Heard both of these at AXPONA this year, in 2 separate rooms. The KEFs were in a HUGE room and sounded alright. But the Atohms were in a normal room. when I entered the room, I thought the floor standers were playing. I was told that the GT1s were playing. I went up to the speakers to make sure. And found out that indeed the GT1s were playing and there was no sub-woofer anywhere. Of the 2 I would pick the Atohms. They sounded like a pair of mid-sized floorstanders and made some impressive music.
Have a look at the Quested H108 its a few steps above both speakers you mentioned above. I have had the Kef for over 3 years and sold it off. The Quested are reasonable priced and perform more like a large 3 way but in a small form size.
@audiotroy would you mind sharing your views on the Atohm GT1 speakers? Do they compare well with other bookshelf speakers in the similar price range. TAS has a review of them and liked them very much but found the low end to be a weakness (of sorts). Is that your experience as well?
We had both speakers side by side same system, and the Athoms smoked the LS 50 in every way.
Really wasn't close, Athom is one of those secret brands in audio that makes surprisingly good loudspeakers.
The Athoms had a bigger sound with a fuller midrange, and more bass.
The question as to value is a different one, The LS 50 is a very special loudspeaker that has a clairty that reminds us of a good electrostatic loudspeaker.
With that being said the Athom was better $3,000.00 better is a tough call these days, as you now have the Elac Adantes at $2,500.00 and that is a lot of performance for twice the price.
I had them partnered with a Devialet and they sounded both were made for each other. I have heard Devialet sounded much worse with even higher end speakers.
I heard the smaller Atohm monitors a couple of years ago and fell quite hard for them. It was the price that kept me from buying them. I know this is not a fair comparison but after hearing the KEF Ls50 monitors some years later, I'd still take the Atohms over the KEFs if money were not a concern. They offer so much more that I like.
I had a chance to audition the Atom GT1 Special Editions (Devialet) and I must say they are absolutely fantastic speakers. I was really impressed with their clarity, sense of space, imaging and their "full" sound in my medium sized room. They really are awesome speakers and I'm very surprised they're not more popular.
I own a pair of the KEF LS50 wireless speakers which I've found to be quite good and which are also supposedly better than the passive ones (though I haven't heard the passives), but the KEFs are not in the same league as the Atohm GT1s. They are much smaller sounding with a thinner sound and much inferior in terms of imaging.
I have a really hard decision on whether to buy the Atohms now or wait and buy a full range floor stander which was my original plan (until I heard the Atohms)!
Stumbled across this posting as I recently bought KEF LS50 Wireless based solely on the raving reviews all over the web/industry publications/podcasts/etc. Being familiar with the GT1 HD, I was hoping for something similar in a convenient all-in-one package with the LS50W. Boy, what a disappointment. Completely underwhelmed with the LS50W, personally. I guess if you've never experienced great sound, they're better than average...but they're a far cry from the GT1 HD. I'm now going to sell the LS50W and "complicate" my goal with the GT1 HD and an Atoll integrated/streamer...one more piece of equipment, and yes, more money...but...LS50W leaves me waning in a big way.
You're right the KEF LS50W are nowhere near as good as the Atohms. I found the KEFs to be suitable to a desktop setup but don't do enough in a larger area. But I actually had so many reliability issues with them and after going through 2 replacements in a year the dealer actually took them back and refunded my money!
I have my Atohm GT1s connected to a Naim Uniti Atom & a Naim 250 AMP and the sound is excellent. I have 2 JL Audio E110 subs on order and can't wait to hear the Atohms with the added subs.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.