A Note For LS50 Owners

@yyzsantabarbara 

What a lovely gift. 

Update: I was being careful when I made my first post, which I thought was the responsible thing to do. But after more listening, I think it’s only fair to be a little more confident in my assessment. The speakers sound great. A few moments with a hex wrench made a noticeable difference. If you have LS50s with a few years on them, do yourself a favor and check the bolts. Good things may be in store.

I just switched out my LS50s for some Totem Model One Signatures.  Yeah, I know, Model Ones are old, but I found these in MINT from a dealer hear on audiogon.  But, perhaps I was slowly becoming disenchanted with the LS50s due to loose screws (both literally and figuratively)!!  All kidding aside, the Totems are on a completely different level of transparency and sound staging and timbre(tone).  Instruments just sound more real and uniquely different from each other and delineated in space.  Switching back to the LS50s, everything kind of sounds the same, like they're coming from speakers and not real.  Also, they LS50s sound way more bloated in the mid bass, muddying everything up in comparison.  Just different level, guys.  

I checked mine and sure enough a couple of the bolts needed a full turn. I was careful not to tighten them too much, I wonder if KEF has a torque spec for them. I can’t say I noticed a big change, but definitely something to keep an eye on with these speakers.