KEF LS50 Speakers and Custom Made Sound Anchor Stands

[mep]

They are very special speakers. I went ahead and busted the Sound Anchor stands out of their boxes and lugged them down into my room. Those stands weigh around 80 lbs so that was fun. I positioned the LS50s a little further out into my room and they are a little over 9' apart. I'm running them sans any foam in the ports based on the instruction manual and how far away the speakers are from sidewalls and the rear wall.

Frantz mentioned how the LS50s remind him of the ESL-63 speakers. I would say that the midrange and highs are so pure within their limits that they do sound like very good electrostatic speakers.

 

[mep]

My LS50s and Sound Anchor stands are no longer for sale. I'm keeping them. They are way too good to give up for the money they cost or several multiples thereof. Having repositioned them in my room and using them on the Sound Anchor stands, what was really good became even much better. These speakers will tell you everything about your source material. If your source material has a big, deep soundstage, you will hear it. If your source material doesn't have much depth, you will hear it. What the LS50 do with voices, maybe you haven't heard that. These are incredibly pure-sounding speakers and they make music make more sense.

Tim was right-I did speed date the LS50s and I should have known better. I jumped to conclusions without waiting for the Sound Anchor stands to arrive and spending more time really getting them setup properly in my room. I also had a hard time letting go of 18 drivers versus 4. In retrospect, I can play the big Def Techs louder without any sort of compression artifacts, but the LS50s have the more pure sound at the end of the day.
I'm still using all 4 subs and still playing around with setting overall levels and crossover frequency. I really don't like the crossover set above 50 Hz for the here and now even though others clamor to set the crossover much higher. I find the bass to be cleaner and tighter that way.

 

[FrantzM]

My LS50s and Sound Anchor stands are no longer for sale. I'm keeping them. They are way to good to give up for the money they cost or several multiples thereof. Having repositioned them in my room and using them on the Sound Anchor stands, what was really good became even much better. These speakers will tell you everything about your source material. If your source material has a big, deep soundstage, you will hear it. If your source material doesn't have much depth, you will hear it. What the LS50 do with voices, maybe you haven't heard that. These are incredibly pure-sounding speakers and they make music make more sense.

Tim was right-I did speed date the LS50s and I should have known better. I jumped to conclusions without waiting for the Sound Anchor stands to arrive and spending more time really getting them setup properly in my room. I also had a hard time letting go of 18 drivers versus 4. In retrospect, I can play the big Def Techs louder without any sort of compression artifacts, but the LS50s have the more pure sound at the end of the day.
I'm still using all 4 subs and still playing around with setting overall levels and crossover frequency. I really don't like the crossover set above 50 Hz for the here and now even though others clamor to set the crossover much higher. I find the bass to be cleaner and tighter that way.

 

[flez007]

My LS50s and Sound Anchor stands are no longer for sale. I'm keeping them. They are way to good to give up for the money they cost or several multiples thereof. Having repositioned them in my room and using them on the Sound Anchor stands, what was really good became even much better. These speakers will tell you everything about your source material. If your source material has a big, deep soundstage, you will hear it. If your source material doesn't have much depth, you will hear it. What the LS50 do with voices, maybe you haven't heard that. These are incredibly pure-sounding speakers and they make music make more sense.

Tim was right-I did speed date the LS50s and I should have known better. I jumped to conclusions without waiting for the Sound Anchor stands to arrive and spending more time really getting them setup properly in my room. I also had a hard time letting go of 18 drivers versus 4. In retrospect, I can play the big Def Techs louder without any sort of compression artifacts, but the LS50s have the more pure sound at the end of the day.
I'm still using all 4 subs and still playing around with setting overall levels and crossover frequency. I really don't like the crossover set above 50 Hz for the here and now even though others clamor to set the crossover much higher. I find the bass to be cleaner and tighter that way.

Glad for you Mark!

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

My LS50s and Sound Anchor stands are no longer for sale. I'm keeping them. They are way to good to give up for the money they cost or several multiples thereof. Having repositioned them in my room and using them on the Sound Anchor stands, what was really good became even much better. These speakers will tell you everything about your source material. If your source material has a big, deep soundstage, you will hear it. If your source material doesn't have much depth, you will hear it. What the LS50 do with voices, maybe you haven't heard that. These are incredibly pure-sounding speakers and they make music make more sense.

Tim was right-I did speed date the LS50s and I should have known better. I jumped to conclusions without waiting for the Sound Anchor stands to arrive and spending more time really getting them setup properly in my room. I also had a hard time letting go of 18 drivers versus 4. In retrospect, I can play the big Def Techs louder without any sort of compression artifacts, but the LS50s have the more pure sound at the end of the day.
I'm still using all 4 subs and still playing around with setting overall levels and crossover frequency. I really don't like the crossover set above 50 Hz for the here and now even though others clamor to set the crossover much higher. I find the bass to be cleaner and tighter that way.

Congratulations. So you've decided that the volume is not an issue? They get loud enough for you?

Tim

 

[mep]

Congratulations. So you've decided that the volume is not an issue? They get loud enough for you?

Tim

Tim-Having moved them another foot closer to my listening position has helped change the equation. I really should be happy with the volume levels I can cleanly achieve now. It's possibly higher than many people can listen to their systems before their wife comes in and pitches a fit. I feel that every recording has a level that it 'begs' to be played back at in order to sound as real as that recording is going to sound. I think I can do pretty well inside of the envelope I have to play with.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Excellent. And Lord knows you've got enough grunt for them. I personally prefer listening at pretty moderate levels, though as close as I sit, and as much power as I have, it can uncomfortably loud before anything starts to strain, well, anything other than my ears. I do enjoy annoying the wife, but prefer to do it with guitar amplifiers.

Tim

 

[mep]

Excellent. And Lord knows you've got enough grunt for them. I personally prefer listening at pretty moderate levels, though as close as I sit, and as much power as I have, it can uncomfortably loud before anything starts to strain, well, anything other than my ears. I do enjoy annoying the wife, but prefer to do it with guitar amplifiers.

Tim

Sometimes when I look down at the Krell KSA-250 that is only powering my LS50s, I kind of laugh because it is a fairly extreme pairing. But guess what? They sound great together. For speakers that you have sitting on your desktop, I know that you have far more power available than your ears could tolerate at the distance you are sitting from them. It might be a close race between your ears giving out or your wife being unhappy. My gut tells me the wife would probably come first assuming she was home when you cranked up the volume knob.

As for annoying the wife, I personally don't enjoy that. It's easy enough to annoy them without trying let alone being deliberate about it. With regards to music listening at levels you want to hear music being played back at, that is one area that I might have an advantage over lots of audiophiles who share their listening room with their spouses as part of the main house. I used to be able to take it to extreme levels (and I still could if I wanted to by swapping out a pair of speakers and cables), now I can just take it to semi-extreme levels.

 

[RBFC]

Personally, I'm thrilled for you, Mark. It sure sounds like you gained a lot more than you've given up.

Lee

 

[mep]

Thanks Lee. I appreciate the kind thoughts.