KEF LS60 Wireless Just Announced

[KMO]

In other words: the aesthetic design goals seem to target people who aren't in to the gear (hence making it more lifestyle diminutive), yet the people most likely to be interested in paying that much money are audiophiles, people in to the gear, who would generally have less problem with a larger design.

So your assertion is that people with high disposable income are not into design? Colour me sceptical.

I think "sound quality at all cost, screw the looks" is not going to be a dominant part of the market. Most people will have some sort of weighting between appearance and audio.

And KEF already do have much larger towers, so there's no point adding a new product to cover the same market. This is does not resemble anything they currently have, so will get different customers who might not have considered a boring-looking R11.

 

[KMO]

Sorta how I feel about the KC62. It’s great they went to such extreme lengths to make it as small as possible, but… wouldn’t it have been cooler to scale it up just a smidge to 8in drivers? Wouldn’t that still have been ground-breakingly small?

They already have the KF92 with 9" drivers. (Which I got, because I didn't need anything as small as the KC62.) Making something only slightly smaller than the (quite-small) KF92 would have not been very interesting.

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

So your assertion is that people with high disposable income are not into design? Colour me sceptical.

I think "sound quality at all cost, screw the looks" is not going to be a dominant part of the market. Most people will have some sort of weighting between appearance and audio.

And KEF already do have much larger towers, so there's no point adding a new product to cover the same market. This is does not resemble anything they currently have, so will get different customers who might not have considered a boring-looking R11.

That's a personal thing

To me the R11 is still better looking, the LS60 looks weird with these '' spikes '' and is using the 4'' driver

 

[retro]

Again: how does that give you Atmos? Or anything other than multichannel LPCM for that matter. You’ll need a media player that does the decoding for you.

In most cases: no volume control, because that is analog via digitally controlled chips.

That seems to be the only halfway viable option at the moment. Time will be needed to make that widely usable. Probably not even a handful LS60 buyer will consider this option though

Good luck! You’ll need it!

Just a quick response to your questions and comments because its getting waay off-topic here quick:
You are wrong on everything exept one thing: Yes, time will make the PC/Mac solution better. I would never recommend this to Average Joe. Yet. Is your name Joe btw....?

I would love to continue discuss this in a separate thread, not to derail this one. I started one here a while ago, and as I wrote earlier, not much serious interest. Feel free to jumpstart the thread again.

And no, no luck needed, but thanks anyway..

 

[Ron Texas]

Maybe this is a maxi LSX. The small drivers and EQ driven low bass disappoint me along with the $6k price tag. Someone will buy it, but I'm not that someone.

 

[abdo123]

The 26 Hz can only do about 92~94 dB before running out of steam (before room gain). It's nice for low-volume listening, nothing else.

You mean 99.99% of the time?

 

[MattHooper]

So your assertion is that people with high disposable income are not into design?

No.

 

[pablolie]

The only weird thing is why they just don't use the standard 5'' UNIQ? XD

Maybe reusing the LSX UniQ?

 

[ChrisHeinonen]

This is an intriguing looking product to be sure...but I'm sort of scratching my head a little over the point of the design.

It seems to be trying to combine a "lifestyle" product, deliberately targeting reducing the profile and size while at the same time asking "audiophile" pricing.

In other words: the aesthetic design goals seem to target people who aren't in to the gear (hence making it more lifestyle diminutive), yet the people most likely to be interested in paying that much money are audiophiles, people in to the gear, who would generally have less problem with a larger design.

Don't get me wrong, I personally really care about aesthetics and don't want monster speakers dominating my room. But all the excitement about these speakers is coming from the audiophile community who would pay these type of significant sums for speakers. In that context, the amount of effort that went in to squeezing these new LS60s to such a diminutive profile seems almost a bit odd. Most are excited about the potential performance of these speakers "a smaller, more affordable active version of the Blade." Seems to me the audience willing to pay for such an item would mostly have been fine with a somewhat wider baffle or somewhat larger cabinet size, for instance.

But, hey, wuddoiknow? Kef no doubt has done their marketing research.

