KEF LS50 Mini Monitor - Black Edition (Pair)

Ever since the 90s I’ve dabbled with audio equipment. It started with a nice set of Paradigm Reference speakers and a Yamaha DSP-A1. That setup sounded great – not perfect, but great – but it took up so much room. I wanted good sound in a smaller room without filling it up with components and wires.Fast forward 20 years and I’ve bought 4-5 sets of speakers, the same number of 2 channel amps, yet never was satisfied with the sound. I kept tweaking here or there – getting color out of the midrange, making the upper end clear but not harsh, getting definition to the low end but not overpowering the rest of the sound – but I could never leave it alone. The sound was always just a little better than “good” but never anywhere near great.Then, about 9 months ago, I try a Yamaha Natural Sound amp and a pair of Definitive Technologies Studio Monitor 450s with a DAC playing Spotify and my iTunes library (FLAC rips from CDs). It reignited my enjoyment of just sitting in a comfy chair, with an adult beverage, and enjoying the sound. I could lose hours and it seemed like 10 minutes.Still, the sound didn’t live up to a few truly remarkable systems I’ve heard over the years, typically with components with names like McIntosh in them. But I wasn’t interested in spending $6000+ for a small room 2-channel system.So I get to Googling and come across the KEF LS50s and thousands of glowing reviews. I figure with Amazon being so wonderful, I could just return them if they didn’t live up to the hype.Upon unboxing them, plugging them in, and just putting a signal through them, I hear “it”. There’s just a forward, 3D, rich but not colored, detailed but not thin sound that I’ve never heard before. And this is with a cheap Yamaha amp, absolutely no speaker placement optimization, cheap wire, a low-end DAC, etc.Wow.So I start borrowing amps from friends, ordering a few trial units from dealers, borrowing different DACs to try. The first thing I notice is how the speakers noticeably sound different depending on the amp, even when the amps are set to “direct pass” or some similar setting to remove any processing, color, treble, bass, etc. (You’ll see many people online say you really can’t hear the difference between amps. I believed the same was true with any amp below $2500 before owning these speakers; however, they are so revealing that even non-audiophiles can identify different lower-end amps in a blindfold test.) Ditto for the source material. Songs that sounded pretty much the same on other units either lighted-up or are exposed as being evidence of a mastering engineer not giving it their all. It was truly remarkable how revealing the speakers were – of both the equipment and the recording.Anyway, I work through the loaner amps and settle on two: a NAD and Peachtree Audio amp. Both sound good but different in their own ways. I give the most preference to the NAD due to its cleaner sound over the Peachtree's muddier sound. Still it was hard to get past the NAD's analytical and punchy sound, especially at the high end. I personally found it to be tiring over time. So I try one more amp before just settling for the NAD: the Wyred4Sound mINT (with integrated Sabre DAC).It arrives and looks like a joke. It’s too small, ugly, looks like a battery charger more than a piece of audio equipment. But I plug it in and hear a level of clarity without coloring across the full range that I’ve never heard since those 3 or 4 really high-end systems I recall from years’ past. Frankly, I’m stunned. The LS50s seem to doubly come alive with the mINT. The high end range just has a level of polish I’ve only heard on a handful of systems over 20 years. It just becomes pure bliss listening for hours on end.So I start screwing around with speaker placement. My listening room is my home office, about 15 X 15, wood floors, 9’ ceiling. KEF has suggestions in their manual, I tried them and it improved the sound, but I wasn’t satisfied. On a whim after the cleaning lady moved my speakers (!!), I leave them 2’ apart and notice the soundstage is still amazingly large for the speakers to be practically next to each other. I start moving them a little here or there over several sessions over a few weeks. I end up with them about 4.5-5’ apart, ear level, about 25” off the wall, and about 15’ away from my recliner in the opposite corner of the room. It’s just sublime and I’ve left it alone. It's a placement I'd never ever guess would work; I'm used to really getting speakers separated for an immersive soundstage, making a triangle, etc. Moral of the story: be aware that even small speaker placement adjustments with these speakers make substantial sound differences, and don't be afraid to try unconventional placements.One final thought: Some people say the low end on the KEFs needs a sub. On paper, I’d agree as KEF says the speaker rolls off at 80hz. So I lug my 1200 watt Paradigm Servo 15 sub down to my office, add the X-20 crossover, and start playing with having the sub adding support below 80hz. I play with phase adjustment and get the speakers “in time”, then find myself just turning the sub lower and lower due to the clean, very detailed, very tight low end on the KEFs. I get to the point where the sub is really only firing on nothing but the lowest of low notes, down around 30-40hz, where you feel it more than hear it. So I try an experiment: I just unplug the sub for a week. At the end of the week I don’t miss it at all; the sound is in no way lacking without a sub. I also suspect KEF is exceptionally conservative in their frequency response specs. If there’s a big roll-off below 80hz, I sure don’t hear it. Likewise, friends swear there’s a sub hidden somewhere in the room.So, in summary, if you are at all into music – especially with everyone effectively having an infinite record collection with services like Spotify – and want something for a smaller space, I can not recommend the KEF LS50s enough. They are transcendent in the world of speakers. Likewise, if you own a pair and still are looking for the ”it” in the sound, I’d highly suggest trying the Wyred4Sound mINT and a good set of speaker cables. I honestly could see owning this setup for the rest of my life, never changing it – nor wanting to change it – and willing it to my kids. It’s now one of my prized possessions. It’s that good.Happy listening.

