[peterinvan]

 
My experience with the LS50W, 10 days and 150 hours of break-in time...  Spoiler alert: these are keepers!
 
I am a retired grey haired wannabe audiophile.  I favor acoustic instruments, Jazz, Blues, Classical, Country, and some Rock.  Love acoustic bass.   95% of listening is on Tidal (HI-FI and MASTERS)

SET UP
Set up was OK till I tried to download/install the Windows7 KEF USB driver.  I finally realized Norton was flagging the setup.exe file and removing it.  Temporarily disabling Norton solved the issue.  Using the CCK on my iPad out to the USB input was simple and sounded as good as my PC.
 
I hard wired the speakers to my router.  The set up app works OK on iPad, but the app can only be used when the speakers are set to wireless input.  I.e. you can't hear the changes being made in the DSP till you switch back to PC Input (USB).  I didn't try playing local music on the iPad via the Wireless app.
 
 
There are settings for speaker stands, room size and distance from the front wall.  This compensates for my small room and old ears.  I used a existing pair of 29" stands filled with 15lbs of sand each.


 
For my 8x10' den, I have the Bass setup at -6db and the Treble at +2db.   I would have liked more leeway at both ends.  My den is a bit boomy, and my old ears need help in the treble regions.  I have ten  2" Rockwool panels as bass traps and first reflection dampeners.
 
I consulted KEF support, and they recommended 140 hours for break in.  This was accurate, as I did notice a marked improvement overall as I patiently waited, and especially in the Bass area.  Now I get clear and taut bass on most tracks, even at lower volumes.  I ran a 35Hz test tone (sinegen.exe) through the speakers every night and played music at normal listening levels all day for a week.
 
The speakers are toed in towards my La-Z-Boy listening spot.  I found that sweet spot is wider than expected, so a sofa would be covered in a larger room.
 
The remote control manages the LS50W volume as well as changing tracks in Tidal.  Nice.

TIMING
This is what impressed me the most.  I love the accurate timing and resolution with these powered speakers.  The placement of the instruments on the sound stage, and the sharp boundaries around the players.  Transients on drum solos are crisp.  Noticeably better than my old Meridian Explorer2 DAC & tube amp setup.  The oft used cliche about "hearing parts I never heard before" applies.
 

Tracks in my Tidal Playlist for testing soundstage:
 
Wayfaring Stranger (The New Appellations)
A Touch of Class (Patricia Barber)
High Life (Jazz at the Pawnshop)
 
BASS

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/music/saint_saens_symphony_3_lp.htm

I was listening to the final part of this organ piece on my new LS50W speakers. Down to 32Hz!  The very low bass is there, albeit at a lower sound pressure.  In a larger room, a subwoofer would be recommended.

The Bass is taut and fast on most tracks, but on some acoustic bass tracks it is a bit boomy when the volume is turned up.  I can reduce/eliminate the boominess by listening at a lower volume.  EDM bass is weighty and taut.
 
Billy Joe (Patricia Barber)
Nardis (Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue)
Willow Weep For Me (Sinne Eeg)
Tango Till The're Sore (Holly Cole)
Jersy Girl (Holly Cole)
Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reid)
Here We Go Again (Ray Charles/Norah Jones)
A Little World Called Home (Bucky Pizzarelli)
Cold Flame (Yello)
 
MIDS
The quality of the mids varies from record to record.  Male and female voices are clear with no noticeable overlap from bass harmonics.  Full orchestras are well defined, and instruments are nicely isolated on the sound stage.  Yo-Yo's vintage cello sounds "woody".  Nice.

Here We Go Again (Ray Charles/Norah Jones)
5:15AM (Mark Knopfler)
Trawlerman's Song (Mark Knopfler)
Spanish Harlem (Rebecca Pigeon)
Mozart Violin Concertos (Vilde Frang)
Inspired by Bach (Yo-Yo Ma)
 
HIGHS
Highs are crystal clear, with fast action on cymbals and snares.  The upper registers on the piano are sharp, but not metallic.   I love the resonance off the other strings in the piano with the pedal down.
 
