I am with the majority here in hearing very clear and huge benefits to an outboard DAC going into the LS50W (same holds true to a lesser extent for the new LSX, of which I have two pairs). Those coming at this and posting without having owned and tested the equipment are misguided. You just don't know until you try it yourself. And those of us who have the equipment seem to agree (maybe unanimously on this thread) that an outboard DAC works wonders for the LS50Ws. It's truly night and day. Noticeable by people who have heard my speakers, without prodding, and these are folks who normally wouldn't care or have any interest in trying to decipher all of our audiophile tweaks. When they hear these speakers with a quality outboard DAC their ears perk up and notice how great it sounds.
For reference, my preferred streamer and DAC with both the LS50Ws and the LSXs has been the Chord mojo/poly combo. I have gone back and forth dozens of times and every time I switch back to streaming directly to the LS50Ws or LSXs I can hear the lack of organic realism and ease with which the sound is reproduced with the Chord setup in the chain.
I think KEF has mastered everything here except the streamer (and maybe the internal DAC could be better too). Simply put, the KEFs sound better when being fed a high quality analog signal. This is likely because they wanted people to be happy with hooking up their turntables. From their they have somehow set up the system to handle the analog ADC then DAC chain better than they handle the internal streamer to DAC chain. But the internal DAC must be pretty good in that it sounds great in the ADC to DAC mode. So likely the weak link for KEF is the streamer. So use an outboard streamer and DAC...problem solved. Once you hear it you cannot unhear it!
For reference, my preferred streamer and DAC with both the LS50Ws and the LSXs has been the Chord mojo/poly combo. I have gone back and forth dozens of times and every time I switch back to streaming directly to the LS50Ws or LSXs I can hear the lack of organic realism and ease with which the sound is reproduced with the Chord setup in the chain.
I think KEF has mastered everything here except the streamer (and maybe the internal DAC could be better too). Simply put, the KEFs sound better when being fed a high quality analog signal. This is likely because they wanted people to be happy with hooking up their turntables. From their they have somehow set up the system to handle the analog ADC then DAC chain better than they handle the internal streamer to DAC chain. But the internal DAC must be pretty good in that it sounds great in the ADC to DAC mode. So likely the weak link for KEF is the streamer. So use an outboard streamer and DAC...problem solved. Once you hear it you cannot unhear it!