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KEF LS50 Wireless II > KEF R3 Meta

blueajah1223

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Apr 3, 2023
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We moved and our listening room is smaller than in our old house. In our old house we had JBL l100 with a Peachtree amp 500 and Peachtree Nova 150 as a preamp - this system was perfect to my ears. My spouse and I traded in the L100s and bought a pair of R3 Metas from my local dealer - they sounded good in the shop but in our room they sounded dull and hollow, I brought them back and bought a pair of LS50 WIIs - we are blown away by how good these speakers sound - they are so tiny! The soundstage is smaller than my JBLs, but its close - in our room they get 80% there. I am considering getting a sub since we still have 1300$ of trade in value after returning the JBL l100s to my local shop. I suspect that the W2s are doing active DSP and room correction - I am sure the R3s could have sounded good in our room if I played around with them, but the W2s just sound sooo good.
 

CHenry

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Jan 30, 2023
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The LS50W2 does well with a sub for reinforcement. It is an excellent standmount or bookshelf stereo system, as it adds much more in the way of being active with a streamer and DAC, each speaker bi-amped, and they have a DSP "Music Integrity Engine.". The R3 Meta is of course a 3-way, and has earned acclaim, but it needs the right amplifier.
 

Vacceo

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The W2s do not support automatic room correction.
They have some basic room correction capabilities, which you can configure in the KEF Connect App, but this needs to be enabled and configured manually.
That customization, even in "advanced mode" is very limited.

Since they use dsp by design, Dirac could do wonders with them.
 
OP
B

blueajah1223

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I just bought the kc62 sub and after an afternoon of tinkering I am very pleased. At first the sub was too boomy and overpowered the LS50s, but once I dialed it in it disappeared and instead reinforced the soundstage. I’m listening to Beethovens emperor concertos right now and the A/B with and without the sub is massive, the sub makes the choir and symphony sound full and real. The technology has disappeared and I can just enjoy Beethoven!
 

Vacceo

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I just bought the kc62 sub and after an afternoon of tinkering I am very pleased. At first the sub was too boomy and overpowered the LS50s, but once I dialed it in it disappeared and instead reinforced the soundstage. I’m listening to Beethovens emperor concertos right now and the A/B with and without the sub is massive, the sub makes the choir and symphony sound full and real. The technology has disappeared and I can just enjoy Beethoven!
Try some Bach or Cabezón (any good organ will work). ;)
 

alkaizer

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Jun 13, 2021
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Compared with LS50W1 , I didn't like LS50W2 for one reason, they Limited the bass excursion to protect the speaker, it sounds less impactful to me now. I hope they fix this problem in version 3
 

Vacceo

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Compared with LS50W1 , I didn't like LS50W2 for one reason, they Limited the bass excursion to protect the speaker, it sounds less impactful to me now. I hope they fix this problem in version 3
Well, we´re considering bookshelf speakers with a relatively compact size. They reach 80hz (a bit more) at a decent SPL. Not much fault you can put on them, I think...
 
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