LS50 and Classical


Hey everyone. I purchased a pair of LS50's (the originals, not the Meta's) about a year ago and my impressions are somewhat mixed. On rock, pop, jazz, blues and hip-hop they generally sound great. But 80% of my listening is classical and I find them somewhat 2-dimensional with the vast majority of my classical collection.

I don't have the space for floor-standers but I'm wondering if anyone has a recommendation for a bookshelf / monitor speaker that will give me more of the 3-dimensionality that I'm looking for. My budget would be up to $3000.

Other equipment:
Schiit Freya S Preamp (running balanced to power amp)
PS Audio Stellar S300 power amp
Denafrips Ares II driven by Volumio
Pro-Ject Debut Carbon with Ortofon 2M Blue
eshafran
I agree with what was said previously about using the LS50s full range.

I use the original LS50s (sexy red ones 😉) in my bedroom system supplemented by a 12" SVS sub, and the sound is awesome.

My biggest complaint is that I spend too much time listening to music instead of sleeping!

Power comes from a Peachtree Nova integrated, fronted by a Marantz receiver that routes everything under 80hz to the SVS sub, leaving the rest to the LS50s. 

It took me a while to get everything dialed in but now the hardware dissapears. Originally I just used the Peachtree integrated but at moderate volumes the LS50s struggled with the full range signal. 

I'm saving up for one of the Parasound 2.1 preamps and a Purifi power amp. This will be partially funded by selling off the Peachtree. 

Mark


 
To get a good full sound on classical that is not not two dimensional and flat requires a large free standing speaker capable of prodigious output and sound i do not know of any bookshelf model that will play classical correctly except for a full size vintage one with large drivers.
Falcon Acoustics la 3/5a or If you like deeper bass Graham Audio LS6. Both heaven for classical. Cheers Leonarend 
Adding a small sub (Rel T/5i) to augment the low end on LS50s provided a major improvement in my listening pleasure. The increased soundstage (depth, in particular) was significant and, with added body to music, the little Kefs no longer sounded small.

Adding a sub (or two) is highly recommended for anyone with small stand-mount speakers.  
turnbown, I noticed a distinct increase in sound stage when I raised the crossover of the pair of Velodyne HGS-15s that supplement KEF Reference 1s from 40 to 80 Hz.  I was surprised.Â