KEF LS50

Seik,

Thanks for all that. Very informative!

"This is hard to explain, but there is something about the Kefs that make you feel like the coherency between the driver and tweeter is better."

I'd be willing to bet the concentric/point source driver configuration has a lot to do with this, especially near field in a smaller room.

THe low powered tube amp should be interesting. Neither KEF or Harbeth would seem to be inherently tube amp friendly on paper, but you never know. I suspect HArbeths will do better with the tube amp in that small speakers that do more bass seldom if ever do better with low power tube amps, but for certain kinds of music like those you indicate to be your interests, it may work out just fine.

Thanks again and good luck!

Hi Mapman,

Unfortunately, I won't be able to run the Kefs or the Harbeths with the new tube amp. It's a Decware model of only 4 watts and while it will drive the high efficiency Omega speakers I'll be using with it just fine, there is no way it could handle either of the other two speakers.

Like the discussion. I'll give my first impressions.

My early conclusions are: 1) don't put them in a bookshelf. Tried that for a bit and it really killed the spatiality. That was about 11 feet away. Moving them to about 7 feet away, and at least 1 foot away from the wall helped a lot. I think part of it all is that you do want these speakers a bit closer to you.

Conclusion 2) I'm crossing over at 70Hz. I know some people would do 60 or 80. I had better luck at 70. If I did 80 (I think) there seemed to be a hole. This could well be my electronics and sub. Tried 70 and 90 for a while and ended up liking 70Hz the best.

I think they do need a sub. So sub selection is going to be huge for people who want that. I'll add a last obvious statement/conclusion.

Conclusion 3) Yes, you need some power. I had these on a 70wpc and that seemed like trouble. They are on my 200wpc now, and that seems about right.

General comments: As others have said, these aren't a 3-way--they're a mini monitor. So they do have their limitations. But when they aren't overloaded, they do sing. You don't get that "slam" you would get with a big floor stander. Tested with: Yellowjackets, Jimmy Haslip, Mike Stern, Journey (1st album), Black Crowes, etc. I'd say the Black Crowes is where they had the most trouble keeping up. I'll do a followup review later.

Hi - I was thinking of buying these speakers to serve as my main speakers for listening to music.

Currently, I have the KEF KHT 3500SE set, including the sufwoofer that comes with it. Any thoughts on:

1) Would these speakers be an improvement over the 3500SE?

2) Can I use the KEF sub that came with my system (HTB2SE) with the LS50? Not sure if it's even needed or not.

3) Am I better off just buying floorstanding speakers? I have a $1500 budget.

Thanks so much!

i have totally re-engineered my system around these fabulous performers. the KEF LS50 are already a legend - an incredible bargain.

due to changes in my life, i had to downsize in general, and hence come up with a smaller system. my old system (accuphase DP65v cd/dac and Accuphase E306v IA w/ 10k tower speakers) seemed too big for my new listening room, so it went into storage for now.

when I saw Stereophile gave the KEF LS50 an A rating, i decided to give them a go (i was about to get Dynaudios or Amphions previously). as soon as i heard them (still hooked to the Accuphase E306v) i was blown away: John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman never sounded better. The KEF LS50 strikes a magic balance between utter accuracy and mid-range musicality. voices and instruments like saxophone or trumpet or cello sound organic and alive. the stage is clinically accurate, but not huge (my loudspeaker placement may be the limiting factor here) - it is a lot of fun to hear the walk-around in Sheffield Labs' setup CD.

bass is room dependent, in my case utterly and totally sufficient. i do have a Velodyne Minivee but have it turned down to 5% - so basically it is off, which tells you what i think of the LS50s bass.

i feed FLAC files to a Benchmark DAC2 HGC, which is connected to a Creek Destiny power amp using balanced Analysis Plus cables. Analysis Plus speaker cables then connect to the LS50. the setup is very analytical, yes, but between the LS50 and the Creek things don't get cold - warm tonality comes through and makes the listening *highly* enjoyable (while still giving you the ability to hear a mouse fart in a back corner of the recording studio :-D). as i write this Grover Washington's "Winelight" is playing, and the percussion is staggeringly accurate, as is Grover's sax, of course.

i am very happy with this <$7k system, it is an amazing time to be an audiophile when you can get such live sound in such a small, elegant package.