• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

HPF Bass Management (Amp/AVR for LS50 Meta & Kube 12B)

Imhotep

New Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2024
Messages
2
Likes
0
I have just purchased a pair of KEF LS50 Meta speakers along with a KEF Kube12B subwoofer to use in my living room for music and movies, but I still don't have an amplifier or a stereo receiver to power them. My budget is around $500, but I can stretch it to $1000 if necessary.

My listening position is about 3 meters from the speakers, and I like listening at 70 - 85 dB. I listen to rock, jazz, classical, electronic, and indie pop music, and I exclusively listen to music through streaming services. I prefer a flat anachoic frequency response, which is why l think a Class D amplifier (Hypex, Purifi, ...) would suit me better though I'm not opposed at all to buying a Class A/B amplifier. To give you an idea of my listening preferences and experience with audio gear, I have a pair of Adam Audio T5V studio monitors that I use on my desk for near-field listening and I'm very happy with their sound toed-out and with the HF switch at -2 dB to tame the treble a bit.

This is my first pair of passive loudspeakers, so I'm new to this. The ideal setup would be an Amp or an AVR that has bass management (adjustable both high-pass filter and low-pass filter) so I can send low frequencies only to the subwoofer and take the load of producing them off the small LS50 drivers. Many people recommend the Cambridge Audio AXR100 in the $500 budget, but I have no use for the built-in radio tuner or the phono stage now or in the future, and from my research, like most integrated amplifiers and stereo receivers, it doesn't have a HPF, only a LPF fixed at 200 Hz. What do you suggest? Again I'm new to this, so I'm open to suggestions and new ideas. One last thing, It would be nice if the Amp/AVR looked minimalistic or modern as I'm not a fan of the vintage look popular among many.

On a different note, if I had my TV connected to my DAC through an optical digital TOSLINK connection or an HDMI connection, would using the Spotify/Tidal/Apple Music app on my TV yield an inferior sound to running these streaming apps on a dedicated music streaming device like the Bluesound Node?
 
Hi @Imhotep! Welcome to ASR.

What do you suggest?
WiiM Amp Pro.

Fully adjustable bass management + 10-band PEQ for room correction.

Many streaming services built-in, so that you can stream music w/o turning the TV on.

HDMI ARC input with CEC, so that you can control volume using the TV remote.

 
Hi @staticV3! Thank you.
I considered the Wiim Amp Pro, but I'm worried 60W would not be enough to get the LS50 Meta to 85 dB at a listening distance of 3 meters.
Do you think it would be enough, particularly for movies which, in my experience, tend to be quieter than music and require more gain?
 
I considered the Wiim Amp Pro, but I'm worried 60W would not be enough to get the LS50 Meta to 85 dB at a listening distance of 3 meters.
The LS50 meta is comfortably a 4Ω speaker, where the WiiM will output about 120W per channel.

This will push the KEF to about 98-101dB SPL at 3m.
 
Back
Top Bottom