Review: KEF LS50 Mini Monitor - High Gloss Piano Black (Pair)Hardware: Dedicated Mac Mini (Mid 2011, 16GB, SSD storage), OS X 10.11.6, iTunes 12.5.5.5, and Pure Music 3.0.9, Benchmark Media DAC 3L, Oppo 205, Parasound A23, Blue Jean Cables terminated Belden 5T00UP 10 AWG Speaker CablesI bought the KEF X300A Wireless Digital Hi-Fi Speaker System for my office and was so amazed at the sound, I mentioned their performance to an audio enthusiast friend. A short while later, he came back and told me to take a look at the KEF LS50. I didn’t need another set of speakers in my main audio stack. I listened to a lot of speakers before I bought my main speakers, except that I never bothered with the little KEF speakers. As I read the KEF LS50 professional reviews and the forum reviews, I became intrigued.As I wasn’t able to find a local dealer where I could demo the LS50 speakers, so I bought a pair of LS50’s from KEF on Amazon. When the LS50’s arrived, I placed them on a set of heavy 24 inch speaker stands and connected them to my amp and turned on my audio stack. I was stunned, ABSOLUTELY STUNNED, at the sound that came out of the these speakers. I thought the KEF X300A speakers had an amazing sound, but these speakers with the same driver absolutely blew away my expectations of a common sound performance. I had a hard time believing these little speakers made this kind of sound. AMAZING SOUND! The resolution I heard, wow! I spent the day and night listening to these speakers, going through my music library listening to favorites. And this was without any break in time for the speakers!I’m not going to bore you with snooty audiophile terms (what do they mean anyway?)... Its now been almost 18 months since getting the LS50’s. I have never been disappointed by their performance. I continue to be amazed at the exceptional sound quality, even as I continue to demo other speakers (last demo was the Magnepan 1.7i - superb sound, but BIG!).My main speakers are Paradigm Studio 100, a full range speaker, which produces an exceptional sound I love. The LS50’s are a Two-way bass reflex speaker, which essentially means the bass response can be moderated by how far away the speakers are relative to the back wall. I’m not either a low frequency hound or aficionado, rather I like a full range sound when I play my music. Most music plays above 100Hz and while these speaker have a Frequency Response of 79Hz - 28kHz (±3dB), have no doubt, most music plays incredibly well. Because my Studios are in the placed in sweet spot for them to perform, I have to place the LS50’s almost three feet away from the back wall. This is too far for the bass reflex to come into play. The solution? A MUSIC GRADE sub (needs to be “fast”, not like the lumbering 16” sub in my home theater setup.) Enter REL Acoustic subs and their ability to get the sub feed from the speaker binding posts of the amp (I don’t have a LFE jack in my audio stack). So I bought a single REL Acoustics Seri T/7i sub and once I got it hooked up and tuned, I found musical nirvana, a most heavenly sound from my audio stack. Now, the sound could easily reach into the 30 Hz range. Music with organs and other instruments capable of low end notes, well, all is well in my listening room. I spend most of my listening time with the LS50’s setup, only reverting over to the Studios for a change and because I want to listen to music with the Studio’s sonic signature.I value a sonically neutral sound, without any coloration from any device in my audio stack. I want to hear what the sound engineer meant for me to hear. So many speakers have a bass haze or a high end annoyance, but not the LS50’s or the Studio’s. Both produce an amazingly clean sound. My music is comprised of classic rock, classical, jazz, blues rock, solo piano, solo acoustic guitar and a smattering of country and pop. Most of the music is in the AIFF format in both 44/16 (CD) and 192/24 (Hi Res) resolutions. I also have music in DSD 2.8 MHZ format. The LS50’s plays all this music phenomenally well. The LS50’s blows me away...This IS NOT a shortcoming for me... when the volume level is really high, seriously loud and too high for my ears, the LS50 speakers will stumble, can’t keep up. The speaker is not distorting or clipping per se. This happens when the music is complex with a lots of instruments playing concurrently, like orchestra, symphony and most noisy rock and roll music and the volume level is set uncomfortably high, too high. You can hear it, the speaker cannot correctly reproduce the sound. Sorry, I don’t have the SPF meter values for when this happens, but its really, really loud when it happens. I listen to a lot of orchestra and symphony music at lower volume levels and I am extremely happy with the LS50’s performance. I also play a lot solo piano and solo acoustic guitar music and love listening to the LS50 do its magic with these instruments. So, if you are looking to play these speakers loud to fill a big, large hall, look elsewhere.Again, the KEF LS50’s do a superb job for me. I really like their sound performance.Wondering why I keep the Studio 100’s and continue to demo speakers? As with the LS50’s, I love the sound from the Studio’s. They each have their strengths and sonic signatures and since I can accommodate both, why not? Simple, eh? Why do I continue to demo speakers? Curiosity, that perhaps I might hear a speaker that sounds better. And I have. I love the Magico Q5, but at $80K a pair they’re NOT an option of me. I may still purchase the Magnepan 1.7i, but they are big and correct placement would be a problem, with three sets of speakers. I’ve heard custom made stand mounted speakers that wow’ed me with their sound... but, they are too pricey and so the incremental bang for the buck gets violated.To those whining about the price of the LS50’s... $1299/pr is a speaker bargain. If you are not hearing the value, then something else is wrong in your audio stack.BTW, as people come into my listening room, the first thing that catches their eye is the Black and Gold/Copper LS50 speakers. And they all want to hear the LS50’s, but not so much the Studio’s. Neophytes! All are impressed with the LS50’s sound performance. And what about my audio friend? He says I should keep the Studio’s, keep the LS50’s and buy the Magnepans 1.7i and then I’ll be set! I tell him to buy the Magnepans, and I’ll “break in” the maggies for him, for a year or three. In the meantime, its just me and my two sets of speakers I love.