Amazon.com: Customer reviews: KEF LS50 Wireless Powered Music System (Black, Pair)

Best monitor speakers made under $15k. BUY THEM, you will not regret it.

Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2017

Bam! IMO, These are the best monitor/bookshelf speakers under $15k, and I do not say that lightly. I used to own the passive LS50 and ran them with a $7k and a $10k amp (to test them). THESE blow the passive's away and will cost you so much less. Amps are built in, DAC's are built in, all inputs are there.

The app is pure junk but I never used it. You can set up the speakers with the back panel, and how I use these is with my Sonos base station going into the speakers via an Audioquest Diamond optical cable. I use Spotify connect as well as the Spotify app uses my Sonos to play the tunes. I then have my turntable going into the analog, using an external phono stage.

These sound about 95% as good as my old Sonus Faber $25k Guarneri Evolutions in my listening room. Yes, I have had systems up to $50k and these are AMAZING and leave nothing to be desired. NO Sub needed.

BUT you must set them up correctly, you MUST. If you do, you will be rewarded after about 50 hours of listening when they fully break in. Once they do, you will hear an organic beautiful detailed yet never ever harsh sound. Never strident, never hard, never thin, Just a huge wall of sound with a massive soundstage and precise imaging and layering.

These have magic in them and at $2200 for these, then about $1500 for my Sonos and cables it would take me $15-$18k to reproduce the sound using amps, docs and traditional speakers.

KEF hit a home run here and for smallish rooms (min is 12X13), when set up right they are phenomenal. Amazing.

I own Devialet Phantom Golds, and at $6k for the set of Golds and another $500 for the Dialog (needed) and remote, these little KEF's are giving me a better sound experience. While not as powerful as the Gold's and not as HUGE sounding, the detail and layering are better with these.

I never use the app with these, and never need to. So to those complaining about the app, try other options so you do not need to use it. KEF should be ashamed though for releasing these with an app that appears to have been created by a 15 year old. It's buggy, never connects and is useless.

BUT, again, the app is not needed if you use something like a Sonos system. If you do, just hook it up via optical and you can have access to any streaming service such as Tidal, Deezer, or Spotify.

These are so good, I wish I had an extra $5k to buy the other colors for other rooms. Seriously though, these are about as good as it can get for smaller rooms when it comes to stereo speakers with audiophile quality, under $15k.

I have owned so many speakers over the last 20 years and never have I seen a value like these. My old Merlin monitors came close but again, those needed a $5k amp, a dac and pre amp to sound magical. a $14k proposition. These..$2200...a steal. If someone stole these and KEF raised the price to $5k I would still buy a pair. They are that good.

If you own or have owned the passive versions and felt they needed more bass, or were too bright and got harsh when played loud..all of that is addressed here as these can play loud as your ears can handle and still remain composed, and they never get harsh or bright. Bass down in to the 40's and build quality that is gorgeous.

While I love having a nice amp with a nice volume dial, these just make so much sense and like the Devialet systems, are the future of HIFi.

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Todd F. Forsythe

Nice sounds, software is an EPIC FAIL

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2020

Verified Purchase

Truly magical sound, great detail and soundstage. Slightly more base than LS50. I want to like these but the connectivity is so horrible it's amazing they actually released these in market. I have 400MB of wireless, stream music video and games and never have a problem. The software on these are so glitchy it drops connection for no reason, nearly impossible to get back on line. I try everything and 1 out of 5 times I get reconnected but still can't figure out what I did to connect. Absolutely absurd. When I turn on, sometimes they connect, other times they don't. Probably will return as the wifi streaming was so important to me. Plus, 2 apps to control the speaker? One for the control, one for setup/streaming? Really???? Gem of a speaker wrapped in horrendous software and connectivity. Most likely will return

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Alex.

Absolutely Stunning Sound. Deficient as an "All in one sound system".

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2020

Verified Purchase

I have had the LS50 Wireless for about 3 months now and after extensive listening these are my impressions.

