KEF LS60 Wireless Just Announced

[Danaxus]

There's an opportunity for me to listen to a used pair of LS 60s in my area and (hopefully, if I like their sound) buy them at a good price. But I'm still unsure about the exact connection method to my existing equipment, and I haven't read anything about it in the instructions... If I want to connect the LS 60 as a front speaker to the Denon X3800, I'll use the pre-out of the Denon and the aux input of the Kef, right? If I leave all the settings on the Kefs to standard, will the room correction with Dirac work on the receiver?

Yes, Dirac is applied to the digital signal, long before it goes to the amp's internal DAC. The pre-outs will have the correction applied, just like the amplified outputs. And yes, the RCA cables go from your pre-out to the AUX input of the LS60.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

If I want to connect the LS 60 as a front speaker to the Denon X3800, I'll use the pre-out of the Denon and the aux input of the Kef, right? If I leave all the settings on the Kefs to standard, will the room correction with Dirac work on the receiver?

The answer is "Yes, but........................" Using the aux input of the KEF will result in adding an A/D conversion to the obligatory D/A conversion built in. This means added time delay and, potentially, variability in that delay.

 

[Vacceo]

The answer is "Yes, but........................" Using the aux input of the KEF will result in adding an A/D conversion to the obligatory D/A conversion built in. This means added time delay and, potentially, variability in that delay.

Does it happen? I'm asking because you have tested these speakers, so you have hands on experience.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Does it happen? I'm asking because you have tested these speakers, so you have hands on experience.

Does what happen? The added A/D and delay is inevitable. Whether the delay is variable is not certain but the L/R signal chain will be running through a different series of components and processes than the other channels.

Let me add that I have not tried this. I am, however, planning on using the LS60 as SR/SL in my system but I will be using the S/PDIF (digital) input. I have been assured that the latency via this input is fixed. (I have not asked about the analog inputs.)

 

[Vacceo]

Does what happen? The added A/D and delay is inevitable. Whether the delay is variable is not certain but the L/R signal chain will be running through a different series of components and processes than the other channels.

I meant if that makes integration harder, or it can be adjusted via electronics.

 

[napfkuchen]

Does what happen? The added A/D and delay is inevitable. Whether the delay is variable is not certain but the L/R signal chain will be running through a different series of components and processes than the other channels.

So then Dirac will adjust the time delay on the other channels I guess. Question is if this will get annoying because the sound is no more in sync with the image when watching movies.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I meant if that makes integration harder, or it can be adjusted via electronics.

If the latency varies, it cannot be adjusted but I do not know if it is audible.
If the latency is fixed, it can possibly be adjusted by the electronics.

So then Dirac will adjust the time delay on the other channels I guess. Question is if this will get annoying because the sound is no more in sync with the image when watching movies.

It will depend on the magnitude of the time delay and the capacity of the system to accommodate it. I cannot predict how disturbing any variability will be.

 

[AudioJester]

There's an opportunity for me to listen to a used pair of LS 60s in my area and (hopefully, if I like their sound) buy them at a good price. But I'm still unsure about the exact connection method to my existing equipment, and I haven't read anything about it in the instructions... If I want to connect the LS 60 as a front speaker to the Denon X3800, I'll use the pre-out of the Denon and the aux input of the Kef, right? If I leave all the settings on the Kefs to standard, will the room correction with Dirac work on the receiver?

What are your other speakers?
The LS60 may not be the best choice for your main L/R despite a tantalising price.

 

[napfkuchen]

What are your other speakers?
The LS60 may not be the best choice for your main L/R despite a tantalising price.

Currently Jamo D500 (on-wall) all around, after L/R-upgrade to be replaced by Kef R3 (rear) and R6 Meta (center). Now I'm wondering if choosing passive speakers altogether would be a better idea.

 

[TK33]

Currently Jamo D500 (on-wall) all around, after L/R-upgrade to be replaced by Kef R3 (rear) and R6 Meta (center). Now I'm wondering if choosing passive speakers altogether would be a better idea.

DIRAC will also assume you have a certain volume set as part of the speaker calibration and won't know if the volume on your LS60s has changed so having active speakers with their own volume may get annoying (at least it would bug me). Just a thought.

 

[napfkuchen]

DIRAC will also assume you have a certain volume set as part of the speaker calibration and won't know if the volume on your LS60s has changed so having active speakers with their own volume may get annoying (at least it would bug me). Just a thought.

That's for sure, in this case I would set the volume initially and leave it this way.

