Active Kef LS50

[ariel]

Thought I'd share a note for raspberry + hifiberry digi users + and people considering the use of toslink with LS50W.

 

The KEF spec for the speakers tells that toslink support goes up to 96khz.

 

I'm now using a raspberry pi3b + hifiberry digi+ pro connected via toslink and confirmed that 192/24 works just fine over toslink on this setup. Running OSMC in the Pi to manage the music library, headless - audio-only and bit-perfect (no pulseaudio, no software volume control nor mixing). The sound quality is just superb.

 

Some related discussions with the HW dev: here

 

192/24 PCM stream playing back:

 

cat /proc/asound/sndrpihifiberry/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params

 

access: RW_INTERLEAVED

format: S32_LE

subformat: STD

channels: 2

rate: 192000 (192000/1)

period_size: 9600

buffer_size: 38400

 

(24 bits per sample are transmitted, the least significant byte is zero even in the source)

 

Using a 10-ft fiber, no connection stability issues after a week of heavy use.

The Pi also runs librespot (for spotify connect)

 

 

[ariel]

3 hours ago, marflao said:

Not sure if this has mentioned in this thread already.  If "yes", sorry for bringing it up again:

 

Does anybody use a Pi with picoreplayer connected to the Kef's via USB? Without using Roon? 

 

What are the the required settings in picoreplayer therefore the Kef's Dac will be recognized? 

 

I already dropped an email to the Kef support but they just said that this is depending on the OS required drivers and that this is not known to them. 

In addition to that they didn't answer my question which Dac is used in the Kef's. 

 

Hence maybe anybody here has this setup successfully running. 

 

 

 

I use a Pi with the LS50w's but with a HifiBerry Digi pro (optical/SPDIF) - without roon: OSMC/raspbian. This setup gets audio to the speakers at 192Khz/24b - in spite of the kef spec saying that spdif tops at 96khz, card and kernel show the connection speed is 192 for 192/24 content - the card designer also confirmed that it is common for recent high-end hardware to connect at 192 for spdif;  this way you get the exact same audio data stream as if using USB in a bit-perfect setup, without any of the issues of USB in a Pi.

I did try USB early on but the Pi wasn't able to keep up (OSMC/raspbian) and you'd get the well known pop & crack noise occasionally, possibly due to the Pi USB bus being shared with the ethernet interface (my Pi streams the content from a server). No drivers are needed for this with any recent linux whatever the platform, Pi or otherwise. Connecting the kefs via USB to a regular desktop PC works fine - I have the Kefs connected to both the Pi via spdif (for most of my listening) and also to a linux desktop via usb for occasional use.

 

I have been using this system daily in my home office for over a year, mostly classical and jazz, lots of HD audio content, and the 'wow' factor is still there. This is an amazingly good audio system. Zero issues, no complications, and so convenient. I re-discovered my music collection.

 

The only one annoyance was in the early days when the left speaker very rarely wouldn't turn on - this was fixed in more recent firmware some 6 or 9 months ago - never happened again.

 

 

 

[ariel]

well after 2.5 years of enjoying music ln the LS50W on an almost daily basis, today they started to act up, after an initial loud pop, the power icon started to blink (all other icons are off). After removing power and waiting for a few minutes, the speaker system boots up normally and works for a few minutes to an hour, and then it dies again.

I was running 1-year-old firmware - I just updated the pair to v4.1 (posted a few days ago). The update completed successfully but after a while the same issue started to happen.

 

Anyone had this problem? I'm wondering if it's worth trying a factory reset

 

[ariel]

I did connect with KEF and had a very fast response (their support seems great) - however, noticing the that issue seemed to 'build up' over time and then suddenly 'spark', and that the air here (winter time) got really dry specially since last week, I used an electronics (no-moisture) air duster, very gently and from the exterior (through connectors etc). The thought was that maybe some particle + much higher than usual static was causing this. I did that two days ago and since then I've been using the speakers for many hours on end, with no re occurrence.

If they do fail again anytime I'm planning to drop them off at the local KEF service center. Although I'm hoping that I will get a few more years of great listening before that happens. Let's see.

FWIW firmware 4.1 seems solid - ugraded using a mac with no issues. Unfortunately older speakers do not get the new "remote power on" feature. It would have been a great addition.

 

[ariel]

24 minutes ago, No Disc said:

I'm considering the Kef LS50 Wireless II, the only thing holding me back is I really like the sound of my Chord DAC and I am not sure the result I would have feeing my Chord into the Analog inputs of the LS50 WII.  From my understanding Kef will convert that signal to digital to be able to use DSP on that.   Anyone with the LS50 Wireless try something like that before, and how did that work out for you?

 

Just noticed the LS50 Wireless II launch. I've been using the LS50W I for 3+ years now and they have been an outstanding investment. I am surprised though that USB input is gone, why would they do that? I have my pair connected to my media player via digital spdif and also to my laptop docking station and switch back and forth as needed. Sounds like upgrading to LSWII would be a step backwards?