The good:

1. Absolutely stunning sound. It is hard to describe the way in which these speaker will make your music shine. I can only tell you that you should be prepared to be blown away and hear things in music you are not used to. I am not referring to more detail, even though it could be, I am talking about the mix of detail, precision, and imaging or sound/instruments placing. It is truly impressive. I have them paired to two SVS SB-2000 sealed subwoofers and it is a match made in heaven. The output to the subs seems to be the cleanest I have ever experienced because my subwoofers have never sound better. I even ditched the minidsp I used to use to EQ the subs, because to my ears they just sound better when connected directly to the LS50W.

2. The looks. Simply stunning. They will catch people’s eye, so make you they are a good match for your décor if that is important to you (it is not to me but I do mention it because people coming to my listening/home theater room often mention how nice or expensive “those lil speakers look” – YMMV).

3. An impressive array of inputs that should be enough for most applications. It doesn’t have HDMI but it is not needed. It has everything else, including USB to directly connect your computer. There is also a pair of analog RCA inputs that come very handy to try different DACs, and believe me, if you are an audio geek (2500usd/pair speakers, you should be), you should try different DACs because the internal one that comes in the system is OK, but apparently relatively easy to be improved upon.

4. Mostly all streaming services are available and mostly anything can playback since it can act as a ROON endpoint.

5. They are very revealing and if your recordings are crap they will sound like it. The reward is that if you feed them well recorded music in a high bit rate, you will experience audio nirvana almost for sure.

The bad:

1. Wifi setup can be a pain in the behind. The procedure to setup the speakers is kind of criptic, not intuitive at all.

2. Wifi/network functionality reminds of the early days of networking features of AVRs, but much worse. If you are familiar with a recent mid fi network receiver, that can be, for instance, turned on through the network, you will find this expensive sound system annoying, since you will have to use the remote to turn them on or go directly to the speaker’s onboard controls. This leads to….

3. The remote control is a cheap piece of plastic that doesn’t come close to the idea you have of a 2500 sound system of speakers. Seriously. I understand that we have limited attention and if we put our 120% into something like say, sound, we will be depleted for the less important, complementary things, but guys, basic product development and user experience says people don’t add up the features in a product of experience, they average it, which means that a 1 dollar-feeling remote control massively subtract from the overall value perception of the customers when they are paired with an expensive, luxury item such as this. This is terrible. It would have been much better to not include a remote at all, I think.

4. The control app is bad. The fact that you need two apps, one for control (DSP, volume, etc), and another to stream music, is annoying.

The not so good or bad (Neutral):

1. The internal DAC is probably adequate, and sounds overall really good, until I compared it to the Marantz HD-DAC1. Probably an unfair comparison, though, since that dedicated DAC is 800USD and very highly rated, but the improvement was too vast to not mention it. With that said, the internal DAC could very well be a little more than just OK, because I tried the speakers with the MODI 2 UBER, SMSL M500, SMSL Sanskrit, and the only real improvement has been the Marantz.

2. The “wireless” in the LS50 Wireless name tag could be a misleading, since these speakers are not wireless. You can connect them to the network through wifi, and can also listen to music from your phone using Bluetooth, but both speakers need to be connected to the electricity, and there is an ethernet UTP CAT6 cable connecting both speakers. Minimal, if you ask me, excellent for a system with a very small footprint, but some people might be tempted to buy them and be disappointed because they are expecting something more actually wireless as the KEF LSX.

3. KEF obviously tried to incorporate user’s input from the LS50 passive, and toned down the highs in this wireless version. To me this is not the best, but this is about preference. Make sure you don’t like a very bright sound because you will not find it here. I really love the sound of Klipsch for movies and most music and even my passive LS50 leave me wanting the sparkle I used to get with the Klipsch. Just notice these speakers are not bright, and I don’t think they are even flat, I think they are just a little dark sounding. A “problem” that is compounded when paired with the awesome sounding but also kind of dark Marantz HD DAC1. If you are coming from headphones, do you like the HD650 or the HD600 from Sennheiser?? I absolutely love both, might even like more the HD650 but I find myself always missing the sparkle of the HD600, and therefore going back to them. Same with the LS50 wireless (close the HD650) and the LS50 passive (more like HD600). I put this in the neutral category because it is a matter of preference and I am convinced KEF was intentional on this particular sound signature, which is leaps away from being bad.

