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KEF LS50 Meta Review (Speaker)

gomar

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I recently picked up the q950's after my kef ls50 wireless system broke down. Now I'm thinking about returning the q950's and getting the ls50 meta's.
My amplification for the q950 is pretty bad at the moment (30 dollar nobsound amp) but I don't think I'll ever get the detail, mids and soundstage I loved in the ls50's so much even after buying the topping pa5.
The lower regions are way nicer for movies on the q950 but then again, the kc62 subwoofer in combination with the meta's will probably be miles ahead in movie experience.
 

RoyB

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Now, after a few months of listening to my LS50 Metas......I sold all the other speakers. Magnapan MMG, Klipsch RP600M, ELAC 6.2/2.0......Every time I sit down to listen, I smile. Simply an amazing speaker......What really always amazes me is the bass. My room is 12X24X8....Heavily damped...And the bass is tight, strong and very real. I do have a B&W 8" sub and and SVS 1000 sub. But I don't use them with the Metas. I find they screw up the amazing sound stage and imaging. Easily one of the best HiFi components I've bought in a very long time....(Equipment Used..Schiit Freya/VTA Dynaco ST120 Tube/ Gustard X16/ Node2i)
 

Ataraxia

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Now, after a few months of listening to my LS50 Metas......I sold all the other speakers. Magnapan MMG, Klipsch RP600M, ELAC 6.2/2.0......Every time I sit down to listen, I smile. Simply an amazing speaker......What really always amazes me is the bass. My room is 12X24X8....Heavily damped...And the bass is tight, strong and very real.

What dimension is your listening triangle and how far off the back wall are they?
 

Dennis_FL

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We have the Reference and Blade Meta now, the R maybe a few years down the line.
They are pricey. I think you need to be a crooked politician to afford that.
 

RoyB

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"
What dimension is your listening triangle and how far off the back wall are they"....

Three feet off long wall, 10' apart, 9' from my ears
 

Descartes

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"
What dimension is your listening triangle and how far off the back wall are they"....

Three feet off long wall, 10' apart, 9' from my ears
I have the same setup with the LS50 first generation
 

Head_Unit

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Yes, though if the driver is distorting badly and especially if is at and beyond xmax, you are getting loads of IMD. The rest of the spectrum will be damaged during bass attack's when that little woofer is just being pounded.
AND the changing position of the woofer cone will modulate the response of the tweeter, as I noted in Erin's review of the KEF R3. I hope the next time @amirm gets a two-way coaxial he can try somehow measuring response with the cone all the way out, neutral, all the way in. (I'm not sure how to do that other than applying DC which could be problematic. The same measurement would be interesting for ELAC Uni-Fi or automotive coaxials).
 

pablolie

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AND the changing position of the woofer cone will modulate the response of the tweeter, as I noted in Erin's review of the KEF R3. I hope the next time @amirm gets a two-way coaxial he can try somehow measuring response with the cone all the way out, neutral, all the way in. (I'm not sure how to do that other than applying DC which could be problematic. The same measurement would be interesting for ELAC Uni-Fi or automotive coaxials).
I actually think speakers like the LS50s (both gens) should be measured with frequencies under 70Hz xovered to a sub, as G*d intended :)

*That* is their true potential. They can then do what they do best, and the lazy bass zone can be outsourced to a device that can be optimally positioned etc. Distortion figures go lower. Etc. I honestly think we measure speakers by obsolete parameters these days. Full range IMO is not even desirable because of the challenges in positioning in a real-world room. Why pay 5 figures (or more) for a full range if then you are going to put it through Dirac etc motions to correct its misbehavior in a real world environment? You can build the exact same results with stuff like the LS50s, really.

I also continue to be amazed by golden ear people hearing clear differences between speaker generations that are at most 1% apart when you average out the measurements... :) The laws of subjectivism go both ways: irrational belief in snake oil, and the conviction anyone can reliably tell tenth-percentile measured differences in listening "tests"... :)
 
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Head_Unit

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Then you will not have the expected benefit from the sub. You will still have the same distortion limited level. Not to mention if you can achieve a Q of 0.7 when the port is blocked.
Probably not, then the ported speaker would have a response bump. However that's not a huge deal. In theory you could stack a 12 dB Q=0.707 electrical filter with a Q=0.707 to get a 4th order Linkwitz-Riley highpass, then match that with a 4th order L-R lowpass. BUT in real life it doesn't matter that much. The subwoofer driver itself won't have a flat response, and the room screws everything up, so you need to screw around with the crossovers anyway.
 

pablolie

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Mmmm...given the difficulties some folks have integrating subwoofers, maybe they come from down below, not up there! [satan horn emoji]
I'd argue integrating a sub with placement flexibility is easier than integrating static, fully-integrated full-range speakers.

I still own expensive full-range speakers, they sounded great in a large room, but they were honestly crap in my smaller, new environment. I keep them because maybe I'll move and I'll need them again.

Honestly I think the HiFi world perpetuates obsolete ideals. Let's never forget the absolute ideal audio source is a single, vanishing point. And when I mean point, I mean as small as practically possible - a POINT. Full range speakers are nowhere near that ideal. The LS50 though... :) look at something like the Kii. Best sound I have ever heard. When that philosophy moves downstream... we will have discontinuity.
 
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Head_Unit

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I'd argue integrating a sub with placement flexibility is easier than integrating static, fully-integrated full-range speakers.
From a results viewpoint it's definitely better. But with the fullrange speakers there's no integration really, they're put where they are thought to sound best and that's it. No fiddling around with sub positioning, highpass frequency, lowpass frequency, gain. The bass response will be randomly lumpy but that process IS "easier."
 

Vacceo

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I recently picked up the q950's after my kef ls50 wireless system broke down. Now I'm thinking about returning the q950's and getting the ls50 meta's.
My amplification for the q950 is pretty bad at the moment (30 dollar nobsound amp) but I don't think I'll ever get the detail, mids and soundstage I loved in the ls50's so much even after buying the topping pa5.
The lower regions are way nicer for movies on the q950 but then again, the kc62 subwoofer in combination with the meta's will probably be miles ahead in movie experience.
I have experienced both the KC62 and 92. The first one is excellent for a "desktop" size aplication, the kind of space you have in a smaller room and the kind of environment where you settle an office or a small space for listening or other purposes.

When set in a larger room, the spl will feel scarce, and that´s the environment you typically watch films and series. Yes, both reach infrasonic levels, the problem is the SPL you get on those infrasonic levels. With the KC92 you get a nice extra punch for that larger room, but do not expect miracles, it still is a quite small subwoofer. I haven´t listened to the Reference 8b, but my guess is that in extends what you get on a KS92.

I really wish KEF revamped those two puppies. Both deserve a balanced input and the capacity to give us more volume of the same quality of bass.

Personaly, I´m debating on where to spend my money on speakers. I have narrowed down my preferences to KEF or Perlisten systems as both seem to provide a quite similar performance (it´d be a contest between both R Series, both in KEF and Perlisten) with a directivity not too different on both cases. Luckily, I´m upgrading my electronics first, so I have time to allow KEF to release an updated version of the R series and, hopefully, their subwoofers too and then compare to Perlisten R series.
 
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