Oh man are you going to make me drag my LSR305s from my office and compare them to my MLs, too, so I can join the electrostat hate fest?
I've never actually listened to them on the main rig. Maybe I'll be blown away.
I don't think you will be blown away. Now the 305s are good, amazingly so considering price for an active speaker. Evenness of the FR, and everything else is and sounds nicely done. I do think compared to some electrostats and even say monitor sized Harbeths or Spendors they lack something. They actually seem better balanced top to bottom than those yet while nothing to complain about it feels as if something is missing. This speaking from a purely subjective audiophool perspective. It isn't much and might not be missed except in a direct side by side comparison. And yes I have heard the 305s sitting on stands dead center of some Soundlabs so we could switch between them.
What seems missing is fine detail and apparent speed. Yes I know real speed isn't a thing other than frequency response. But subjectively the 305s sound not slow, but less fast. As if on acoustic guitar plucks they just miss the initial edge of the pluck. And they aren't bad in this sense the way bad boxes were way back when. The 305s are subtly slow on the uptake. Also while I don't really hear the box, the entity of being a speaker doesn't quite disappear the way highest quality speakers do. Plus this disappearing is less an issue used as monitors nearfield as they were intended to be used.
As a counterpoint to that, I have Revel F12 speakers. 42 inches high with tweeter, 5 inch midrange and twin 8 inch woofers. A decade old design aimed at the same criteria from Harman. If anything these may accomplish even more than the 305s for the amount of money. In basic measures like we have been posting the JBL and Revel aren't all that dissimilar. Yet the F12s do sound quick with in depth detail, and disappear very nicely thank you. They have the wide and very even subjective FR which puts them beyond the Harbeths and Spendors I referenced above. They play so evenly they don't favour one kind of music over another. All music is enjoyable over them. They also seem more dynamic in an easy going manner. These speakers also were designed to a rather low price point and construction quality is enough, but not going to impress anyone. They have me wondering if I could step up one more rung on the Revel ladder, and find something good enough I might finally let go of my electrostatic addiction.
So what accounts for the differences in the 305 vs F12 speakers in aural terms?
Apologies to the OP as we have turned this KEF LS50 thread into a different topic.
I have listened to the LS50 passive a good bit. It is very good. It has apparent speed and detail, but on its own wears that character on its sleeve so to speak. To sound balanced it simply needs a woofer (subwoofer), and a powerful amp. The speaker just doesn't seem to work hamstrung by low power regardless of the quality of that low power. Which is also part of the reason adding a sub is a good move. It unloads the lower couple octaves from the amp driving the LS50.