Active Kef LS50

[Toolio]

 

I am intrigued by the active KEF LS50s, but have little experience with small speakers of this quality. I am considering putting them in my new basement media room, which is fairly large. It is in the area outlined in red in this image (sorry for the mess; it's the only plan I could find). Ignore the furniture, which does not exist. I would place the listening position close to the speakers. Would the fact that the room is fairly large affect sound quality much, even though the listener(s) would be close to the speakers? The two positions I am considering are marked with green arrows. A couch or chairs would sit perhaps six feet back (although this is highly flexible).The measures of the slightly L-shaped room are circled in yellow. Your thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Toolio]

You'd get sound of course out of that setup, but unfortunately your listening position nor the speaker placement are optimal for these speakers for the following reasons:

• Distance to listening position
  
• Listening Position
  

I'd suggest you put the speakers on front wall facing the couch that the left speaker is facing. Or re-position the couch to face the other wall where the right speaker is. Either of those speaker position will give you an equidistant speaker position from the side wall which is critical to proper stereo imaging and musical sound reproduction.

 

Thanks for the reply. As I noted in my post, the furniture does not exist. This was the builder's original plan that I then scribbled on, and they like to stick furniture in plans. In reality, the room is just bare walls at the moment. I haven't purchased or positioned furniture, so I'm free to do as I please. I should have made it clearer that the arrows refer to two possible positions for speaker pairs, not positions for individual speakers. Given that information, and the fact that I can position speakers or couches anywhere, which wall would you recommend for the speakers?

[Toolio]

can you white out the furniture and cut off the irrelevant parts of the diagram?

 

also post what wall treatments you are willing to do?

 

if not finished yet, there are some good ideas on how to do the sheetrock and spaces between studs too...

 

I'm mainly interested in knowing whether the room is likely to be too big for the speakers, even with a listening position fairly close to the speakers. That's my concern. I'm not willing to do any modifications, primarily because my wife is involved (no tolerance for this kind of thing) and because this is a house I use for only three or four months of the year. The house is in Canada, but I spend about nine months of the year in Brasil in our other home. I'm not willing to break the bank on the Canadian home. Also, the basement is newly finished, so it is just an empty room with carpeting at the moment.

To be honest, I do most of my listening with headphones and DACS in both locations, but I want something decent when I don't want to use headphones. I'm also interested in the the LS50 active speakers because I am a big user of streaming services and Roon, and have a fairly large collection of high-res digital music on a NAS. My previous experiences have all been with tower speakers (and continue to be in Brasil).

[Toolio]

Yes the speakers will be just fine in the room at either location. Your listening position at either location is close enough to give the speakers a good chance of sounding good. I say a good chance of sounding good because you never can tell how any speaker will perform in a room. Only testing the speaker in the domain will tell you. But yes technically the speakers will work perfectly fine.

 

Thanks for the input (both you and others above). I look forward to trying to find some to audition when I return to Canada in a month or so.

[Toolio]

Crutchfield has them, no hassle 60 day in home trial, free shipping and $10 return shipping. Not sure if they ship to Canada [emoji1063]

 

There is a Crutchfield Canada, so as far as I know Crutchfield US won't ship to Canada. The Canadian version doesn't seem to sell LS50s, or for that matter any KEF products. But thanks for the suggestion.

[Toolio]

Thanks. As much as I would love living in Canada (beautiful country), I live in Portugal. I will check here...

 

Eu moro no Brasil, mas vou comprar no Canadá, para usar no Canada.

[Toolio]

You have 2 choices.

The LS50 Wireless app is terrible as a control point. There is no Tidal support, nor gapless playback nor any other moderately advanced music playing control. ?

 

Roon integration would solve that problem, and allow easy NAS connectivity. I sincerely hope this is under consideration.

[Toolio]

Much of what is wrong with software and music access could be improved with Roon compatibility. I'm waiting to see that before I purchase.

[Toolio]

4 minutes ago, DarwinOSX said:

I think I mentioned it another post but Kef told me they are looking at both MQA and Roon but no promises.

I'm looking at using a Bluesound Node 2 using optical between my TV and the speakers for both MQA and a Roon endpoint.  I've direct connected a Meridian Explorer 2 to the speakers to play MQA and it sounds amazing.

I've seen mention of everything from Roon being considered to people saying KEF informed them that Roon compatibility is definitely on the way. As a happy Roon user I'm cautiously optimistic but holding on to my cash for now.

[Toolio]

8 hours ago, bunno77 said:

 

 

In Australia these speakers are $3,800 rrp and the first pair used (secondhand) has just been advertised for $3,000. Even considering exchange rates we get stooged here. 

$3,000 in Canada, plus 13% tax. Not quite as bad (C$ and Australian dollar are just about par now), but still bad.

[Toolio]

I'm sorry to hear people are having problems. I've been coveting these speakers, but now I'm going to hold off until matters are resolved. I ws pretty much on hold waiting for full Roon compatibility, anyway.

[Toolio]

I don't have the LS50Ws, but I listen to Tidal constantly, with Roon through access points to DACs and with my tablets with a Dragonfly Red. I never experience stuttering. From time to time it will skip to the next track, which is indicative of a temporary bandwidth problem. I am in Brazil, which may explain this. And it is infrequent.