Nardis (Patricia Barber)
Stepping Out album (Dianna Krall)

BLUETOOTH
Logging on from my iPhone was no problem.  The sound quality is somewhat reduced over Bluetooth (compared to USB input).
 
NIGGLY BITS
The left speaker cut out once, but it re-synced within 15 sec.

The app for the iOS devices is like an early beta.  You have to stop the music, and switch over to WiFi on the speaker to adjust the DSP settings.   
 
The volume control on the remote offers no feedback, and takes a couple of presses to start adjusting the volume.
 
After a few failed attempts,  I had to disable Norton anti virus before installing the Windows USB driver.
 
CONCLUSION
Great value for money (compared to separate components of equivalent quality).  I am keeping these, focusing on discovering new music instead of new gear,  and putting up my old rig for sale!

 

[hornytoad]

 
 
My experience with the LS50W, 10 days and 150 hours of break-in time...  Spoiler alert: these are keepers!
 
I am a retired grey haired wannabe audiophile.  I favor acoustic instruments, Jazz, Blues, Classical, Country, and some Rock.  Love acoustic bass.   95% of listening is on Tidal (HI-FI and MASTERS)

SET UP
Set up was OK till I tried to download/install the Windows7 KEF USB driver.  I finally realized Norton was flagging the setup.exe file and removing it.  Temporarily disabling Norton solved the issue.  Using the CCK on my iPad out to the USB input was simple and sounded as good as my PC.
 
I hard wired the speakers to my router.  The set up app works OK on iPad, but the app can only be used when the speakers are set to wireless input.  I.e. you can't hear the changes being made in the DSP till you switch back to PC Input (USB).  I didn't try playing local music on the iPad via the Wireless app.
 
 
There are settings for speaker stands, room size and distance from the front wall.  This compensates for my small room and old ears.  I used a existing pair of 29" stands filled with 15lbs of sand each.
 
 
 
For my 8x10' den, I have the Bass setup at -6db and the Treble at +2db.   I would have liked more leeway at both ends.  My den is a bit boomy, and my old ears need help in the treble regions.  I have ten  2" Rockwool panels as bass traps and first reflection dampeners.
 
I consulted KEF support, and they recommended 140 hours for break in.  This was accurate, as I did notice a marked improvement overall as I patiently waited, and especially in the Bass area.  Now I get clear and taut bass on most tracks, even at lower volumes.  I ran a 35Hz test tone (sinegen.exe) through the speakers every night and played music at normal listening levels all day for a week.
 
The speakers are toed in towards my La-Z-Boy listening spot.  I found that sweet spot is wider than expected, so a sofa would be covered in a larger room.
 
The remote control manages the LS50W volume as well as changing tracks in Tidal.  Nice.

TIMING
This is what impressed me the most.  I love the accurate timing and resolution with these powered speakers.  The placement of the instruments on the sound stage, and the sharp boundaries around the players.  Transients on drum solos are crisp.  Noticeably better than my old Meridian Explorer2 DAC & tube amp setup.  The oft used cliche about "hearing parts I never heard before" applies.
 

Tracks in my Tidal Playlist for testing soundstage:
 
Wayfaring Stranger (The New Appellations)
A Touch of Class (Patricia Barber)
High Life (Jazz at the Pawnshop)
 
BASS

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/music/saint_saens_symphony_3_lp.htm

I was listening to the final part of this organ piece on my new LS50W speakers. Down to 32Hz!  The very low bass is there, albeit at a lower sound pressure.  In a larger room, a subwoofer would be recommended.

The Bass is taut and fast on most tracks, but on some acoustic bass tracks it is a bit boomy when the volume is turned up.  I can reduce/eliminate the boominess by listening at a lower volume.  EDM bass is weighty and taut.
 
