Kef ls50
- Thread starter nirodha
- Start date
Steve Williams
Site Founder, Site Co-Owner, Administrator
Here you go Steve:
Design: Two-way bass reflex
• Drive units:
• HF: 25mm (1in.) vented aluminium dome
• MF: 130mm (5.25in.) magnesium/ aluminium alloy
• Crossover frequencies: 2.2kHz
• Frequency response (±3dB): 79Hz - 28 kHz
• Frequency range (-6dB): 47Hz - 45kHz
• Maximum output (SPL): 106dB
• Sensitivity (2.83V/1m): 85dB
• Amp Requirements: 25-100w
• Nominal impedance: 8? (min. 3.2?)
• Dimensions (H x W x D): 11.9 x 7.9 x 10.9 in.
• Weight: 7.2kg (15.8lbs)
Price: 1000 euros; $1500
Cheers,
Wim
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For a closer look: a youtube unboxing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wXhPOZJ9_o
and a review..sort of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVTiMCUUCDk
Wim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wXhPOZJ9_o
and a review..sort of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVTiMCUUCDk
Wim
Steve Williams
Site Founder, Site Co-Owner, Administrator
Price: 1000 euros; $1500, Steve.
This is really (!) a real bargain in this insane world we live in.
Steve Williams
Site Founder, Site Co-Owner, Administrator
Here's a stereophile review......
http://www.stereophile.com/content/kef-ls50-anniversary-model-loudspeaker
http://www.stereophile.com/content/kef-ls50-anniversary-model-loudspeaker
I have heard positive things from those I trust about these speakers. I have always liked the better small KEFs, and have an older pair on this computer that I listen to a lot. With KEF comes good and bad, but they can build awesome speakers when they set their minds to it. From all accounts, they have done it once again.
Some series, like the reference / Muon / Blade, are made in Britain and have their full attention. The cheaper lines are produced in China. Don't have much experience with the latter. These little ones seem to be winners (also made in Britain, I presume) but my big 207/2's are definite winners as well.
. They also deliver quality for a price which still is acceptable.
definately not tube friendly at this sensitivity unless you want to spenf 5x or more the speaker price on a stereo tube amp that could properly drive them
Unless you live in the Euro-zone. I don't think you can save a lot by buying in the UK. BUT: What is the lowest dealer (!) price in the UK?
http://www.stereophile.com/content/kef-audio-electronics-wireworld
While there were many exciting cost-no-object systems on display, the New York Audio Show was also home to refreshingly small and simple systems that nevertheless offered exceptional performance. KEF’s beautiful LS50 loudspeakers ($1500/pair) were partnered with Audio Electronics’ Constellation tube preamp ($1495), Hercules power amp ($1895), and Lightning DAC ($1295). Wireworld provided the cabling. The music, which came from a laptop, sounded forceful, dynamic, colorful, and present.
If I could have taken home any system from the New York Audio Show, it would have been this one.
While there were many exciting cost-no-object systems on display, the New York Audio Show was also home to refreshingly small and simple systems that nevertheless offered exceptional performance. KEF’s beautiful LS50 loudspeakers ($1500/pair) were partnered with Audio Electronics’ Constellation tube preamp ($1495), Hercules power amp ($1895), and Lightning DAC ($1295). Wireworld provided the cabling. The music, which came from a laptop, sounded forceful, dynamic, colorful, and present.
If I could have taken home any system from the New York Audio Show, it would have been this one.
http://www.stereophile.com/content/kef-audio-electronics-wireworld
While there were many exciting cost-no-object systems on display, the New York Audio Show was also home to refreshingly small and simple systems that nevertheless offered exceptional performance. KEF’s beautiful LS50 loudspeakers ($1500/pair) were partnered with Audio Electronics’ Constellation tube preamp ($1495), Hercules power amp ($1895), and Lightning DAC ($1295). Wireworld provided the cabling. The music, which came from a laptop, sounded forceful, dynamic, colorful, and present.
