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KEF LS50 Need Help

I have been auditioning the KEF LS50 for a week now. Very nice speaker overall and clearly understand why it is so well reviewed. The speaker sounded very poor out of the box and loosened up after about 2 hours and finally started to sing. I have 25+ hours on them now (of course KEF says 100-200 needed????).

The bottom line for me is that they do not have enough bottom end for my taste, and the vocals an high pitch violin, etc. can seem too loud and a bit harsh at times. My gut feeling is the speakers will not change much more from now? This is a reference type speaker in my opinion. I guess there is always a thin line between perfect detail and rich soulful sound. I am looking for both (like most people) with a slant towards the rich and soulful side for me. I am upgrading my dedicated listening system from Klipsch KG4. (not a bad speaker by the way, different league of course)

I am considering two options going forward. ($3,000 budget max and prefer closer to $2,000) I kinda knew I would need a sub when I decided to try the LS50.

1.Try a sub (and soon) before my return window expires. SVS SB it most probable to due generous demo policy. The KEF R400 would be nice to try but cost more than the speakers?? I would consider it if gave me the results I want.

2.Return LS50 and find a suitable floor standing that will not need a sub, like Salk Song Tower ($160 shipping each way- bummer), or possibly KEF R line, or other??

I guess I am hoping for some input from those with similar experiences and the choices you ended up making.

My set-up
McIntosh MC 2150 solid state
Parasound Halo P5 pre-amp
Airport express via Toslink to Preamp DAC
Rotel CD player via digital coax to Preamp DAC

I currently use Tributary A1 Silver RCA cables and Tributary 12AWG Speaker wires. Blue jeans digital cables 14 x 19 room carpeted 75% or the area
torxx

Showing 2 responses by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman
21,832 posts
 
Have heard LS50 in larger and smaller rooms and believe the main issue will be the small size and bass response in many larger rooms.

A sub or two properly balanced in should eliminate that barrier.

ls ls 50s are fine speakers but small and laws of physics impose limits. Adding a sub or two should result in very high levels of performance that would be hard to beat otherwise.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,832 posts
 
I would have expected ls50 + sub set up well to be competitive with most anything myself.

That would be assuming subs and mains levels are well integrated. That setup and integration is often tricky to get right case by case whenever a sub is involved and may actually be a detriment in some ways until integrated optimally.

ITs not an easy thing to do. Sometimes its best to just let the speaker designer design the sound in total and just go with it.

I heard the ls50s in a large and small room in my house.

Bass extension and overall presentation was not good in the larger room.

In the smaller room, Bingo!

Subs would have alleviated the issue in the larger room I think, but never tried, so can't say for sure other than that is usually the case when monitors and subs are married happily.
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