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KEF LS50

Don't post often here but thought I would let you all know I stumbled on a pretty amazing performer in this little monitor.

I would say the midrange is on par with my Harbeth 40.1, treble has a tad more leading edge bite than the best soft dome but its a really good top end that never gets nasty. Dynamically they are performing way better than they should. I'm betting they would compete with the new 30.1 sonically, just a guess.

Have them running with 20X price electronics in a small office and they are not outclassed in any way. Made me want to keep throwing my best gear with them they sounded so good.

If you are in the market grab a pair, you will not regret. Saw two pair this morning for sale for around 1K, I can't think of anything in 20 years offering this much performance for 1K. You could build a world class non-full range sound around these.
petland
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,948 posts
 
Smaller monitors in general often tend to do best on shorter stands where floor can reinforce bass a tad more than otherwise.

I've heard the KEFs. I would tend towards using shorter stands in all but perhaps the smallest rooms.
larrybou
130 posts
 
Good points - though I don't want to invest in shorter stands til I know these are keepers. I'm it would help having them at or below ear level.

I'm seeing more of the potential of these - especially since I went back to the older darker Purist Audio Museaus IC's instead of the newer livelier ones. Gives some much needed depth and gravitas.

But I'm pretty sure I'll find their lively revealing sound isn't what I'm ultimately looking for - but for those that are these are already obviously very capable for the price. But with more burn-in and once my ultra sweet Cary 98L preamp arrives, things could get interesting.
johnvb
3 posts
 
Larrybou. My pair took 150 hours before they sounded totally broken in. Play them as much as you can before the 30 day period ends. They will get better.
larrybou
130 posts
 
Johnvb - What improved about them as they broke in? They're already sounding somewhat rounder on top and I'm starting to get hints of surprisingly good bass. Imaging, soundstage and coherence are all strengths so far. So good in fact I'll be a bit torn sending them back.

But I tend to value scale and non-fatiguing presentation highly which are shortcomings. Timbre also but it's better than expected. How do you see things improving?
johnvb
3 posts
 
At the 30 hour point on mine I was right there with you. I had never owned a metallic drivered speaker before (these replaced modded Maggie MMGs) and thought this might had been a big mistake.

The biggest improvement is that metallic sound goes away, and smooths out greatly. It still has a lively sound, but I don't find it fatiguing at all. Really impressed on how percussion sounds on these, compared to the MMGs.

Of course while they were breaking in, I was also playing around with positioning and toe in. Started with extreme toe in aimed at the chair, now have reduced that to about half. So that probably has helped.

The bass has become less boomy, obviously due to the design, it is not going to be as strong as a floor model. I plan on running dual subs with these, but for the breakin period, leaving the subs (ceiling IBs) off for now.
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