Overall:
These are amazing. I feel tempted to give a 5 stars rating, and I’d do it if I were reviewing a pair of speakers. The thing is I am reviewing a speaker/sound system, and as such, the lackluster app and simply terrible networking functionalities make me take one star down. You cannot turn On the speakers from the network. Sometimes when you change the inputs from Network to something else (in my case I am mostly using AUX input), often the connection to the network is lost and the app cannot find the speakers, meaning you will need the remote control to change inputs or go to the main speaker to change manually.
There are many annoying things in this system, but as a pair of speakers for small/medium rooms or close listening they are really hard to beat. My decision to buy them was cemented when I listened to them comparing them to a 10k+ USD sound system, and they swept the floor with them (R300 with Marantz and Emotiva DAC/amplification). Then I went to a 22k+ USD Bowers and Wilkins, Marantz and Emotiva, higher end system and even though that one did sound better, the difference was not 20k USD.
If you can forget about those problems and focus on the sound, these are an incredible pair of speakers. Maybe the best use case is to get a solid performing network streamer and forget about the DAC and streamer inside the LS50W. Bluesound Node 2i anyone? The only problem is that it adds another 550USD to the cost of the system. Might be worth it if you find the external DAC better sounding.
4 out of 5 stars, but take notice that if sound quality is the thing being evaluated, they are a 6.5 out of 5. It wasn’t a typo. I meant 6.5. I love them. Despite all their annoyances….

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D R

Amazing sound quality, offering real benefits compared to the original LS50

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2017

Verified Purchase

I am rating for the audio quality only. The app is good but not great and will surely improve with future updates. ***Update: I've had these speakers for 8 weeks and I haven't been to the app since the first couple of days when I used the digital signal processing (DSP) to optimize the sound to my particular room. If you're not using an external music streamer hooked up to the optical input, or a computer hooked up to the USB input for your source then you're not even close to realizing the full potential of these speakers.***

I bought these because I love my 4 year old non-powered KEF LS50 speakers, and when I finally got a chance to audition the Wireless version I was very impressed by the improvements the internal DACs and amplifiers made to an already world-class speaker when I played a few familiar songs at my local KEF dealer. When I carefully A-B compared them to the classic LS50s being driven by a very solid Marantz 8005 series integrated amplifier and a Marantz SACD player as the source the Wireless version wiped the floor with them. No contest. It's a big improvement in every important way. I bought them without any hesitation.

When I brought them home, I was exceptionally surprised by how well the internal digital signal processing (DSP) dialed them in to my somewhat large and lively listening room. My classic LS50s never sounded as good as the Wireless did right out of the box. For me, there was one big benefit (one I wasn't even aware of when I bought them) and that was the freedom to completely turn off my subwoofers. With the slight bass bump the Wireless DSP gave the new speakers when I told them (with the app) what my room looked like, I had no reason to keep the subwoofers that the classic LS50s normally needed in my room. They sounded perfect. The money you'll save by foregoing subwoofers more than makes up for the $700 price difference between the classic and the Wireless versions. To look at these small speakers and hear the clean, articulate depth they reach with a slight bass boost is "you have to hear it to believe it" incredible. My wife literally did not believe the subs were turned off. She got up to feel the grilles since she thought I was mistaken. I wasn't.

Bottom line? I am very impressed! This right here is the future of audio, no question. Buy a pair and join the revolution. Let your friends wasted stacks of cash playing the old speaker-amplifier-DAC matching game while you relax in expertly configured audio nirvana, from a single cardboard box.

Edit: These speakers do benefit from some hours on them. Reserve your final judgement until they've had substantial run-in. If the 30 day return policy is of concern to you I'd leave music playing 24/7 for several days before doing any critical listening, perhaps even as much as a full week. Also, these speakers are certainly resolving enough to benefit from cable upgrades if you're so inclined. That said, using the cables that are included in the box will give you world-class sound. But.. if you use Bluetooth you'll only be getting a fraction of what these speakers are capable of when compared to the USB or the Toslink/Optical input.

Edit: Once they get 100 hours or more on them, you may find that the "large room" bass setting- even in a truly large room- is too much for most modern recordings that already have an elevated bass to begin with. I've found that even though my room is large, setting the speakers at the medium room is best for 90% of recordings. I only adjust the bass in the app for thinly recorded music that sounds slightly more well-rounded with a little bass bump. You'll be amazed how articulate, deep and well defined the bass goes once these speakers are fully broken in. I seriously have no idea how they did it. I cannot imagine that there is a better home audio system in today's market for @ $2000.00. I think that this speaker system could change home audio forever- it's that revolutionary.