I've spent the past 25 years dealing with AV setups with countless boxes and cables and speakers, and spent the last 12+ years reviewing gear as well before leaving that arena, and at this point I'm just sick of all the cables and hassle. I'm perfectly willing to pay for a piece of gear that performs at a superb level without all that hassle and setup work, and still sounds great. While I'm totally capable of setting up a system with a preamp and amp, setting up room correction, getting the wiring correct, and everything else, I think that also immediately turns off a much larger market of people than it opens up. I have plenty of family and friends (like my Dad, who got me started on this AV lifestyle) that might like audio but would only consider a product like this, where it'll work with their phone and their TV with effectively zero work and no new remotes or things to learn once it is setup.

What I think is impressive about the LS60 is that it's a product that both the die-hards here at ASR might want, but also that you could more easily sell to people that never would have considered a high-end audio system before because of the looks/complexity. There's plenty of people that have expendable income that are happy to pay a lot for something that is better and this might work for them.

 

[Mnyb]

This actually looks like a viable option for my midsized living room circa 3 meters distance from speakers.
I may use my sub just to cut the lowest end from the speaker ( why not use a sub if you have one ).

I read the white paper . It is true that they aimed at very slim profile and overal size .
But they sort of made this restriction a feature, as the very narrow baffle makes you sort of get you off from using the very curvy and expensive blade type of enclosure . Meaning that larger uni-q sort of calls for a blade cabinet or shadow flares as a solution.

And it’s not that small roughly a meter tall , and you still won’t shove them next to a bookcase or something.

Actually looks like a hifi solution for a European living room , not just “lifestyle” imho .

A good overall product, as usual speakers are an art of thousands of compromises in the the right mix

 

[spacevector]

Congratulations to KEF on launching what looks to be a brilliant speaker!

@jackocleebrown - are you able to arrange a review pair for @amirm please?

 

[HooStat]

So, no room correction based on what I have read, although the manual was not complete online yet (at least earlier today). What are the options for doing some kind of room correction for bass that covers all inputs? MiniDSP Studio (no HDMI though)? Or hope for a firmware update? I didn't see many comments about whether KEF might remedy this other than one poster who mentioned that he mentioned this issue to the engineering team. . .

 

[NiagaraPete]

Ohhhh I like the look and design of these. But the 10K CDN price is out of my bracket.

 

[voodooless]

You mean 99.99% of the time?

Possibly. There usually isn’t any music content down there anyway (there are always exceptions). Still, the difference to the claimed 111dB maxSPL is stark and misleading, as is clear form various reaction here.

 

[abdo123]

Possibly. There usually isn’t any music content down there anyway (there are always exceptions). Still, the difference to the claimed 111dB maxSPL is stark and misleading, as is clear form various reaction here.

Considering that music is usually at its loudest at 100Hz, and since the speaker should be capable of 110dB output at that frequency, I would give them a pass.

 

[KMO]

That's a personal thing

To me the R11 is still better looking, the LS60 looks weird with these '' spikes '' and is too narrow, the R11 is not too narrow, just very ok

Indeed, which is why I think it's neat that KEF has basically got two whole design things going on - they have both the "fancy design" stuff, and the more understated stuff.

It's kind of interleaved throughout their price points, so if you're happy with both, you've got a huge range available, and if you strongly favour "fancy design" or "understated", you've still got a fair selection to suit you. The LS60 fills in a big gap between the LS50 and the Blade Two for the "fancy design" side.

 

[Pearljam5000]

So, no room correction based on what I have read, although the manual was not complete online yet (at least earlier today). What are the options for doing some kind of room correction for bass that covers all inputs? MiniDSP Studio (no HDMI though)? Or hope for a firmware update? I didn't see many comments about whether KEF might remedy this other than one poster who mentioned that he mentioned this issue to the engineering team. . .

Product Support

KEF Product Support KEF Product Support KEF Product Support LS50 Wireless II LSX LS50 Wireless Accessories APPS

eu.kef.com

The full manual is on this page (not sure how to link to the manual directly)

 

[Pearljam5000]

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

Maybe reusing the LSX UniQ?

A much better one for sure

Kind of sad they just don't use the standard 5''~ UNIQ..

 

[voodooless]

I would give them a pass.

For me they get a pass because they are one of the only companies (apart from a few pro audio brands) that dare to publish a full set of measurements, including compression data. That is very much appreciated! That spec sheet though, should also list the bandwidth for the SPL claim.