 

[GA16SE]

There’s a new LS60 wireless speaker firmware, version 2.1

• TIDAL Connect support for HiRes FLAC (TIDAL MAX)
• Fix various Bluetooth issues (unable to pair and/or discover)
• Individual EQ for each source (each source will now save its own EQ profile)

Please note: Firmware and app updates are gradually released over a period of 1-2 weeks
Source: https://assets.kef.com/pm/pm_firmware/release_notes.html#ls60w

 

[Muddywaters]

I confirmed what I’ll call a glitch in EQ Settings app on my LS60’s. I’ve been playing with crossovers to my subs. If I change the hi pass and low pass and switch to another pre-set then return to the just changed pre-set only one of the changed settings is retained. One has reverted to it’s previous setting.

Example: Hi Pass/Low Pass set at 92.5. Change them both to 80Hz switch to another pre-set then return and one of them has reverted to 92.5.

FYI

 

[Mnyb]

Hi all an acoustic question about the sidefiring woofers ? the crossover is about 400Hz or so i think ? if you listening room has opening to the sides like mine has should i consider a more traditional frontfiring speaker like the Kef R7 .
Or is that crossover low enough that one could consider the radiation omnidirectional ( like in a sub where the driver can point in any direction ).

@jackocleebrown ?

I give you some bad mobile pictures of my room `, these are not beuty pics i want to show the openings i have ( the dark room is my HT-room )

 

[ClassicalSpeakers]

I have a few questions for you all. Thank you in advance for the help.

1. I get a lot of dropouts when using chromecast from my laptop to my LS60s. Usually, but not always, restarting my computer and the speakers fixes the problem. I've seen a lot of discussion about dropouts and streaming on here, but being rather naive about computer, I don't know if the advice on those posts applies to my issues via chromecast. My LS60 primary speaker is plugged into the router.
2. I'd like to incorporate a TV to watch opera. Much of my opera watching is via streaming (chromecast, amazon, etc). What is the best way to do this? Do I connect a laptop to both my TV and speakers? (I haven't had a TV for decades, so sorry for the stupid questions.)
3. Because my room is fairly large, I will need a pretty decent size TV -- somewhere in the 70" or 80s". Where is the best place to position this TV with minimally hurting the audio? Parallel to speakers, just behind them, on the wall behind them?

 

[AOR]

Hi all an acoustic question about the sidefiring woofers ? the crossover is about 400Hz or so i think ? if you listening room has opening to the sides like mine has should i consider a more traditional frontfiring speaker like the Kef R7 .
Or is that crossover low enough that one could consider the radiation omnidirectional ( like in a sub where the driver can point in any direction ).

@jackocleebrown ?

I give you some bad mobile pictures of my room `, these are not beuty pics i want to show the openings i have ( the dark room is my HT-room )

View attachment 346326View attachment 346327

Hi Mnyb,

The crossover in the LS60 Wireless has been tuned to give an even and smooth power response. This is the same approach as in the R7 and the rest of the KEF product lineup.

Therefore, the effect of the room is quite similar between the LS60s and the R7.

 

[Danaxus]

I have a few questions for you all. Thank you in advance for the help.

1. I get a lot of dropouts when using chromecast from my laptop to my LS60s. Usually, but not always, restarting my computer and the speakers fixes the problem. I've seen a lot of discussion about dropouts and streaming on here, but being rather naive about computer, I don't know if the advice on those posts applies to my issues via chromecast. My LS60 primary speaker is plugged into the router.
2. I'd like to incorporate a TV to watch opera. Much of my opera watching is via streaming (chromecast, amazon, etc). What is the best way to do this? Do I connect a laptop to both my TV and speakers? (I haven't had a TV for decades, so sorry for the stupid questions.)
3. Because my room is fairly large, I will need a pretty decent size TV -- somewhere in the 70" or 80s". Where is the best place to position this TV with minimally hurting the audio? Parallel to speakers, just behind them, on the wall behind them?

My personal favourite way to connect everything, would be wired. I would have an HDMI cable from the LS60 to the TV (eARC port on the TV). This means that any sound the TV plays, be it from the TV's internal apps, or any device connected to one of the other TV HDMI ports, will go directly, via cable, to the speakers - no dropouts. Then to play music, I'd get a dedicated streaming box of my choice (Apple TV for example), and connect that to the TV via HDMI. The TV will automatically pass that to the speakers - no faffing around needed.