Edit: Tidal Hi-Fi streaming was recently incorporated into the app if you're an audiophile who wants the best sounding, CD quality, streaming option.

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A. Barnat

Amazing speakers; horrendous software

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2020

Verified Purchase

Audio quality wise, these speakers are excellent. I have them paired with a Kube 8b, and this is easily the best sounding stereo loudspeaker system I've owned, and easily one of the best I've listened to. You may want a larger sub for a larger room, but I'd very much recommend staying with a sealed box design and tuning the levels and placement carefully, as it's going to be pretty easy to ruin the careful tuning of these speakers with an overpowering, boomy bass line. (Unless that's your thing, in which case, go for it!)

The only problem, which is proving to be increasingly serious, is the software support.

Right now I'm dealing with an issue where, after being powered on, the LS50 system outputs much to strong of a signal to the subwoofer. This is fixed the moment I adjust the volume on the LS50s or the computer connected to them, but I frequently forget and am startled the moment a strong bass line kicks in (quickly jumping up to tap the volume controls before I start figuratively rattling my neighbors' windows). This is extremely annoying, and hopefully fixed by a firmware update. (Update: This was indeed fixed once I got the update installed.)

However, KEF, first, apparently can't be bothered to get a valid developer certificate to build the macOS firmware update tool for a pair of $2500 speakers, instructing you to completely disable app verification in order to use launch the tool. Then, after doing so, and even after connecting to WiFi rather than wired ethernet (because both the app and KEF support personnel insisted that was necessary) the firmware update tool simply times out, failing to find the speakers. I can play music on the speakers via the network, and even access its configuration web page by pointing a browser at their IP. But, the firmware updater has no way to enter the IP address of the speakers and fails to find them, every single time.

I had a similar experience with the X300A speakers, unfortunately. The sound was excellent, but the software and support were mediocre at best. KEF just doesn't seem to be willing to put in the effort to provide decent software support.

Update: I was finally able to diagnose this on my own. Turns out the problem was that I use a subnet mask of 255.255.254.0, and the third octet of the IP addresses of the computer and speakers differed. By assigning both an address with the same third octet, I was able to get everything working. I'll admit this isn't the first product I've seen which suffers from this issue, but the other was a relatively cheap IoT product.

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Ted

Amazing sound from such small speakers

Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2017

Verified Purchase

I wanted to upgrade my sound system in my computer room. These little gems have worked perfectly. They produce a wonderful image and are very musical and detailed. This system appealed to me as I could cut down on the extra wires and devices on my desktop. The amplification and DAC portions perform very well. They play loud and don't get too strained while doing so. The Q drivers allow for pin point imaging, even if you're not in the best spot. I have my pair teamed with an SVS- SB2000, which seems to be a nice combo. They sound awesome in a near field listening setup.

The biggest fly in the ointment here is the not ready for prime time app that runs (in my case) on Android to control the speakers. Some things can only be controlled by the app, some only the remote. Not the best solution, but I bought these for the sound, not the app.

The other small issue is the placement of the display on the right speaker. I guess they had no choice but to put the display on the top edge of the unit, but you cannot see it when listening. You must get up to see what's going on. Again, not that big of deal and doesn't affect the sound quality these puppies produce.

Very pleased with this purchase. I would recommend.

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T. Johansen

Setup was easy. I had no problems with the app

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

12/04/2017
Let me start of by saying I have the passive LS50's and have been comparing the passive vs the active version all week. The actives have about 40 hours on them as of this writing. Both speakers were tested on IsoAcoustic Aperta stands.

Appearance wise they are similar. Both my passive and active versions are gloss black. The gloss black on my passives is flawless. The active versions have a slight orange peel texture to the gloss. Reflections in it are not as clean and kind of wobble as you move your head side to side. This could be a defect with my pair but thought I'd mention it.

Setup was easy. I had no problems with the app, playing with DSP settings, or streaming music. I updated the firmware on the speakers as well without a hitch.

