KEF LSX Review (Wireless Speaker)

[beagleman]

I would have thought the drop after 8kHz and the fairly high distortion would be for sure (considering the price) a no go.

@amirm Are you saying despite these issues, it was quite listenable still, or that these issues did not impact listening all that much?

 

[biglebowski]

I wouldn't. I've been massively happy with my wireless systems and blissfully unaware of the sucky apps over the entirety of their ownership.

The streaming aspect works great, no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just think of the apps as a means to set up the speakers and you'll be fine.

Do you mean your Buchardt (Platin) wisa hub is working fine ?

 

[acetogen]

Interesting that Amir likes this system. It was highly praised by John Darko. But it is about 3 years old by now and the WiFi and Bluetooth technologies are obsolete by now. That will be always the problem with this type of packages, especially in an industry that changes too frequently as Home audio does. Also I think that the KEF Connect is not meant to be used with the LSX or the LS50-Wireless, it's rather for the newer LS50 Meta WiFi. Look forward to those other KEF reviews.

 

[mhardy6647]

What is not so great is if you get the speaker without the hard remote and you want to use the Aux in analog input. Upon power up, it would not play anything from that input. A dancing sequence of colors were going on in the front which would require the German Enigma machine to decode. I figured the easiest thing is to plug an Ethernet cable into it so I didn't have to mess with configuring WiFi. Searched for KEF and the KEF Connect app came up. Strangely it said it was from "GP Acoustics." Had to do some searching to see that is the entity that owns KEF now. But why reduce consumer trust by using that name instead of KEF???

Anyway, I start the app and it says to register. I register and then it comes up asking me if I want it to search for speakers. I say yes and the app simply hangs forever. I try it and try it again to no avail. I see a reset button on the back. I push that it and nothing resets either. What the heck? Sometime later I discover that the hole below Reset market is an LED! The switch is below it. What is remarkable is that you need to reset the speaker if you want to go from Bluetooth to Wifi mode. So why, oh why, is it not a real switch? And why require a reboot for heaven's sake to switch between those two protocols?

Back to trying to figure out why I can't connect, the app says to open "Google Home" if it can't find the speaker. Google Home? I knew there was such a thing on iOS but not on Android. I find and start it. An app opens up that seems to have been written by an intern developer. On top it says something about "IOT" (Internet of Things) exception that it has printf formatting characters in it with back slashes and such. Desperate, I tell it to search for them. To my pleasant surprise it says it found the device and gives me some cryptic designation for it. I say fine.

To test, I bring up Google Music (or whatever it is called) and start to play a track. I hear music! Yeah.... But wait, why is the volume so low? I crank it up and mostly I hear bass. It was just then that I realized the sound was NOT coming out of KEF LSX but elsewhere in the house!!! I immediately hit pause go to the living room. I see my wife in near tears as the Pioneer AVR that we use for TV sound had switched to be a remote device for Google Home and started to play the bloody music at full volume! Had to spend 10 minutes calming my wife's nerves. Shut the whole thing down and left it there for a couple of days.

I came back to it and searched and searched and nothing online would talk about this problem. By accident I watch a KEF configuration video and it shows a different app than the one I used. It is called KEF Control, not Connect! I boot that up and it immediately makes progress past where I was stuck with the other app. Sadly it configures itself using ad-hoc WiFi access point in the speaker. So you need to connect to its network first, give it your real WiFi credentials and then it connects. It should do this with Bluetooth in this day and age. Anyway, once there, I managed to select Aux In and could test the speaker.

Online reports are full complaints about the App with the most serious one being that it doesn't remember its settings. Horrible job here by KEF.

Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.

I performed over 1000 measurement which resulted in error rate of 1 to 2%.

Reference axis was the tweeter center.

Post of the century -- this needs to be a sticky... or the start of a memoir.

 

[mhardy6647]

...last year it only cost 4299￥(i'm chinese) ≈ $650, why am i hesitate?

There was a non-fabric covered version before. Sound/measurements wise (and therefore the non room EQ), are they the same?

mmm -- expensive fabric.
or...
hmmm -- maybe the current price reflects upgrades to the software...

 

[quantum_wave]

Thanks Amir for this review! Been waiting for this one for a while. We have a couple pairs of LSXs since they make great desktop speakers - very compact with the coaxial design that doesn't take much space with great sound. They have a low pass sub out that will also remove low frequencies (high pass) to the LSXs when setup. So it's easy to place a mini-sub under the desk and fill out their sound will keeping the distortion down.

Probably one of the best things about these little speakers is the FAF (Family Acceptance Factor) - some people who dislike the looks of most any speaker are just fine with these in the room.

The KEF control app is terrible, however, once setup you can use the speakers via remote and/or Airplay 2 (wifi) without having to touch the app again. For desktop use, we're using Topping D10s from computer to run an optical signal from directly into the LSXs so the internal DAC sees a pure digital signal chain. They also work flawlessly on Airplay 2 for multi-room sound and just showing up within iOS (and another pure digital chain).

Of note, one of our 2 pairs broke (internal electronics error) within a month of receiving it. KEF was great about replacing it including taking care of return shipping so that was very nice but it is a bit concerning if that were to happen out of warranty. (The risk with all these active wireless speakers.) That being said, both current pairs work fine without any issues so far.

 

[quantum_wave]

Interesting that Amir likes this system. It was highly praised by John Darko. But it is about 3 years old by now and the WiFi and Bluetooth technologies are obsolete by now. That will be always the problem with this type of packages, especially in an industry that changes too frequently as Home audio does. Also I think that the KEF Connect is not meant to be used with the LSX or the LS50-Wireless, it's rather for the newer LS50 Meta WiFi. Look forward to those other KEF reviews.