Billy Joe (Patricia Barber)
Nardis (Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue)
Willow Weep For Me (Sinne Eeg)
Tango Till The're Sore (Holly Cole)
Jersy Girl (Holly Cole)
Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reid)
Here We Go Again (Ray Charles/Norah Jones)
A Little World Called Home (Bucky Pizzarelli)
Cold Flame (Yello)
 
MIDS
The quality of the mids varies from record to record.  Male and female voices are clear with no noticeable overlap from bass harmonics.  Full orchestras are well defined, and instruments are nicely isolated on the sound stage.  Yo-Yo's vintage cello sounds "woody".  Nice.

Here We Go Again (Ray Charles/Norah Jones)
5:15AM (Mark Knopfler)
Trawlerman's Song (Mark Knopfler)
Spanish Harlem (Rebecca Pigeon)
Mozart Violin Concertos (Vilde Frang)
Inspired by Bach (Yo-Yo Ma)
 
HIGHS
Highs are crystal clear, with fast action on cymbals and snares.  The upper registers on the piano are sharp, but not metallic.   I love the resonance off the other strings in the piano with the pedal down.
 
Nardis (Patricia Barber)
Stepping Out album (Dianna Krall)

BLUETOOTH
Logging on from my iPhone was no problem.  The sound quality is somewhat reduced over Bluetooth (compared to USB input).
 
NIGGLY BITS
The left speaker cut out once, but it re-synced within 15 sec.

The app for the iOS devices is like an early beta.  You have to stop the music, and switch over to WiFi on the speaker to adjust the DSP settings.   
 
The volume control on the remote offers no feedback, and takes a couple of presses to start adjusting the volume.
 
After a few failed attempts,  I had to disable Norton anti virus before installing the Windows USB driver.
 
CONCLUSION
Great value for money (compared to separate components of equivalent quality).  I am keeping these, focusing on discovering new music instead of new gear,  and putting up my old rig for sale!

Nice review and I agree with you. 
 
I do think the passive and active Ls50's weakest facet is their sound with rock music . I'm talking hard rock specifically. 
 
I do believe they do require a warmup time frame to sound their best. Maybe 30 minutes or so minimum . 

 

[wgb113]

  Nice review and I agree with you. 
 
I do think the passive and active Ls50's weakest facet is their sound with rock music . I'm talking hard rock specifically. 
 
I do believe they do require a warmup time frame to sound their best. Maybe 30 minutes or so minimum . 

I agree with him on many points as well.  The inability to hear the changes instantly when using a non-WiFi input is probably my biggest complaint.  I've written to KEF about it, hopefully it's something they fix in the next iteration.
 
@hornytoad with regards to the LS50 and hard rock - I get what you're saying but I'm not so sure it's the speaker's fault.  As I've progressed through this hobby over the past 20 years a lot of hard rock just wasn't made to sound good on quality gear - from 80s metal to 90s Britrock, especially when played back-to-back with stuff that was recorded well.  I lived with a pair of passive LS50s for close to 4 years, spent the last year with a pair of B&W N805s, and have recently moved on to a pair of LS50Ws.  A lot of rock/hard rock is exposed for what it is.  Much of it sounds "better" on my bar area setup: Yamaha A-S501 integrated, AppleTV, Paradigm Monitor 90p.  But the good recordings don't sound anywhere near as good down there as they do on the LS50Ws.
 
So which then is truly the better speaker?  For me, I like the warts-and-all approach that the LS50W offers but I completely understand how someone with only the space/budget for one setup might choose a speaker like the Paradigms.

 

[tamsaiming2003]

My experience with the LS50W, 10 days and 150 hours of break-in time...  Spoiler alert: these are keepers!

I am a retired grey haired wannabe audiophile.  I favor acoustic instruments, Jazz, Blues, Classical, Country, and some Rock.  Love acoustic bass.   95% of listening is on Tidal (HI-FI and MASTERS)

SET UP
Set up was OK till I tried to download/install the Windows7 KEF USB driver.  I finally realized Norton was flagging the setup.exe file and removing it.  Temporarily disabling Norton solved the issue.  Using the CCK on my iPad out to the USB input was simple and sounded as good as my PC.