If I could have taken home any system from the New York Audio Show, it would have been this one.
That is KEF: real(istic) music for real world prices
!
Steve Williams
Site Founder, Site Co-Owner, Administrator
I am quite anxious to hear what mep will say about his pair which I know he is actively breaking in
At $1500/pair, nothing IM comes close to these
At $1500/pair, nothing IM comes close to these
I think we have about 3 different KEF LS50 threads right now, but I guess this is as good as any LS50 threads to post some of my initial thoughts on hearing them. My LS50s arrived in perfect condition and they even look smaller in person than they do in pictures (I guess pictures put weight on objects too). I have custom ordered stands from Sound Anchor, but those won't be here for another 3 weeks or so. I went into the closet and pulled out a pair of stands that came with a pair of Paradigm speakers. The stands are not ideal, are not rigid, and they don't bite through the carpet very well at all. I just plunked them down in front of and to the outside of my Def Tech speakers and they are about 9' apart from center-to-center. They are far away from the rear wall and I'm probably sitting about 12' away from them. The binding posts on the LS50 look like they are 5-way binding posts, but damned if I could get the banana plugs from my MIT cables to fit in there. On Joe Abrams advice, since my MIT cables are bi-wire, I was going to put spades on one set of the tails and banana plugs on the other tail so it would be a clean hook-up to the LS50s. I gave up on that plan when the banana plugs wouldn't fit because trying to jam two big spade lugs on the same binding post was going to be kludge. I dug through my stash of cables and pulled out a pair of Synergistic Research speaker cable and lashed them up to my KSA-250 and the LS50s. All of this happened on Thursday night after I got home from work. I went ahead and powered up the amp and hit play on my music server.
The first thing that struck me was there wasn't a big drop off in volume. Each Def Tech has 9 drivers per speaker and of course the LS50s have a total of 4 and that coaxial driver is tiny. I was afraid it was going to be a joke when I unmuted the preamp, but it was no joke. I do have my pair of Def Tech Reference subs playing as well. I crossed them over to around 80 Hz as a starting point and I had to turn the gain up a little. After I assured myself this wasn't going to be a joke, I let the speakers just play music to start the break-in process and I went upstairs. I went back downstairs and listened to them for a little bit before I went to bed, but I didn't listen long enough to form any real opinions.
Last night was my first full listening session and I played digital files, Lps, and tape. One of the notes I jotted down in all capital letters was "LITTLE TRUTH TELLERS." And that is exactly what they are. And when I use the term 'little', I don't mean in the size and scale of the music, I strictly mean the physical stature of the speakers. The LS50s throw a huge soundstage. It is wide and deep. I was listening to the Ray Charles duets album via DSD file on my server and when the song "Fever" came on, I jotted down another note that said: "and then Ray Charles Fever kicked in...Awesome." This recording is an excellent recording, but I never realized until last night how even though each track sounds really good in its own right, they all sound different one from another. The LS50s let you know how each recording was made and show the differences from cut to cut more than I remember hearing before. That's one of the reasons I called them little truth tellers. My Def Techs somehow homogenized the sound a bit which didn't make different cuts from the same album stand apart from each other as much as the LS50s. Maybe that's the difference between a point source speaker and a bipolar speaker. Maybe that's the difference between having a very high-tech driver mounted in a small cabinet that is well-engineered and executed for rigidity and dampening. Each LS50 weighs 15 lbs and each Def Tech weighs 150 lbs. That is 10 times the mass to store and release energy and maybe some of that energy storage and release is adding to the sound in a way that imparts some 'sameness' from cut to cut.
The other thing I was worried about with the LS50s was would they play loud enough to satisfy me in my room. The answer is yes, at least so far. Voices through these speakers have to be heard to be believed and appreciated. And that's both male and female. You can really hear into the room (or studio) with these speakers and they seem to have a way of making music sound more "live" even if it wasn't a live recording if that make sense. Even though recordings now sound 'different' to me, they sound 'different' in a positive way.
