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KEF LS50 Meta Review (Speaker)

Razorhelm

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What are those naked woofers doing?
I have a similar set up myself, but I use two Tequila bottle hats one under each speaker aligned with the mid-point of the driver, for that extra sweet sound.
Probably nothing! I was wondering if they might reduce some of the room boom like a bass trap but haven't had a chance to measure.
 

Ron Texas

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IMO, the originals with EQ should be indistinguishable.

The need for a subwoofer is not trivial. It took me a long time to get my two L12's working right and I had an XLS 1502 with a built in high pass filter.
 

testp

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price is close to r3 especially being discounted now. perhaps different market segment based on size? if not why would one want to buy this instead of r3? meta is an excellent speaker though

To me, the problem is looks, and that Meta a little... i'd wait for a new R3, i def. like to see some box color difference or something, currently R3 looks boxy, in brown looks old, in black looks good on Kef webpage, but kinda meh in ordinary pics, white is good (but im not sure i'd want white)

current LS50 Meta drivers look sexy, i personally like Ls50M blue, but that's just me...
 

mononoaware

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I was wondering if they might reduce some of the room boom like a bass trap but haven't had a chance to measure.

Funny you mention that I recently recall someones post about how the passive membranes in a room full of speakers can influence the sound of the speakers that are playing in that same room.

I apologise I searched for the post but I cannot provide a direct link.
Maybe someone else knows where it was mentioned?
 

Spocko

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Interesting to note.

https://www.axiomaudio.com/blog/distortion

Particularly interesting is the finding on the audibility of low frequency distortions:

"While it is has been recognized for years that human hearing is not very sensitive to low bass frequencies, which must be reproduced with much more power and intensity in order to be heard, what these results show is that our detection threshold for noise (made up of harmonically related and non-harmonically related test tones) is practically non-existent at low frequencies. (The noise test tones are noise in the sense that they are not musically related to tones commonly found in musical instruments.) In fact, the noise tones at 20 Hz and 40 Hz had to be increased to levels louder than the music itself before we even noticed them. Put another way, our ability to hear the test frequency noise tones at frequencies of 40 Hz and below is extremely crude. Indeed, the results show we are virtually deaf to these distortions at those frequencies. Even in the mid-bass at 280 Hz and lower, the noise can be around -14 dB (20% distortion), about half as loud as the music itself, before we hear it. "
In other words paying $15,000 for the most accurate subwoofer ever is pointless.
 

testp

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With 2.1 channel system, how do you guy separate a low frequency to sub? Kindly name the hardware thank you.

im kinda interested of this as well,

i would offer: Lyngdorf TDAI 1120, not sure how it does the sub shelving though, but it has Room correction in-box.
 

testp

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I use built in high pass from the 7040, but if your sub don’t have one, you either have a mini dsp to set those cross over, or you have a sub with low pass where you match and measure it with the roll off slope of your main monitors, I think normal AVR having the sub output channel does the same thing

does the genelec 7040 solution also do high-pass filter for the signal going forward to speakers later, so giving a real crossover situation?
 

Spocko

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On my JTR4000ULF (18" drivers)

tasty takeout (2).png
 

Spocko

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Probably nothing! I was wondering if they might reduce some of the room boom like a bass trap but haven't had a chance to measure.
As a "cable riser" replace those naked drivers with a cage and hamster running on a wheel beneath each and you'd set this thread on fire!

tasty takeout (4).png
 
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Helicopter

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Haha! Exactly what I'm doing with my ls50s (not meta)

View attachment 145944
Looks like something I would do when my wife is at work on a Saturday. I think you might have killed the KEF aesthetic that costs another $1K over Elac DBR62. ;)

Not having an appropriate looking space is another reason these speakers might not suit me. They really look best in one of those spaces with almost nothing else in it, and without subs. They don't look as good sitting on subs, even in the promotional materials. Ideally you would cross them high enough to possibly locate the subs too, so you probably want the sub centered or a pair of subs co located to them. Maybe hide a big sub in a cabinet centered on the back wall.

And the speakers are so beautiful. They beg for attention is some space that is above and beyond normal domestic.

Nice Harmon Kardon receiver. I suspect those have a lot in common with the new JBL integrated amps priced at $3000. I have two HK3770S here. Great workhorses with lots of inputs / functionality.
 
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df00

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So I wonder how much of this improvement is the meta absorption material vs. a crossover redo?
 
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