Here's how I have the passive and active speakers set up:

Passive LS50
Computer -> USB -> Chord Mojo DAC -> HK 3480 120 watt Stereo Amp -> Speakers

Active LS50W
Computer -> USB -> Speakers

As you can see the setup of the actives is far simpler which is why I was interested in them. Also they have gotten almost universal praise from every reviewer when it comes to sound quality. The sound quality however is the reason I'm rating it 1 star. It is likely that I received a lemon and I have requested a replacement to confirm my suspicion. I'll update my review when I've had a chance to play with the new pair but I'll give my thoughts on how they sound currently.

If I didn't have the passive LS50's to compare I might think that their sound was decent, something you'd expect from a speaker in the $300-500 range but definitely not $2000+ . They have decent bass and there's nothing obviously wrong with their sound. In direct comparison with my passives however the soundstage shrinks a ton. Instruments and voices lose their texture and complexity. Many fine details in the music almost get completely blurred away. My passives sound like pure magic and the actives just sound like a decent speaker that can put out some bass.

I am almost certain I got a lemon. I hope to god I did. But I'm also worried that their quality control has gone down hill. Not only do they sound bad but the black piano gloss is inferior to that of my passives. The 1 year warranty I now feel is too short. I wouldn't have had a problem with it if I didn't have these problems. I just don't have much faith in their quality now and I'm worried an amp or something else will break if they did indeed lower their standards.

Anyways, I'll update you all when I get the new pair.

UPDATE 12/09/2017
I received the new LS50W speakers yesterday and compared them to my passive LS50's and the active LS50W's which I returned today.

Let's start with the good news. They sound great! They've only got about 8 hours on them but they already sounded way better than the last active pair. They sound a lot closer to my passives than the other active version did. Hurray!

The black piano gloss is a miss. Again, compared to the perfect piano black gloss on my passive speakers these new actives have an orange peel texture which makes reflections look grainy. The right speaker is WAY worse than the left speaker with obvious pebbling, so it isn't even consistently bad. I'll see if I can get a good picture of what I'm seeing later.

Also, at one time I got an error code saying the left speaker wasn't connected. I checked the cables and all was good so I simply restarted the speakers and the error cleared. I haven't seen the error again so maybe it was a fluke. Or maybe it's waiting until I'm out of warranty to present itself in a more permanent way. But you know, one of those two! :P

I intend to contact KEF regarding the paint to see if that's just how these "new" active speakers are or if most of them have a nice smooth piano gloss finish. Maybe someone else who's purchased these can chime in here. For now I'll increase the star rating from 1 to 3 stars, because they really do sound amazing!

If I can get a pair that sounds great, looks great, and doesn't give me errors they would definitely be 5 stars like my passive LS50's. I'll keep you posted on my findings!

Update 12/12/2017
I have attached a picture of the paint. My left speaker looks great, my right speaker has the orange peel texture. I'm waiting to hear back from KEF regarding the paint to see if it's within their standards. Will update when they reply.

Got a reply from KEF and they said if I wasn't happy with them to just send them back to Amazon which I did and ordered a new pair.

Update 01/02/2018
I've had the new pair for a couple weeks now. They sound great, just like the last pair. It seems sound quality is consistent and I probably got unlucky with my first pair. If all you care about is what they sound like and you don't care about cosmetic issues then order a pair and don't bother reading further.

For those of you still reading be aware that paint quality varies from pair to pair and even from left to right speaker. You should also be aware that I am probably pickier than most people. That being said I'm not looking for perfection. I'm looking for good enough and the new pair almost passed.

First let me talk about the overall finish. The black piano gloss. Each speaker will have a slightly different texture (ideally I'd think piano gloss would be smooth?). My new pair is even in the overall look between the left and the right speaker. In comparison to my last pair reflections look more hazy and not as clear. I attribute this to the paint being not as smooth but it's not awful. There at least isn't any obvious orange peel look happening and it probably doesn't help that I have an LED strip lighting up the wall behind where the speakers are placed, revealing the unique paint characteristics of each speaker. The overall paint does meet my good enough bar and if it didn't have other flaws I would be keeping them.

I've included pictures but I'll explain in words as well. On my new left speaker there is paint lacking in the crack between the speaker body and the front composite bezel. The bare wood is exposed and it stands out when in a brightly lit room. On my right speaker I really don't know what it is I'm seeing. Just looks like a blob of black paint was put in the crack.

