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KEF LS50 Meta Review (Speaker)

KMO

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While I cannot do other than compliment this man for his spendings habits, I have to say that TV looks ridiculous with that surround set. You should've bought two speakers less and get a decent sized TV that will match your sound system. You have a philharmonic orchestra in your ears and a puppet theater to watch. It is is very concerning.

Yep, always been massively biased towards the sound. Music, particularly multichannel, is the focus more than home cinema. The last set of speakers accompanied a 28" CRT for their first 8 years.

(Partly due to grumpiness about motion limitations on non-CRTs. Took a while to be convinced that plasma was good enough, and I've not been in a hurry to shift from plasma.)

No doubt the TV will be the next big upgrade, but it seems I'm on a 20 year upgrade cycle here, and it's only 12 years old and working perfectly. Don't rush me!
 

KMO

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It's worth noting that if you are into multichannel music specifically, your purchasing decisions might end up a bit weird looking.

The ideal is to get 5 or more identical speakers, good enough to be a stereo pair, but affordable enough to repeat all around.

If I didn't care about multichannel, I'd have been able to afford a pair of KEF R11s (or maybe Reference 1s).

Seven LS50 Metas + stands + sub come in at around the same price point.

But in terms of returns on expenditure, I think spending 3.5x as much as two LS50s to get the corresponding increase in channels is FAR more effective than spending 3.5x the amount on a single pair of speakers. (At least when you've got the multichannel content to play). If you think this is daft expenditure - go and have a word with people spending €5000 on a mere pair of speakers. :)

My previous set was the KEF KHT2005 - a 5-satellite set at a price I could afford at the time (~€1000?) which would be good enough for music. The LS50 Meta set follows on in the same vein, and enough of a step up in price to be a clear worthwhile difference. They seem ideal for the application (aside from stand height).

For my next upgrade, my role models are these guys who've installed 5 Blade Twos in their studio. Going to need a new house first.

 
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RiseFall

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KMO

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I took them not in the better way, hope in the future will do a better job.

Looking at that, I'd say the overall impression is that 100Hz-1kHz is low. Normally an overall downward slope is preferred, so leaving the low bass where it is and boosting 100Hz-1kHz would be best, but maybe reducing the peak at 70Hz would make it more balanced.

If you haven't already put in the bungs (you didn't say), adding them partially or fully would pull down the sub-100Hz region.

Here's how the bungs affect the response of my set (averaged across all 7 speakers).

Bung effects.png


Bass clearly weak with just the speakers in my space, and I've had to bung a few to even out the response, so I'm getting something like the blue graph on average. Thank heavens for the subwoofer...
 
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BrokenEnglishGuy

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I took them not in the better way, hope in the future will do a better job.
You have much energy at 70hz~~~~ that gonna make the speaker sounds bad blurry too much bass, not tight, also the difference between the mid bass and that peak is a lot
You can improve the sound
 

KMO

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Actually, I've realised that's the result post-correction by Lyngdorf's RoomPerfect. It looks like it may have targetted a flat response from 100Hz, but then maybe lost control below 100Hz.

Maybe there is just too much bass for it to want to correct? There's a limit to how much it will EQ? If so, bungs may still be the answer. Post a measurement with the RoomPerfect correction disabled.

I searched around for a RoomPerfect thread, and see you've already found it - https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ments-of-lyngdorf-roomperfect-eq.6799/page-13
 

CJH

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I just tried "some" of the automaticEQ from the Collection of Loudspeaker Measurements for the LS50 Meta. These are calculated using Amir's recent review measurements. By "some" meaning I stayed away from the high Q filters (anything over Q=8), so only used 4 filters per speaker. Sounds quite good.
CJH
 

stren

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Yep, always been massively biased towards the sound. Music, particularly multichannel, is the focus more than home cinema. The last set of speakers accompanied a 28" CRT for their first 8 years.

(Partly due to grumpiness about motion limitations on non-CRTs. Took a while to be convinced that plasma was good enough, and I've not been in a hurry to shift from plasma.)

No doubt the TV will be the next big upgrade, but it seems I'm on a 20 year upgrade cycle here, and it's only 12 years old and working perfectly. Don't rush me!