I hard wired the speakers to my router.  The set up app works OK on iPad, but the app can only be used when the speakers are set to wireless input.  I.e. you can't hear the changes being made in the DSP till you switch back to PC Input (USB).  I didn't try playing local music on the iPad via the Wireless app.


There are settings for speaker stands, room size and distance from the front wall.  This compensates for my small room and old ears.  I used a existing pair of 29" stands filled with 15lbs of sand each.

For my 8x10' den, I have the Bass setup at -6db and the Treble at +2db.   I would have liked more leeway at both ends.  My den is a bit boomy, and my old ears need help in the treble regions.  I have ten  2" Rockwool panels as bass traps and first reflection dampeners.

I consulted KEF support, and they recommended 140 hours for break in.  This was accurate, as I did notice a marked improvement overall as I patiently waited, and especially in the Bass area.  Now I get clear and taut bass on most tracks, even at lower volumes.  I ran a 35Hz test tone (sinegen.exe) through the speakers every night and played music at normal listening levels all day for a week.

The speakers are toed in towards my La-Z-Boy listening spot.  I found that sweet spot is wider than expected, so a sofa would be covered in a larger room.

The remote control manages the LS50W volume as well as changing tracks in Tidal.  Nice.

TIMING

This is what impressed me the most.  I love the accurate timing and resolution with these powered speakers.  The placement of the instruments on the sound stage, and the sharp boundaries around the players.  Transients on drum solos are crisp.  Noticeably better than my old Meridian Explorer2 DAC & tube amp setup.  The oft used cliche about "hearing parts I never heard before" applies.



Tracks in my Tidal Playlist for testing soundstage:

Wayfaring Stranger (The New Appellations)
A Touch of Class (Patricia Barber)
High Life (Jazz at the Pawnshop)

 
BASS

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/music/saint_saens_symphony_3_lp.htm


I was listening to the final part of this organ piece on my new LS50W speakers. Down to 32Hz!  The very low bass is there, albeit at a lower sound pressure.  In a larger room, a subwoofer would be recommended.


The Bass is taut and fast on most tracks, but on some acoustic bass tracks it is a bit boomy when the volume is turned up.  I can reduce/eliminate the boominess by listening at a lower volume.  EDM bass is weighty and taut.

Billy Joe (Patricia Barber)
Nardis (Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue)
Willow Weep For Me (Sinne Eeg)
Tango Till The're Sore (Holly Cole)
Jersy Girl (Holly Cole)
Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reid)
Here We Go Again (Ray Charles/Norah Jones)
A Little World Called Home (Bucky Pizzarelli)
Cold Flame (Yello)

MIDS
The quality of the mids varies from record to record.  Male and female voices are clear with no noticeable overlap from bass harmonics.  Full orchestras are well defined, and instruments are nicely isolated on the sound stage.  Yo-Yo's vintage cello sounds "woody".  Nice.

Here We Go Again (Ray Charles/Norah Jones)
5:15AM (Mark Knopfler)
Trawlerman's Song (Mark Knopfler)
Spanish Harlem (Rebecca Pigeon)
Mozart Violin Concertos (Vilde Frang)
Inspired by Bach (Yo-Yo Ma)

HIGHS
Highs are crystal clear, with fast action on cymbals and snares.  The upper registers on the piano are sharp, but not metallic.   I love the resonance off the other strings in the piano with the pedal down.

Nardis (Patricia Barber)
Stepping Out album (Dianna Krall)

BLUETOOTH
Logging on from my iPhone was no problem.  The sound quality is somewhat reduced over Bluetooth (compared to USB input).

NIGGLY BITS
The left speaker cut out once, but it re-synced within 15 sec.


The app for the iOS devices is like an early beta.  You have to stop the music, and switch over to WiFi on the speaker to adjust the DSP settings.   