So I've gone through 3 pairs of these and I'm left with a couple questions before proceeding.
1. Do I think I could find a pair I'd be happy with? Yes. I think I could, but it may take several more attempts.
2. Is it fair to KEF and Amazon for me to keep ordering and opening new items only to return them because of blemishes other people might not care about? I don't know. Maybe I'm being too picky here. Anyone care to share their input here?

Maybe I'll order another pair and maybe I won't. But I'll let you guys know if I do!

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clifton mcmillan el

Awesome speakers. Mediocre returns

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2020

Verified Purchase

Initial speakers had a slight defect in the woofer. I sent back for a replacement and was given a refund instead of a replacement. I was ask to re purchase at retail price instead of my Black Friday price.

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RayTom

Killer performance in a small format for a fair price! SERIOUS issues w/app, though...

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2017

Verified Purchase

I pre-ordered the LS50 Wireless in black & blue, waited for nearly two months, and just received them today. I've hooked them up, have been listening to them for a couple of hours now, and here are my initial thoughts.

First, here's a breakdown of my setup:
• Installed on Target MR60 stands (24-inch height), with spikes on Target pucks.
• Setup using the KEF app is simple and intuitive; I had no issues and everything was up and running in 5-10 minutes.
• Placed in a very large room, probably 28 x 36 feet, with lots of hard surfaces. Approximately 30 inches from the back wall, with a slight toe-in.
• Installed carefully and accurately measured to ensure placement, and I'm streaming over WiFi from my iPhone 6S. However, all the files on my phone are AAC at 24bits with higher than standard sampling rates. I'll be hooking up my ELAC Discovery server, at some point, as my primary source.
• After listening for an hour or two, I connected my REL Acoustics T-7i subwoofer using their Arrow wireless system. After tweaking everything to get the perfect balance, here are my thoughts on sound quality...

I expected the LS50 to sound harsh, given the number of hard, reflective surfaces in the room. However, this is where the sound settings in the app are invaluable. You can change high-frequency response in very small increments, and tune the speaker for proximity to the rear wall. You can either do this via the Basic menu, or go into Advanced to gain access to more settings. With this flexibility I was able to get the LS50W sound to my liking. Accurate, detailed, but smooth.

I feel the speakers image very well, but I need to widen my placement to better match the size of the room. I always start just a touch narrow, and increase the spread until I get the imaging nailed. I'll play around with optimizing that over the next few days.

I was also quite impressed by the bass response of the LS50Ws -- and that was before I added the subwoofer to the mix. They produce very tight and musical bass that is well-integrated into the speakers' overall voice; you never have the sense that many small speakers give of an emphasized bass curve designed to compensate for small speaker size. I don’t see how anyone could be disappointed by the bass response of this speaker on its own; it really is exceptional for such a small cabinet.

These speakers play cleanly and maintain their focus and tonal balance up to very high volume levels; I was quite impressed that they could do so in such a large space. Adding the REL sub to the mix just took the entire system higher; together this system has musical, tight, and fast low-frequency performance -- along with the ability to maintain articulation across the entire spectrum regardless of how high you take the volume.

After adding the Target spikes and pucks to the stand, I remeasured the distances to ensure perfect symmetry and slightly increased the width between speakers. WOW! I keep playing 2 tracks over and over: "Royals", by Lorde and "You Found Another Lover" by Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite. Incredibly different genres and recording styles; while "Royals" is all studio and mix work "You Found" is two great musicians, an acoustic guitar, harmonica, and solo vocals. The little KEF is incredibly articulate, detailed, images well, but is never strident. Ignoring the "cons" mentioned below, the LS50 is a true gem!