You can also stream directly from your phone, or laptop, to the speakers (via bluetooth, Airplay if you use apple, or Chromecast if you use Android). I don't personally like this, because it introduces 2 wireless connections into your chain (which are inherently more unstable than wired connections). Firstly, your device (laptop, phone, tablet, etc), is wirelessly connected to the internet, receiving your media, and secondly, it's wirelessly transmitting that to your speakers.

Thankfully, you're not in an either-or situation. You can wire whatever you can as per my preferred method, and stream everything else. All you need do is select the appropriate input using the KEF remote control.


As to your TV position - that's a whole new can of worms. The simple answer is sound from your speakers will reflect off hard surfaces roughly the same. It doesn't matter if it's bouncing off a TV, wall, window, bookshelf, etc - it makes little difference. If you want to control the sound, you need to do acoustic treatment, which is a deep, deep rabbit hole. Suffice to say, some people here swear by it, some think it's unnecessary, others think it's bad. All agree that for it to do anything, you need lots of thick panels spread around your room. So unless you intend to make your room look like a studio, or home theater, then feel free to put the TV wherever you like - it won't change the acoustics at all. Make sure your speakers are positioned in the way they sound best to you, then put your TV somewhere where the speakers won't block it - not for acoustic purposes, but purely so you can see the TV properly.

 

[ClassicalSpeakers]

My personal favourite way to connect everything, would be wired. I would have an HDMI cable from the LS60 to the TV (eARC port on the TV). This means that any sound the TV plays, be it from the TV's internal apps, or any device connected to one of the other TV HDMI ports, will go directly, via cable, to the speakers - no dropouts. Then to play music, I'd get a dedicated streaming box of my choice (Apple TV for example), and connect that to the TV via HDMI. The TV will automatically pass that to the speakers - no faffing around needed.

You can also stream directly from your phone, or laptop, to the speakers (via bluetooth, Airplay if you use apple, or Chromecast if you use Android). I don't personally like this, because it introduces 2 wireless connections into your chain (which are inherently more unstable than wired connections). Firstly, your device (laptop, phone, tablet, etc), is wirelessly connected to the internet, receiving your media, and secondly, it's wirelessly transmitting that to your speakers.

Thankfully, you're not in an either-or situation. You can wire whatever you can as per my preferred method, and stream everything else. All you need do is select the appropriate input using the KEF remote control.


As to your TV position - that's a whole new can of worms. The simple answer is sound from your speakers will reflect off hard surfaces roughly the same. It doesn't matter if it's bouncing off a TV, wall, window, bookshelf, etc - it makes little difference. If you want to control the sound, you need to do acoustic treatment, which is a deep, deep rabbit hole. Suffice to say, some people here swear by it, some think it's unnecessary, others think it's bad. All agree that for it to do anything, you need lots of thick panels spread around your room. So unless you intend to make your room look like a studio, or home theater, then feel free to put the TV wherever you like - it won't change the acoustics at all. Make sure your speakers are positioned in the way they sound best to you, then put your TV somewhere where the speakers won't block it - not for acoustic purposes, but purely so you can see the TV properly.

Thanks for the explanation of how to setup the TV/speakers/streamer. I didn't even know about things like Apple TV until you mentioned them! Now I think I understand.

Do you have a preferred way of wiring a laptop directly to the speakers or is that a foolish thing to do? e.g. I guess I could run a rca cable out of the headphone jack? Is that good for SQ?

As to room treatments... I've never encountered another consumer space comparable to audio in which there's so much uncertainty about what is gold and what is snake oil. Very frustrating!

 

[Danaxus]

Thanks for the explanation of how to setup the TV/speakers/streamer. I didn't even know about things like Apple TV until you mentioned them! Now I think I understand.

Do you have a preferred way of wiring a laptop directly to the speakers or is that a foolish thing to do? e.g. I guess I could run a rca cable out of the headphone jack? Is that good for SQ?

As to room treatments... I've never encountered another consumer space comparable to audio in which there's so much uncertainty about what is gold and what is snake oil. Very frustrating!

You can wire a laptop the exact same way you do any other device - via HDMI to the TV. That would give you the best sound quality. That said, these days there is no good reason to - devices like Apple TV (and many, many other streaming boxes), are essentially capable computers in their own right. They'll offer pretty much everything your laptop does, but are much more convenient. You hook them up to the TV, leave them there permanently, and control everything with a remote control or your phone (no faffing around with hauling cables to your sitting position). Apple TV is particularly friendly to the non tech-savvy, but it depends on your specific use-case.

 

[Toblerone]

New MSRP was just reduced to $5000