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KEF LS50 meta Vs LSXii

mattpitts74

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Hi guys,

I have recently got a pair of KEF LSXii speakers for my small living room. I'm pleased with the sound apart from the bass, and having looked into buying a subwoofer, it seems like I would need to spend almost as much as the cost of the KEF's to get a decent sub. One of my main reasons for going with the LSX was the ease and convenience of everything in a single box, plus I have a relatively small room 13' x 12', so the LS50 seemed like overkill. Maybe I'm better off pairing them with a cheaper sub?

Buting thinking about it more I'm slightly concerned about the KEF connect app and its need for an internet connection for the speakers to work, which I only found out today when our internet went down. So looking at the LS50 meta as an alterntaive

So my question is would I be better off exchanging the LSX's for a pair of LS50 Meta's and a Powernode, would these provide better bass without the need for an additional sub?
 
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killdozzer

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The 'need' for a sub will eventually be entirely up to you. LS50 will give you more bass than LSX, but will it be enough, it's hard to tell. If it's possible to test them in your room, that would be the best way to determine the need for a sub.

Your room is small enough for you to consider some of the small subs. You may give SVS 3000 Micro a look to spend less than you would on KC62. Also, your room is almost square and you should be ready for some prolonged time in sub positioning.

It is possible for a room to "suck the bass out" so to speak.
 

Purité Audio

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Whereabouts are you Matt, you are welcome to borrow my LS50’s Meta for comparison.
Keith
 

staticV3

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The KEF LS50 Meta does not play meaningfully deeper than the original LSX:
Screenshot_20221121-111802_Chrome.png
And according to KEF, the LSX and LSX II have identical frequency response.

If you want deep bass, you'd be better served with a dedicated subwoofer I believe. The are some good ones at $500-600.
 
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mattpitts74

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The 'need' for a sub will eventually be entirely up to you. LS50 will give you more bass than LSX, but will it be enough, it's hard to tell. If it's possible to test them in your room, that would be the best way to determine the need for a sub.

Your room is small enough for you to consider some of the small subs. You may give SVS 3000 Micro a look to spend less than you would on KC62. Also, your room is almost square and you should be ready for some prolonged time in sub positioning.

It is possible for a room to "suck the bass out" so to speak.
Thanks for your input it sounds like I ought to test a pair of LS50's so I can do my own comparison or test the LSX with a sub??
 

Purité Audio

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Thanks for the kind offer Keith, I'm in West Sussex and hoping that I can borrow some from Sevenoaks S &V
Very sensible, shameless plug if you need real bass punch and extension I have some Hedd type 20’s three ways just looking to move them on.
Keith
 
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mattpitts74

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Well I have managed to get a pair of the LS50 Meta's along with a Powernode on demo. These certainly sound bigger and fuller than the smaller LSX. But I cannot help thinking these setups aren't getting the most from these speakers??

So far it's working flawlessly at streaming saved on my NAS and connected via Spotify Connect and Tidal.

So I've got my existing audio gear out so I have something for comparison.

I've been comparing it to my old NAD D3020 V1 which is connected to a Allo USBRIDGE SIGNATURE PLAYER running Volumio connected to the iFi Audio ZEN DAC. With this combination, I'm also able to run the DSP plugin and test out the room correction.

I expected to hear a bigger difference in the sound between these two setups, There is a difference, but it's not that one setup sounds better than the other. I guess because these are both class D amps, although the NAD is only 30w per channel compared to the Powernode's 80w. I need to do more listening over the weekend.

The Node is certainly very convenient and replaces all three of the separate boxes in the existing system.

I'm wondering if I would be better off with a power amp, maybe something like the XTZ EDGE-A2-300 or a Hytex power amp and the regular node, which I believe can act as a preamp. This seems like it would be almost as convenient as the powernode and with adding flexibility to swap out things in the future.

PXL_20221125_183556138.jpg
 

Marijnvp

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Well I have managed to get a pair of the LS50 Meta's along with a Powernode on demo. These certainly sound bigger and fuller than the smaller LSX. But I cannot help thinking these setups aren't getting the most from these speakers??

So far it's working flawlessly at streaming saved on my NAS and connected via Spotify Connect and Tidal.

So I've got my existing audio gear out so I have something for comparison.

I've been comparing it to my old NAD D3020 V1 which is connected to a Allo USBRIDGE SIGNATURE PLAYER running Volumio connected to the iFi Audio ZEN DAC. With this combination, I'm also able to run the DSP plugin and test out the room correction.

I expected to hear a bigger difference in the sound between these two setups, There is a difference, but it's not that one setup sounds better than the other. I guess because these are both class D amps, although the NAD is only 30w per channel compared to the Powernode's 80w. I need to do more listening over the weekend.

The Node is certainly very convenient and replaces all three of the separate boxes in the existing system.

I'm wondering if I would be better off with a power amp, maybe something like the XTZ EDGE-A2-300 or a Hytex power amp and the regular node, which I believe can act as a preamp. This seems like it would be almost as convenient as the powernode and with adding flexibility to swap out things in the future.

View attachment 245971
So what did you opt for eventually?
Also check out the Wiim Pro. Gets some excellent reviews and saves you some bucks over de Node.
 
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