My only "cons" so far are the fragility of streaming music via the KEF iPhone app; I've had several issues with this. The app will show that a song is playing when there's no sound coming from the speakers. Even more confusing, it showed that Stevie Wonder was playing when U2's "Pride" was most definitely pouring from the speakers. Out of several hours of playing time (3-4), I've spent a solid 30 minutes dealing with that issue. Usually a hard quit of the app and restart fixes it -- but it's quite annoying and happens too frequently for a serious piece of kit at this price point.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS: Wow. The LS50 App is really terrible, even after the update. Custom settings in the Advanced menu repeatedly disappear and restore to default, and the app consistently fails to connect to the speakers. Songs play but the app becomes unresponsive; you can see the controls but control nothing. I've uninstalled, reinstalled, updated, unpaired, repaired -- and this has to be one of the worst iPhone apps I've ever used. Do NOT buy these speakers if you'll be relying on the app. They work fine when fed by a wired source, but using the KEF app alone renders them next to useless. This is an outstanding product that's almost completely crippled by a terrible app. Even worse, KEF customer support has been unresponsive to this issue. KEF -- is this honestly the best you can do?

Are the KEF LS50 Wireless Speakers cheap? Absolutely not. However, when you consider how much money it would take to build a high-quality system around "regular" KEF LS50s, the Wireless version really starts to shine. It offers exceptional quality at a very reasonable price, is easy to setup and use, and it works with a variety of sources. If KEF gets the app to work as it should, I think this speaker deserves and extra star. My next step is to install my ELAC Discovery Music Server and use that connected to a 2TB SSD drive as my primary source. Running Roon on this system should take it to the next level! More to come...

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tetraphoenix

Great sound - Mediocre app performance

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2017

Verified Purchase

I am disappointed with these and mostly because what they market them as vs what they really are. The "wireless" connotation is really misleading. As a wireless speaker that connects to your wifi network to stream dlna or Tidal (only two options available at this time) this speaker set is absolutely pathetic. Buffer times are quite long and there is no gapless playback. Song to song times are 5-10 seconds or more. As an FYI my wireless network (Ubiquity HD) is very capable and has no issues streaming over wifi same files with any other devices (raspberry Pi, computers etc.). To make these speakers truly wireless one would have to get secondary solution connected to ls50w speakers. I am not convinced that KEF is really committed to fixing this problem as 6 months after the release (and yes latest firmware update) these are still bad. They do not have Airplay option or Chromecast option built in, to allow for some flexibility from portable media devices. This may not matter to some, but it would be nice to have.
Where these redeem themselves is in quality of sound reproduction. It is very, very good. I think that similar quality could be achieved with speaker/amp combo for about the same $$ but would require quite a bit of research. Researching best sound is fun for some out there, but for those who want to make sure they are getting the best pairing I would recommend these, with warning to abandon hope for wireless and plan to get Bluesound streamer or similar to get true wireless and maybe MQA capability.
FYI to potential buyers:
Latest update now allows to change standby time to 60 minutes max or never.
Speaker settings can now be changed in any mode.
In order to use wireless features (DLNA and Tidal) you still have to switch the speaker manually (button on top or remote but then you can't see what you are switching to) to wireless mode. It will take about 15-20 seconds before the speaker appears in the app and you can stream to it.
In the end whatever you decide, don't forget to enjoy the music. After all its what its all about.

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10/13/17 Update
This week brought the latest update adding Spotify and ability to switch left and right speaker (not tried this yet since I do not need this). I have Spotify service and while it does not sound as good as MQA, it adds tremendous amount of convenience. It is also a lot faster to load than Tidal songs. Improvements are slight or irrelevant to some users but I am happy company is committed to continued development.

As far as delivery of HQ audio content, I am very happy with HiFiBerry + Pro and Pi combo with Moody player for now. I have done some extensive research on the options and it seems that cheapest way to best quality audio is MQA Tidal with Meridian Explorer 2. I tried that and its definitely worth anyones consideration.

I will keep updating as I go along.

Maybe redundant but the sound coming out of these when fed the right quality signal is so incredible that I can not wait to get home from work every day to listen to them at least for a little bit.

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10/22/17 Update

My journey that started on Aug 4 continues. Roon announced their software now working with LS50W speakers. I got the trial to try now and after it scanning my library I started using it. It was supposed to be side by side against HiFiBerry hat. Things got simple very soon. roon stays. For those of us that have Tidal or any downloaded files on our computers, this in my opinion is the easiest solution period. Sure I might pursue some future upgrade like SOtM sMS-200 ultra but at this point in time, combo of KEF LS50W and Roon software is all I need. Because of this current setup I am moving my rating to 4 stars.

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