If you're interested in motion clarity then tftcentral is a great site. It's primarly centered around gaming monitors, but there is increased overlap with TVs. Take for example the LG OLED review which with some of the features can give excellent clarity:

https://tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/lg_cx_oled

take a look at the Blur Reduction Tests Summary section
 
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RiseFall

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There's a limit to how much it will EQ?

No, but you can EQ everything. But, about the mid-bass issue that I complain, which is limited to particular kind of recordings, no matter what EQ I do or with or without correction, it's always there. I think the best results I have is with correction ON, on FOCUS, and without any EQ. But also without correction the presentations is not bad, is somewhat even more "organic" but after long listening, I still prefer the correction ON.

If you haven't already put in the bungs
You have much energy at 70hz

Those measurements were with RoomPerfect on "focus".

I did not use the bungs, I did't think to them at all, one because of the "weak" bass of the Kef and second, because I am using the RoomPerfect correction.

I also not really sure about those measurement but they at least give us some ideas of what's going on. RoomPerfect is taking the measurements on the sweetspot and in several other places in the room while what I did with REW is only one measurement.

You gave me some idea to start, I think the sound is overall very good but I have only that bad mid-bass issue on some records/genres, that I want to take care.

I'm thinking to eliminate the bass traps that I have behind the speakers (because I think RoomPerfect doesn't like them) and see what happen.

These are the measurements without RoomPerfect.
 

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Dennis_FL

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Just took my metas out of the box and am playing some female vocalists first (Natalie Cole, Rebecca Pidgeon, and Suzanne Vega). I may miss dinner.
 

muad

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Does anyone know at what distance the distortion measurements are taken? Thanks
 

abdo123

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According to the German Stereoplay magazine measurements (can't post then here due to copyright) 100+ dB at one meter should be possible.

That KEF LS50 Wireless II is limited exactly at 100dB, so that seems realistic.

I'm contemplating whether these speakers would make good home theater speakers, if crossed aggressively with a subwoofer.

Do you think KEF would ever make bigger Uni-Q drivers? it's such a shame that there is such a gap in their line-up right now, they cross the Uni-Q drivers at 400Hz for their floor standers, so there is not really any speakers in their line-up that would realistically work in a Home Cinema context except for the floor standers they offer.
 

Kachda

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That KEF LS50 Wireless II is limited exactly at 100dB, so that seems realistic.

I'm contemplating whether these speakers would make good home theater speakers, if crossed aggressively with a subwoofer.

Do you think KEF would ever make bigger Uni-Q drivers? it's such a shame that there is such a gap in their line-up right now, they cross the Uni-Q drivers at 400Hz for their floor standers, so there is not really any speakers in their line-up that would realistically work in a Home Cinema context except for the floor standers they offer.
Why not the r3?
 
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I think their matching KC62 makes the most sense as they have done quite a lot of integration work there, it has a max crossover of 140Hz. Should be perfectly fine for a small to medium sized room however.
 

thewas

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They make bigger Uni-Q drivers for their bigger 2.5 way entry Q series but those drivers have other problems, there is a reason that all their top models have a 5 inch one. For not too extreme SPLs or too large listening distances I think steeply crossed around 150-200 Hz could make a quite good system.
 

abdo123

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They make bigger Uni-Q drivers for their bigger 2.5 way entry Q series but those drivers have other problems, there is a reason that all their top models have a 5 inch one. For not too extreme SPLs or too large listening distances I think steeply crossed around 150-200 Hz could make a quite good system.

I'm reading the Q350 review since you brought it up. What problems were you referring to? Seems like a competent design.

100 dB peaks even above 200Hz are not that rare in home cinema, once you factor things like room correction and distance it would make a great 'Hi-Fi' system but it will fall a bit short on headroom. a 6.5inch driver would probably be perfect for this.

crossing at 400Hz means you have to align the drivers vertically in the room. and you lose the advantage that you bought the LS50 Meta for (point-source audio).
 

Dennis_FL

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I think their matching KC62 makes the most sense as they have done quite a lot of integration work there, it has a max crossover of 140Hz. Should be perfectly fine for a small to medium sized room however.

I have the metas and I’m looking hard at the KC 62 and the SVS 3000….(half the price)……for 100% stereo music application…I wish I could go somewhere and hear them in action.
 
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