The volume control on the remote offers no feedback, and takes a couple of presses to start adjusting the volume.

After a few failed attempts,  I had to disable Norton anti virus before installing the Windows USB driver.

 
CONCLUSION
Great value for money (compared to separate components of equivalent quality).  I am keeping these, focusing on discovering new music instead of new gear,  and putting up my old rig for sale!

Nice review, my fd. Mine is still recording. There are 3 languages and it takes time. My review focus on how to improve on the already awesome LS50W (bass, mid, treble, dynamics) by spending the least but with tube sound.

 

[tamsaiming2003]

KEF LS50 vs KEF LS50 wireless (Finally...the battle) (Cantonese, English, Mandarin)

]

Important note: please play the video on computers, or Chrome in Desktop mode. Otherwise, you may not be able to watch it.

Stay tuned on my KEF LS50 Wireless full review(app setup, wifi, lan, cd with pre-amp, toslink, usb(b))

 

[peterinvan]

After five weeks of pleasurable listening, the LS50W has cured my Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS). I believe I have reached my end game system.

Now, I only read the gear reviews to see the favorite tracks the reviewers are using to test new gear.

I also enjoy discovering new albums on Tidal.

Does this mean that I am now a Musicphile, and no longer an Audiophile?

 

[hornytoad]

After five weeks of pleasurable listening, the LS50W has cured my Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS). I believe I have reached my end game system.

Now, I only read the gear reviews to see the favorite tracks the reviewers are using to test new gear.

I also enjoy discovering new albums on Tidal.

Does this mean that I am now a Musicphile, and no longer an Audiophile?

I will admit when I first started listening the to the Kef Ls50's I was a little concerned . They just didn't seem that good compared to my passive Ls50's .

But they needed some serious breakin time . I have about 200 hours on them now and they are completely different from the initial listening impressions. .

They are crazy good now . I'm very happy . Give them time to break in though .

 

[bearFNF]

Just got mine set-up and I am now working through fine tuning. So far liking them, the bass is a little boomy and not center for me, It seems to be on the edges of the room and not in the middle. Will work through that eventually. Yet. Definably an improvement over the Klipsch R-15PM's I had. Just need to tune them and burn them in.

little niggly bit: Wish there was some feedback for the remote, flashing light on the front of the speaker would be nice to tell me it got the signal. I know there is one on top but when I am lounging in the couch cant see it.

No issues with connectivity or WiFi for me. I use an Oppo 103 with external HDD, but mostly a Plex server over wireless and Tidal.

 

[tamsaiming2003]

Just got mine set-up and I am now working through fine tuning. So far liking them, the bass is a little boomy and not center for me, It seems to be on the edges of the room and not in the middle. Will work through that eventually. Yet. Definably an improvement over the Klipsch R-15PM's I had. Just need to tune them and burn them in.

little niggly bit: Wish there was some feedback for the remote, flashing light on the front of the speaker would be nice to tell me it got the signal. I know there is one on top but when I am lounging in the couch cant see it.

No issues with connectivity or WiFi for me. I use an Oppo 103 with external HDD, but mostly a Plex server over wireless and Tidal.

Try run-in longer or trim bass to -5.5db in expert mode from KEF LS50 Wireless app

Stay tuned on my KEF LS50 Wireless full review!

 

[Ashah]

having had LS 50 for over a year with a Peachtree Nova 150 amplifier and now I just got the new LS 50 W for my desk top system I changed my mind these sound far better than the LS 50 ( which I have used with Parasound Halo ( which drives my magnipan 1.7i in the living room and a Marantz SR 5005 AV receiver , and and old Outlaw audio 1050 . I still have one month to send them back but looks like they are keepers

 

[Audiosonic]

Thank you for a good read about the LS50Ws. Since switching to headphones in the mid 90s, I almost bought them after an audition. A reality check and the prospect of equipment creep stopped me. But if an upgraded version came out with DSD decoding, things might be different the next time round.

