Erin’s KEF ls60 review comment

[meracus]

hi guys
Can someone shed some light on Erin’s comment
“ the ls60 sound much bigger then it is “
This part intrigues me after my lacklustre ls60 demos no matter how I tried
Thanks

 

[Purité Audio]

Like all subjective comments it has little to no meaning.
The LS60s are extremely good as long as you keep them within their constraints, ie don’t expect to be able to sit too far away or play extremely loudly.
Why did you find then underwhelming?
Keith

 

[meracus]

The demos where absolute piss take , connectivity issue , room not ready apparently , so switch to essentially a corridor
Kef lounge …. Demo in essentially kitchen corner the size of a Tesco metro with German chit chat in the back …
Sitting 2.8 metres away if installed in the usual position … not a head banger , still have some manners left

 

[Purité Audio]

This was at Kef’s new flagship showroom in Gt Portland Street?
Keith

 

[Multicore]

Should put the brand name in the topic title.

 

[meracus]

Yes … got confined to a corner next to the macchiato machine

 

[Purité Audio]

Convenient for a coffee then.
Keith

 

[Curvature]

Like all subjective comments it has little to no meaning.

This one's simple, uncontroversial.

It's a slim, narrow baffle speaker with wide-ish radiation. Usually speakers have had to have bigger baffles to demonstrate that.

 

[meracus]

Convenient for a coffee then.
Keith

And a German lesson

 

[DVDdoug]

Maybe Erin will respond with what he meant. I usually associate "big" with bass and SPL. It's not a "small" (bookshelf) speaker but he said "bigger" than it is.

"Lackluster" is just as vague as "bigger"...

 

[kyuu]

As stated, extremely difficult to comment when we don't really know what the issue you experienced was. Could have been the room setup. It could be due to the fact that the LS60 compresses in the bass and treble regions when listening at elevated SPLs:

There was a thread from someone who tried out the LS60s and found them unsatisfying and it was most likely due to this behavior. The LS60s are incredible speakers, but they aren't really suitable for listening far-field at elevated volumes.

 

[meracus]

They were shoved in huge room corner .. 1.5 metres apart
I feel it didn’t get the set up it deserved , pointing right ahead
I would have hoped for a a demo without participants talking in the background and people meandering about freely
You know … like a real demo

 

[jackocleebrown]

They were shoved in huge room corner .. 1.5 metres apart
I feel it didn’t get the set up it deserved , pointing right ahead
I would have hoped for a a demo without participants talking in the background and people meandering about freely
You know … like a real demo

Hi Meracus,

There's a good listening room at KMG downstairs from the coffee shop. Was this not available when you visited?

 

[jackocleebrown]

View attachment 465403

For what it's worth, in this measurement what you see is the tweeter thermal protection kicking in. That's what causes the extreme compression in the treble. This is triggered by using a high level sine sweep for the measurement. Music signals don't have anything like a white spectrum so don't trigger the protection in the same extreme way. To trigger it on music you have to be playing at max output on content with extreme levels of treble energy. Our go to test track for this is by Metallica.

At the low end you do indeed see DSP limiting to protect the bass drivers from over excursion.

 

[meracus]

I thought it was going to be there , I seen the muon but no , it was the coffee shop listening room
I feel the demo wasn’t optimised

 

[mhardy6647]

Should put the brand name in the topic title.

While I'd concur in the abstract, in the present case -- heck, even I know what an LS60 is!
N.B. I note that the title's been branded in the interim.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

At the low end you do indeed see DSP limiting to protect the bass drivers from over excursion.

Alternatively, you protect them with subwoofers.

 

[sigbergaudio]

hi guys
Can someone shed some light on Erin’s comment
“ the ls60 sound much bigger then it is “
This part intrigues me after my lacklustre ls60 demos no matter how I tried
Thanks

I had the LS60s briefly for ..research purposes - and they are pretty small speakers, so yes, they do indeed sound bigger than they are. They are limited in how loud they can play, but hard to expect anything else given their size.

I found them to sound good and be tonally well balanced.

 

[Vacceo]

As stated, extremely difficult to comment when we don't really know what the issue you experienced was. Could have been the room setup. It could be due to the fact that the LS60 compresses in the bass and treble regions when listening at elevated SPLs:

View attachment 465403

There was a thread from someone who tried out the LS60s and found them unsatisfying and it was most likely due to this behavior. The LS60s are incredible speakers, but they aren't really suitable for listening far-field at elevated volumes.

Erin actually remarks on this very feature: if you´re listening from 2 meters away or less, you´re probably at the most optimal distance; beyond that, the speakers start running out of gas.

For what it's worth, in this measurement what you see is the tweeter thermal protection kicking in. That's what causes the extreme compression in the treble. This is triggered by using a high level sine sweep for the measurement. Music signals don't have anything like a white spectrum so don't trigger the protection in the same extreme way. To trigger it on music you have to be playing at max output on content with extreme levels of treble energy. Our go to test track for this is by Metallica.

At the low end you do indeed see DSP limiting to protect the bass drivers from over excursion.

After reading a bit on the new VECO and looking at your comments, I wonder, would a design like the LS60 (or LS50, or LSX) benefit from the implementation? I would guess thermal limitations are still there, but with permanent monitorization, it may be extended a little bit depending on the signal needing to reproduce high frequencies.

 

[Grimoire]

Erin actually remarks on this very feature: if you´re listening from 2 meters away or less, you´re probably at the most optimal distance; beyond that, the speakers start running out of gas.


After reading a bit on the new VECO and looking at your comments, I wonder, would a design like the LS60 (or LS50, or LSX) benefit from the implementation? I would guess thermal limitations are still there, but with permanent monitorization, it may be extended a little bit depending on the signal needing to reproduce high frequencies.

He actually says 10ft, so about 3 metres.