KEF LS50 Meta Review (Speaker)

[testp]

I use set Direct but with my little tweaks on Treble +3dB, and after that Direct mode transfer to Custom . I like a little bit more sparks on highs, also I do not listen them loud siting ~60cm from them.

okey, the reason i mentioned was, in my case, i was using it for many years, i managed to stumble into Direct vs. Tone(bass 0, treble 0) situation in 2 totall unrelated times.

i thought i had issues with harsh treble with 2 sets of speakers, second time by chance (i forgot this issue) i went to Tone again and it got way more relaxed treble vs. Direct. Only about a week later i remember doing the same with my old speakers. Now i've read there are others saying something along those lines as well,

so if you plan to use upstream Eq and keep it in Direct mode, try Tone(bass0, treble 0) as well.

 

[Tokyo_John]

Yes, because a 5" driver is too small to produce low distortion bass at high levels.
A subwoofer would be needed, and a crossover frequency of 150Hz would not be unusual for the bass driver in a speaker with a 5" mid driver.

I have my LS50 Meta and single KC62 crossed over around 80Hz. If I go any higher I'll need stereo subs. But my listening volume is modest.

 

[solawind]

My sub crossover frequency is rather high at 130 Hz, but only because I have a weird null around 110–120 Hz with my LS50 placement near corner, and setting the crossover frequency that high improved the sound. But I have never heard any bass distortion from the LS50. In fact, I just did a low-frequency sine sweep test without the subwoofer and did not hear anything distorted at the loudness level I listen to. Probably other people who are scared by THD graphs should do that test too. Human ears are pretty insensitive to distortion at such low frequencies.

 

[john61ct]

So many gurus here call the LS50 weak in the low end

even recommending a crossover at 170Hz or higher when deploying LF boxen.

I personally want to try stereo bass to enable (the possibility of) acoustic envelopment

but many here say once below 300Hz, localisation gets so much weaker that you have some latitude moving the LF boxen around a fair bit, especially wider, to the outside

even if you don't also have mono trueSubs that can be freely positioned away from the main front positions.

 

[testp]

So many gurus here call the LS50 weak in the low end

even recommending a crossover at 170Hz or higher when deploying LF boxen.

I personally want to try stereo bass to enable (the possibility of) acoustic envelopment

but many here say once below 300Hz, localisation gets so much weaker that you have some latitude moving the LF boxen around a fair bit, especially wider, to the outside

even if you don't also have mono trueSubs that can be freely positioned away from the main front positions.

with wiim ultra sub crossover with 1 sub, i don't get localization below ~120-150Hz, but my sub is between the speakers and that freq. range is more like starting to sound little bit mono rather..

what i do notice is, that above ~63hz i start to lose some of the main speaker stereo/imaging and maybe mains voicing magic, but i'm okey with that.

currently crossing at 82hz i gain subwoofer support for mains midrange and treble smoothness somehow (it's probably just sub freq. add-on to the room, but it sounds really good). mains are different speakers though, fidelia's.