 

[dogbait]

New firmware released a few days ago: http://us.kef.com/product-support

 

[bigbeard]

thanks, just updated.

Does anyone know when the ls50w will be able to decode mqa (do they already)? This way I can enable mqa pass through on tidal.

 

[verber]

Argh!! Updating firmware on the LS50 wireless sucks!!! The speaker doesn't have an option to do a self update, the iOS app can't do it, nor is the firmware available as an image which can be uploaded from any machine using a browser via http(s) like modern / sensible systems. Nope... the updater is a Windows binary?!! And don't get me started on the iOS app... takes forever to start and about half the time it crashes so it needs to be removed and reinstalled to run.

All that said, the speakers do sound quite good, especially for near field use, but they need some serious help on the software front.

 

[IamMathew]

So, one day, a big box landed on my home. A 23kg box! Wow? What's inside?


IsoTek EV03 Premierx2


Gloss Black/Blue (so cyber~)


^^AV products with lower noise level


It's KEF LS50 Wireless! Bravo! The "active" version of renowned KEF LS50 with 4 Wolfson WM8740E DAC (two on one side)(side-note: 24bit 192khz playback, no native DSD playback supported, to play a DSD file, you need to convert DSD to PCM format(i.e. software decoding)See below:
Windows: usb dac- foobar2000;
MacOS: usb dac- Audirvana Plus;
Android: dlna playback-local music: Neutron Music Player, cloud music(Qobuz or Tidal): BubbleUPnP),
AMP and DSP, wifi(2.4g and 5g), bluetooth, RCA input, Toslink input, USB type B port......etc, all these new hardware and software with just HKD$10000 more (less than USD$1300)


Mysterious!








The Ports(Back of the right KEF LS50 Wireless)


The uni-q driver is so sexy!
So, you know the speaker requires more than 500 hours of burn-in time(the uni-q driver, dac and amp). So, how do I "skip" the burn-in time and enjoy the great music?


I pair the KEF LS50 Wireless with my cheap but great DAC and AMP:
Chord Mojo
Nobsound MS-10D Mkii]Nobsound MS-10D Mkii (with Russian 6H1n tubes and Russian 6n1n-EB tubes)
Cable: 1. Labkable Acoustic Revive PC-triple C 3.5mm male to RCA male
2. Moon Audio Silver Dragon USB cable (will use)
Both of them are of high CP values.(Well, I am so poor that I cannot buy a desktop DAC or desktop pre-AMP or desktop AMP or desktop integrated AMP)




No extra money to buy a SACD player or CD player......so I use my old blu-ray player


Another angle of the speaker. Oh, the uni-q driver is so handsome!


Aux input


Optical Toslink input


USB input


Wifi(use it with "LS50 Wireless" app, with this app, you can configure speaker distance from edge of the desk, distance from the speaker to the wall, level of bass extension,.etc. Thus, you can tailor-make your KEF sound!)(Again, android-dlna playback:local music: Neutron Music Player, cloud music(Qobuz or Tidal): BubbleUPnP))


Bluetooth aptx (There is no aptx HD codec with this speaker. This is a flagship bookshelf speaker, right? Hope KEF adds aptx HD or LDAC in the next generation LS50.)


Getting ready




<<U87>> from Eason Chan (Cantonese, 2005) - Recommended by Time Magazine as one of the five best Asian albums worth buying<<<<<<<A must buy sacd, even if you don't understand Cantonese at all!


A good album from Faye Wong


The big picture
One more sexy picture of


Chord Mojo and Nobsound MS-10D Mk II

I will share my first impression/review on youtube, stay tuned!
Thx. for reading! Shut up and take your money out!

The next unboxing and review: Sony MDR-Z1R

Why would anyone want to pair these with Mojo or amp/ preamp? These have built in A/D converter right behind their analogue cinch inputs. So even when someone uses Mojo or turntable, these speakers will convert that analogue signal back to digital. Using an external DAC is therefore pointless, since one will always experience those four built in DACs in the speakers themselves, as these can't be bypassed.