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New KEF LS50 Meta & LS50 Wireless II


tkam

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I've never heard the originals in a proper environment. The KEF dealer in Winnipeg is mostly a mass-market place, selling lots of Polk speakers, and TVs and car stereos etc. I asked to hear the LS50s and the sales guy turned them up as loud as the amp would go, because volume is the most important thing. The entire store was too loud for a proper audition anyway. They're on sale for $900 Cdn right now, which is the cheapest I've seen them.

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38 minutes ago, acidbasement said:

I've never heard the originals in a proper environment. The KEF dealer in Winnipeg is mostly a mass-market place, selling lots of Polk speakers, and TVs and car stereos etc. I asked to hear the LS50s and the sales guy turned them up as loud as the amp would go, because volume is the most important thing. The entire store was too loud for a proper audition anyway. They're on sale for $900 Cdn right now, which is the cheapest I've seen them.

I'd have a hard time passing them up at 900$ CDN. That's what, 420$ USD? Maybe 666$?

@cetoole has them set up with an SVS sub and I've spent multiple hours listening; I am a fan.

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2 hours ago, Sherwood said:

I've never heard any LS50, but I've never loved any of the KEF's I've owned. Ric, sounds like you're in my camp if they're still sitting in a box.

They've been in and out and I'm a fan, but mostly in box recently due to non-SQ reasons. Shelter-in-place required me to setup a video switcher rig with multiple laptops in their place. In their other place my daughter can't ask the LS50s to play Taylor Swift and she starts. Agree with Steve the imaging is stellar. 

The earlier version LS50W was looked at as I'm trying to simplify the post-Airport Express/post-Chromecast Audio world in our living room. I don't want to start to deal with local music storage (outside of vinyl) after years of not doing so, and I want video audio to be included, and the LS50Ws, Qobuz/Tidal w/phone and YT/HBO/Netflix, etc w/Apple TV seems perfect. Well, and then to deal with vinyl. 

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10 hours ago, cutestory said:

Definitely a fan here. I have LS50s and LS50W as well. Coincidentally,  my LS50s are also currently in a box—but only because I replaced them with the LS50W, and haven't bothered selling the old ones.

You could do like I do with audio gear. Leave it out of site till you forget you even have it. After it's value goes down, then think about selling it. Then don't because its not worth the time and effort. 

 

 

 

 

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OK, HC hive, I am trying to figure something out with these...

The hdmi input on these new versions sounds like it could basically be the center of my TV/apple TV/oppo setup, and can take all the hifi downstairs away from the fam and have a pretty clean setup for our general family purposes of cartoons, netflix, and movies.  

Currently, we basically stream virtually everything from our Apple TV (we cut cable a while back), which feeds the hdmi input of my oppo 103 (it does that video processor upscaling thingy), and that feeds hdmi to the panny plasma.  I've got the oppo feeding my wyred4sound dac/pre thingy which then feeds the rest of the hifi.

My first thought is that I can used the dual hdmi outputs of the oppo, with hdmi 1 sending video to the panny, and hdmi 2 sending audio into the new KEFs.  However, the KEF connectivity guide says that the hdmi input doesn't support hdmi audio, but can handle two channel PCM.  The hdmi label is "TO TV", so I'm wondering if its meant to be connected to the hdmi arc input from a TV, and not necessarily in the manner that I'm proposing above.

I could ask a local KEF dealer but I don't have much faith that they would know what I'm talking about.  Please send halp.

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Not exactly the solution you are looking for, but when I was thinking through an Apple TV to earlier model LS50W connection I noticed Sonos has a $25 HDMI to toslink adapter that many people use with non-Sonos equipment in a variety of situations. Not sure the audio conversion, but may be worth a look. 
https://www.amazon.com/Sonos-OPADPWW1BLK-Optical-Audio-Adaptor/dp/B07LGX39NJ

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That would definitely work - but I don't think I would be able to play SACD over it :( I don't have a huge amount by any stretch, but apparently I am a sucker for dead-ass formats like vinyl so I might as well kill another part of the music budget through SACD's lol.  

My hope was that the new Kefs will allow me to do all the good stuff, remove a shit load of boxes from the family room and make the wife and fam happy, and that the hdmi input would allow me to play SACD (cant do that over optical/coaxial).

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16 hours ago, Dusty Chalk said:

What colour?

Black. Anniversary edition maybe? The garage beckons...

15 hours ago, robm321 said:

You could do like I do with audio gear. Leave it out of site till you forget you even have it. After it's value goes down, then think about selling it. Then don't because its not worth the time and effort.  

That's pretty much my hobby.

If I made a list of the gear that I just stare at and watch depreciate, I'd...maybe be able to start selling it? Ugh.

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