They work flawlessly on Airplay 2 which is very much current wifi tech and the easiest multi-room audio for iOS world.

 

[acetogen]

They work flawlessly on Airplay 2 which is very much current wifi tech and the easiest multi-room audio for iOS world.

So maybe I should rethink about getting a set for my sister after all. Probably too late after this review though.

 

[sam_adams]

. . . I would rather dig out a radio shack speaker from my attic . . .

Radio Shack did you say?

NOS. Made in Japan models. Never used. Not stored in attic. Still wrapped in original rice paper and plastic bags.

 

[m8o]

The price is a tough pill to swallow for me (at least), for something akin to JBL Control 1 sized (not exactly of course, but more similar than not) having a 4.5" driver. Of course performance is in another galaxy from that. Nevertheless, I cant get past that.
P.s. and I believe, not Roon ready?

 

[calugg]

Thank you for this review. I have the LS50 wireless (version 1). Love the sound, which is lovely, but I would like to set the app on fire (total crap). Next time, I'll go with the update LS50 metas and a decent integrated amp. Thanks again for the data on the LSX. It's in a "maybe" category for me.

 

[bo_knows]

Clearly there is something of a pattern here.
I'm going to suggest that perhaps listening in a shop is not the best place to judge a speaker. There is a reason a certain subset of speaker manufacturers make speakers with a deliberate upward tilt to their FR. It isn't to sound good in critical listening, but a showroom bling sells speakers to the unwary.
I would be vastly more inclined to trust Amir's Klippel than the setup in some random shop, especially if compared to speakers designed to pull a casual listener in in a showroom.

Agree, same with the TVs. My LG OLED has a special setting in the menu that can be selected if used as a display in the showroom (Best Buy and etc.).

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

This went downhill fast. Speaker review To judgement against an entire generation in 2 pages

Yes. You are right

 

[ergre]

Interesting that Amir likes this system. It was highly praised by John Darko. But it is about 3 years old by now and the WiFi and Bluetooth technologies are obsolete by now. That will be always the problem with this type of packages, especially in an industry that changes too frequently as Home audio does. Also I think that the KEF Connect is not meant to be used with the LSX or the LS50-Wireless, it's rather for the newer LS50 Meta WiFi. Look forward to those other KEF reviews.

They also update the software on the speaker from time to time.

 

[acetogen]

They also update the software on the speaker from time to time.

Which brings the question on whether Amir was able to use the latest update as opposed to the original KEF app in his review.

 

[preload]

I remeber listening to these KEF LSX in shop and thinking they sounded boring and not worth their price tag, not even close. I also listened to a pair of Klipsh The fives while I was there and enjoyed them more. But I also was thinking my Edifier S2000 Pro in monitor mode was better than the Kef LSX.

Clearly there is something of a pattern here.
I'm going to suggest that perhaps listening in a shop is not the best place to judge a speaker. There is a reason a certain subset of speaker manufacturers make speakers with a deliberate upward tilt to their FR. It isn't to sound good in critical listening, but a showroom bling sells speakers to the unwary.
I would be vastly more inclined to trust Amir's Klippel than the setup in some random shop, especially if compared to speakers designed to pull a casual listener in in a showroom.

I have an LSX pair in my family room for HT purposes. To me, they sound dull and lifeless. The ONLY reason I have them there is because they match the decor in terms of size/color. Perhaps they sound amazing in nearfield (as Amir observed), but for use as standard bookshelf speakers, they don't sound that great to me. The B&W 707S2's that they replaced were far better.

Once again, people here are bedazzled by the controlled directivity and off-axis response and completely miss the fact that the tweeters roll off like a cliff. Stereophile has a nice chart comparing the normalized FR of the LSX to the LS50, and the amount of rolloff is very apparent. If anyone knows any tricks on how to make the LSX sound more dynamic and lively, I'd be very interested.

 

[roryoconnor]

I had the LSX for a year, and used them with some external devices - Kube1 subwoofer, Chromecast Audio, IFI iPurifier for the Chromecast and a Chord Mojo, connected to the AUX in.

The sound from the above while streaming Soundcloud was fantastic. I also a got a great sound with Spotify connect.

Have since upgraded to the LS50w first edition, but I swear the imaging is better with some music with the LSX. Speakers are 2M apart and listening position is about 2M also ( slight toe in ). Room is about 12m sq.

I found the best value in the LSX are the speakers themselves, the amplification, their aesthetics and to a lesser extent the DAC. I don't use the apps except for setting up and occasionally changing the DSP. Don't use the streaming services except for Spotify connect.

Great speakers if you can bypass the apps and streamer with external devices/ services. I don't agree with the negativity surrounding the apps because its actually quite easy to work around their limitations. If you have roon you can ignore them completely. Yes, they could have been a lot better, but they are also quite expendable in terms of the overall product experience. The money went into the right areas - the look, the speakers, the amps and the DSP.

The olive green and gold look amazing.

 

[roryoconnor]

If anyone knows any tricks on how to make the LSX sound more dynamic and lively, I'd be very interested.

Subwoofer, definitely.

 

[preload]

Subwoofer, definitely.

Yes, I already have a sub. That isn't the issue.

P.S. I have the olive/gold color too!

 

[PeteL]

Interesting that Amir likes this system. It was highly praised by John Darko. But it is about 3 years old by now and the WiFi and Bluetooth technologies are obsolete by now. That will be always the problem with this type of packages, especially in an industry that changes too frequently as Home audio does. Also I think that the KEF Connect is not meant to be used with the LSX or the LS50-Wireless, it's rather for the newer LS50 Meta WiFi. Look forward to those other KEF reviews.

Why obsolete?