Saturday morning Yoga Sessions w/aplomb, then dart off, all dressed up to the 9's Saturday night w/Ritenour's Rhythm Sessions, demonstrating speed & leading edge attack w/a composed core, balancing tone, texture & finish that fleshes out the performance.  Dave Alvin's crunching Stratocaster in Boss of the Blues made me wish I had a 'Big Joe Turner' collection to go rummage thru.  You get the idea.

The LS50s thou physically small, possess the ability to make ones musical world larger by putting one closer to the original artist intent, the musical message, the muse in the music.  They communicate emotional intent as well as intellectual content, they demonstrate design pretext & engineering context & avoid design fallacy.  They appeal in equal measure to both heart & head.  They r a third, & unique thing, a little speaker w/big performance.

Definitely worth checking out...
     
 

     

[roscoeiii]

Not much to add to that excellent description, since I have mostly been listening with them in the background as I work from home and they haven't broken in yet.

Well, maybe one thing to add "Holy S***! These little things sound great.

Looking forward to some torture tests with James Blake...

[lonewolfny42]

Regis / iluzun ....Thanks for your very informative comments....  


roscoeiii....I'll be watching for your LS50 vs Mini comments...thanks! 

[roscoeiii]

Yeah, I know that both the SP Tech and Von Schweikert speakers are a good point of reference for many at AC.

And as for early impressions, I'd say that the LS50s are certainly in the same league as the SP Techs and the Von Schwiekerts in terms of detail retrieval and imaging.

Obviously the LS 50s don't go as deeply into the bass as the other two speaker models (and considering the difference in cabinet sizes, this should be no surprise; even the SP Tech Minis are fairly large monitors, while the LS50s are minimonitors). But the bass is quite detailed, and the dynamics from bass through the entire frequency spectrum are quite satisfying. To a much greater extent than I'd have ever expected from a speaker of this size.

The main contrast between my Von Schweikerts and the SP Tech Minis  (besides the Von Schweikerts going down to 20Hz) is that I find the Von Schweikerts to be a bit more laid back than the SP Techs, which are more forward in their orientation (and these characteristics can be ameliorated to a degree depending on the associated components in the signal chain). For those of you familiar with Zu speakers (Gopher, looking at you here), I'd say the Zu Superflys I once owned are also on the forward side of the spectrum, similar to the SP Techs.  The LS50s feel somewhat intermediate in this respect.

Overall, I am really liking these LS50s. A very, very satisfying speaker.

[lonewolfny42]

Thanks roscoeiii....

Got a sub... to fill out the bottom.

[roscoeiii]

Yeah, I wish I hadn't sold my REL sub, as I am curious how well these LS50s would integrate with a REL. I may try to arrange a subwoofer set-up to see how that affects things.

BUT, truth be known I am pretty shocked that I don't consider these a pair of speakers that really NEED a sub. On the contrary, their bass is quite satisfying. To a shocking degree. These shouldn't be considered just satellite speakers.

That said, the Von Schweikerts and SP Minis, do have greater heft and emphasis in the bass. Which should be a surprise to no one.

The surprise is the quality and amount of bass that these minimonitors put out. A remarkable feat of engineering.

[lonewolfny42]

A remarkable feat of engineering.

And at a very good price...   (so good their ...out of stock...at KEF Direct.

[Gradofan]

Yes... they are in short supply as sound engineers are grabbing them up all over the World.  But... I was able to grab a pair. 

Will be driving them with a Class D Audio SDS-470C amp, with my Monarchy Audio Tube Hybrid DAC / Line Stage. 

We'll see how they work out - but, based on all the uniformly rave reviews / comments on all of these components - I'm pretty optimistic. 

We'll see...

[konut]

Thanks roscoeiii and iluzun for your impressions. Has anyone been able to audition the KEF  X300A? Same size as the LS50s but with built in amps and DAC.

http://www.kef.com/html/en/showroom/digital_music_solutions/x300a/fact_sheets/X300A_group/X300A/index.html

Tonepub loved 'em.

http://www.tonepublications.com/spotlight/world-premier-review-kef-x300a-powered-speakers/

At $799     THE PAIR!

[roscoeiii]

Thanks roscoeiii and iluzun for your impressions. Has anyone been able to audition the KEF  X300A? Same size as the LS50s but with built in amps and DAC.

http://www.kef.com/html/en/showroom/digital_music_solutions/x300a/fact_sheets/X300A_group/X300A/index.html

Tonepub loved 'em.

http://www.tonepublications.com/spotlight/world-premier-review-kef-x300a-powered-speakers/

At $799     THE PAIR!

Also curious about those and how they compare. Not sure how similar the driver is. Tonepub also has ls50s I think. So maybe he can chime in.

[srb]

I would assume that the LS50 speaker has a higher quality enclosure and driver (beyond being copper colored) than the X300A.  The LS50 does have a slightly higher max SPL of 106dB compared to the X300A's 104dB.

But I do find it interesting that the LS50 only has a -3dB point of 79Hz compared to the X300A at 58Hz.

Steve

[konut]

I would assume that the LS50 speaker has a higher quality enclosure and driver (beyond being copper colored) than the X300A.  The LS50 does have a slightly higher max SPL of 106dB compared to the X300A's 104dB.

But I do find it interesting that the LS50 only has a -3dB point of 79Hz compared to the X300A at 58Hz.

Steve

Exactly the specs I was comparing. One might assume there is some manipulation in the digital domain to get the extended response with the sacrifice of volume. With the additional hardware in the X300A one has to wonder where the corners are cut. Hoping Tonepub can comment eventually.

[srb]

Exactly the specs I was comparing.  One might assume there is some manipulation in the digital domain to get the extended response with the sacrifice of volume.

Possibly, however -3dB @ ~ 60Hz is closer to what I see specified on a number of other passive 5.25" driver speakers with similar enclosure sizes while -3dB at ~ 80Hz I more often associate with 4" - 4.5" drivers in an even smaller enclosure.

Steve

[opnly bafld]

But I do find it interesting that the LS50 only has a -3dB point of 79Hz compared to the X300A at 58Hz.

I wonder if there is an error with the KEF specs because they also show the -6dB at 47hz (LS50) and 49hz (X300A).

Also note in S&Vs test they measured 46 Hz to 20 kHz ±3.2 dB on-axis, ±3.3 dB avg 0°-30° which is much more reasonable considering the size of the driver.

[roscoeiii]

Think JA at Stereophile also did measurements

[2gumby2]

I heard the Kef LS50 speakers at RMAF and thought they sounded fantastic. I was impressed by how much full bodied sound came out of such small enclosures.