So, the LS50s are far from being set up optimally and I'm sure the sub settings will have to be tweaked some more. Given those caveats, I mighty impressed with what I am hearing. I was afraid this was going to be a joke and there would be a huge let down going from my big Def Techs to the diminutive LS50s and I was going to have to quickly take them out of my system and lash the Def Techs back up. Thankfully this didn't happen. Oh, did I mention the tweeter on the LS50 is really special? I think it is. We will see if the star fades with time, but right now I really like what I am hearing. I do think the LS50s scrub away a lot of crap and distortion that other speakers add to the sound which makes them more of a high purity/high resolution device. Even at full-retail which I paid, the LS50s are a steal.
The first thing that struck me was there wasn't a big drop off in volume. Each Def Tech has 9 drivers per speaker and of course the LS50s have a total of 4 and that coaxial driver is tiny. I was afraid it was going to be a joke when I unmuted the preamp, but it was no joke. I do have my pair of Def Tech Reference subs playing as well. I crossed them over to around 80 Hz as a starting point and I had to turn the gain up a little. After I assured myself this wasn't going to be a joke, I let the speakers just play music to start the break-in process and I went upstairs. I went back downstairs and listened to them for a little bit before I went to bed, but I didn't listen long enough to form any real opinions.
Last night was my first full listening session and I played digital files, Lps, and tape. One of the notes I jotted down in all capital letters was "LITTLE TRUTH TELLERS." And that is exactly what they are. And when I use the term 'little', I don't mean in the size and scale of the music, I strictly mean the physical stature of the speakers. The LS50s throw a huge soundstage. It is wide and deep. I was listening to the Ray Charles duets album via DSD file on my server and when the song "Fever" came on, I jotted down another note that said: "and then Ray Charles Fever kicked in...Awesome." This recording is an excellent recording, but I never realized until last night how even though each track sounds really good in its own right, they all sound different one from another. The LS50s let you know how each recording was made and show the differences from cut to cut more than I remember hearing before. That's one of the reasons I called them little truth tellers. My Def Techs somehow homogenized the sound a bit which didn't make different cuts from the same album stand apart from each other as much as the LS50s. Maybe that's the difference between a point source speaker and a bipolar speaker. Maybe that's the difference between having a very high-tech driver mounted in a small cabinet that is well-engineered and executed for rigidity and dampening. Each LS50 weighs 15 lbs and each Def Tech weighs 150 lbs. That is 10 times the mass to store and release energy and maybe some of that energy storage and release is adding to the sound in a way that imparts some 'sameness' from cut to cut.
The other thing I was worried about with the LS50s was would they play loud enough to satisfy me in my room. The answer is yes, at least so far. Voices through these speakers have to be heard to be believed and appreciated. And that's both male and female. You can really hear into the room (or studio) with these speakers and they seem to have a way of making music sound more "live" even if it wasn't a live recording if that make sense. Even though recordings now sound 'different' to me, they sound 'different' in a positive way.
So, the LS50s are far from being set up optimally and I'm sure the sub settings will have to be tweaked some more. Given those caveats, I mighty impressed with what I am hearing. I was afraid this was going to be a joke and there would be a huge let down going from my big Def Techs to the diminutive LS50s and I was going to have to quickly take them out of my system and lash the Def Techs back up. Thankfully this didn't happen. Oh, did I mention the tweeter on the LS50 is really special? I think it is. We will see if the star fades with time, but right now I really like what I am hearing. I do think the LS50s scrub away a lot of crap and distortion that other speakers add to the sound which makes them more of a high purity/high resolution device. Even at full-retail which I paid, the LS50s are a steal.
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Steve Williams
Site Founder, Site Co-Owner, Administrator
This is a very interesting thread. The little ( and by looking at the dimensions...I should probably say "tiny") LS50's are truly getting some great press. Now I wish I had heard them. Anyone have any thoughts on how they would compare to the now MUCH more expensive EA MMMicro One's? Is it the King is dead, long live the King
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