KEF LS60 Wireless Just Announced

[Mnyb]

Arrival .
Initial impressions. Why the hell is not everyone bying these especially at the new price
Subs arrive later .

Clever packaging. KEF themselves has an unboxing video , so I don’t bother with that .
I’ll photo the whole setup when our new media furniture and subs are in place .

 

[Chester]

Enjoy!

 

[Vacceo]

View attachment 358679View attachment 358680Arrival .
Initial impressions. Why the hell is not everyone bying these especially at the new price
Subs arrive later .

Clever packaging. KEF themselves has an unboxing video , so I don’t bother with that .
I’ll photo the whole setup when our new media furniture and subs are in place .

The only con I can give these speakers is the lack of expandability to multichannel in an easy way. Add that, Dirac and decodification for Atmos/DTS and you have a killer, compact, and nice looking home theatre.

 

[Mnyb]

The only con I can give these speakers is the lack of expandability to multichannel in an easy way. Add that, Dirac and decodification for Atmos/DTS and you have a killer, compact, and nice looking home theatre.

Lucky for me , I have a HT in another room so no need for multitasking.

A con is the rudimentary sub integration, who still works with kef subs ( I tested at the dealer and ordered such subs ).
Another is the lack of freely configurable PEQ .

I plan to measure with REW and use the PEQ in my WiiM streamer to tune the bass , when the subs arrive. Speakers are already phase corrected in themself .

If needed I will get an mini DSP and try Dirac ? Not sure if really need Dirac if I can get get the bass to work and speakers already phase corrected. And I will not correct above the shröder frequency anyway . Will keep my correction <300 - 500 Hz .

Anyhow , the finer adjustments are a appreciated by us hifi nerds and sure improve the general experience.
But the speakers actually works to 90% thrown into the room , fascinated by how insensitive to placement they are
Further nerd level improvements are subs I do like unconstricted bass of very good quality with DRC .
And with subs the need for eq is even greater .

 

[Kal Rubinson]

The only con I can give these speakers is the lack of expandability to multichannel in an easy way.

If you can feed them via the S/PDIF input (up to 24/192PCM), they can be treated just like regular powered speakers, albeit in pairs.

Add that, Dirac and decodification for Atmos/DTS and you have a killer, compact, and nice looking home theatre.

Ah. You want them to be a complete multichannel system. That's another story.

 

[Vacceo]

If you can feed them via the S/PDIF input (up to 24/192PCM), they can be treated just like regular powered speakers, albeit in pairs.


Ah. You want them to be a complete multichannel system. That's another story.

Technology exists to make it possible: AES67, Dante and other protocols allow audio over IP. I´m sure the LS actives use one of those to connect both speakers, being it wifi or wired.

The "brains" of any of those actives should have no problem decoding, license pending. And they include DSP´s, that´s why you can adjust them in the APP. What I do not know is their capacity to run Dirac or similar EQ software. In that regard, it should not be too difficult to adapt something like Cambridge Audio has done with the EVO in order to integrate a CD transport.

Technically possible? Probably. Worth it? Well, only KEF can judge that.

Lucky for me , I have a HT in another room so no need for multitasking.

A con is the rudimentary sub integration, who still works with kef subs ( I tested at the dealer and ordered such subs ).
Another is the lack of freely configurable PEQ .

I plan to measure with REW and use the PEQ in my WiiM streamer to tune the bass , when the subs arrive. Speakers are already phase corrected in themself .

If needed I will get an mini DSP and try Dirac ? Not sure if really need Dirac if I can get get the bass to work and speakers already phase corrected. And I will not correct above the shröder frequency anyway . Will keep my correction <300 - 500 Hz .

Anyhow , the finer adjustments are a appreciated by us hifi nerds and sure improve the general experience.
But the speakers actually works to 90% thrown into the room , fascinated by how insensitive to placement they are
Further nerd level improvements are subs I do like unconstricted bass of very good quality with DRC .
And with subs the need for eq is even greater .

I have been using the LS50 WII/KC62 combo for more than a year in a small living room. They are connected to a TV, an old Denon DVD player we use for CD reproduction and we also use the streaming capabilities for talk radio mostly. I couldn´t be happier with the performance, it sounds amazing.

Since I also have a multichannel system with passives (Marantz AVR running on KEF IQ speakers), I just miss the extra adjustability and the convenience of further integration on the LS´s. Would I change my IQ´s for LS60´s, 50´s and LSX for a full Atmos setup like I have on the IQ´s? Yes, in a heartbeat.

 

[Mnyb]

Its a bigger topic than KEF alone can solve . Digital interconnectivity to active speakers and HT-processors with al the licensing and cr*p
Possibly cross brand ?

It's all stuck in copy protection via hdmi . remember all those attempts to "free" the 5'1 signal digitally .

As of now you make something proprietary like Meridian did or go trough the analog hole .

They could possibly build their own ecosystem like Meridian did , but that a lot of work for a one brand solution and costs and risks and the cost to maintain it for a long time ?
They have the HDMI port on the speakers and could build some proprietary protocol to the rest if the swarm of speakers for it , that would be a project ?

I would be better if there where a standard , similar to WISA ( a rudimentary atempt that points in the rigth direction imo ) but also including the Dolby and DTS Stuff etc .

I think the HT market can bankcrupt any company ? where stuck in some change your over-expensive receiver now and then loop with very few actors
Not many dare to invent or design new from ground up ?

 

[Vacceo]

If wired, it can be done via AES67.

I don't know how hard it'd be, but with a hub/switch that could connect the main speaker to whatever amount of other speakers, that could distribute the digital signal to each channel.

The main speaker would still control all the sources and connections.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Technology exists to make it possible: AES67, Dante and other protocols allow audio over IP. I´m sure the LS actives use one of those to connect both speakers, being it wifi or wired.

The "brains" of any of those actives should have no problem decoding, license pending. And they include DSP´s, that´s why you can adjust them in the APP. What I do not know is their capacity to run Dirac or similar EQ software. In that regard, it should not be too difficult to adapt something like Cambridge Audio has done with the EVO in order to integrate a CD transport.

Technically possible? Probably. Worth it? Well, only KEF can judge that.

I am not at liberty to say more than that KEF is quite aware of all this but I think you probably expected that.

 

[AudioJester]

View attachment 358679View attachment 358680Arrival .
Initial impressions. Why the hell is not everyone bying these especially at the new price
Subs arrive later .

Clever packaging. KEF themselves has an unboxing video , so I don’t bother with that .
I’ll photo the whole setup when our new media furniture and subs are in place .

Nice kerb side find!

Having heard this speakers several times Iam jealous. Congrats!

 

[Vacceo]

I am not at liberty to say more than that KEF is quite aware of all this but I think you probably expected that.

KEF is, gladly, quite transparent describing how their creations work; the white papers are there for anyone to read.

So if a complete layman like me, who knows nothing of engineering, can read the documents and listen to the engineers, I´m sure they have tried or consider all sorts of derivatives.

 

[terryforsythe]

I have EQ/room correction working using a Raspberry Pi with CamillaDSP installed, a miniDSP MCHStreamer kit handling SPDIF I/O for the Pi, and a WiiM streamer. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/rpi4-camilladsp-tutorial.29656/

The MCHStreamer plugs into a USB port of the Raspberry Pi, and connects to the WiiM and main Speaker via SPDIF (either TosLink or Coax). The flow is:

WiiM --> MCHStreamer --> Raspberry Pi --> MCHStreamer --> LS60 (primary)

I like this solution because in CamillaDSP I am using .wav files, one for each channel, as FIR convolution filters. Simple, yet very effective.

A downside of using the MCHStreamer kit is that CamillaDSP is not able to automatically change the sample rate if the streaming sample rate changes. In Tidal, for example, one song may stream at 192k, and the next song may stream at 96k, 48k or 44.1k, depending on the sample rate of that song. The work around is to set the WiiM to always output at a 44.1k sample rate, and set CamillaDSP to 44.1k. With those settings everything is working flawlessly.

There is a package, camilladsp-setrate, that will automatically set the sample rate to be used by CamillaDSP, but the MCHStreamer does not output an ALSA notification needed for that to work.

My next adventure is to replace the MCHStreamer with a custom I2S hat for the Raspberry Pi configured to handle the SPDIF I/O and automatically set CamillaDSP to the detected sample rate. https://github.com/raptorlightning/I2S-Hat. It will take some time to acquire all of the parts for the I2S-Hat and get it assembled. I'll post an update if/when I get it working.

 

[ban25]

Since I also have a multichannel system with passives (Marantz AVR running on KEF IQ speakers), I just miss the extra adjustability and the convenience of further integration on the LS´s. Would I change my IQ´s for LS60´s, 50´s and LSX for a full Atmos setup like I have on the IQ´s? Yes, in a heartbeat.

Have you actually looked at the LSX or the LS50s? They aren't the same. The LSX is a miniature LS speaker with a 3/4" tweeter and 4 1/2" mid-woofer. Honestly the LS50M isn't appropriate for home theater use, let alone the LSX.

 

[Vacceo]

Have you actually looked at the LSX or the LS50s? They aren't the same. The LSX is a miniature LS speaker with a 3/4" tweeter and 4 1/2" mid-woofer. Honestly the LS50M isn't appropriate for home theater use, let alone the LSX.

The LSX could be quite decent height speakers. The LS50 WII is what I use in a small living (a bit more than 15 square meters) room and they´re quite adequate to substitute a soundbar. They may work well as side and rear speakers, perhaps even as center.

Sure, if you have a 50 square meter room, the LS actives will not be adequate, but for something "Euro size" (20 to 30 square meters), a set of KEF actives could be quite usable.

 

[ban25]

The LSX could be quite decent height speakers. The LS50 WII is what I use in a small living (a bit more than 15 square meters) room and they´re quite adequate to substitute a soundbar. They may work well as side and rear speakers, perhaps even as center.

Sure, if you have a 50 square meter room, the LS actives will not be adequate, but for something "Euro size" (20 to 30 square meters), a set of KEF actives could be quite usable.

The problem with trying to integrate the LSX into an HT system is two-fold:

1) Being active, you have to run two separate cables, including AC power, to each LSX. That's extremely inconvenient and not worth the trouble just to install such a limited speaker in a surround / height location.
2) The additional processing / DSP latency in the LSX is going to make it a nightmare to integrate into a quality HT. Essentially, it's going to increase the best case latency for no benefit.

Your post reminds me that I would absolutely recommend the LSX as an alternative for someone who is dead set on a soundbar...but KEF's software/firmware is sadly lacking and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

 

[Vacceo]

If there are home theatres with Genelec Ones, it should not be impossible.

 

[Mnyb]

If there are home theatres with Genelec Ones, it should not be impossible.

Supose they use the analog inputs , thats always a possibility even with the KEF's but i Think a Genelec monitor has more emphasize on a good analog in .
Thats very common in professional settings .

 

[Vacceo]

Indeed, but they can also take digital signals. Again, the tech is there.

 

[naagratrax]

Hello,

My father has just bought some LS60s.

I would like to use my dirac licence to calibrate them.

Do any of you know how to take measurements without an analogue input?

I'm a bit confused as I can't see how to recover an analogue microphone signal and output it as a Digital Out.

Audient ID 22 with Toslink out
Sonarwork Calibration Mic

Do I need REW with an USB Umik 1 ?

Thanks

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Do any of you know how to take measurements without an analogue input?

I'm a bit confused as I can't see how to recover an analogue microphone signal and output it as a Digital Out.

Can you handle a microphone with USB output? See UMIK-1.