Kef ls50 / r300

[milestoneseeker]

Hi All,

I have been reading a lot about KEF LS50 and was very tempted to listen to them. A month back, I got an opportunity to listen to R300 BS and then yesterday, heard the LS50. The setting was not very ideal during both the auditions but I got a flavor of both the speakers. My initial impression is that R300 are much more mellower than the LS50. The LS50 sounded very transparent but on some of the songs (Parineeta, Simon & Garfunkel greatest), they came pretty close to sounding sharp.

While I have asked the ProFx guys to get me a A/B comparison between R300 and LS50 with the same amp, wanted to understand if anyone else has had experience with these two speakers and which one came up trump? I want to avoid a placebo effect of all the rave reviews of LS50 and ignore what seems to be a potentially fatiguing speaker.

Cheers

 

[Kushanava]

Hi All,

I have been reading a lot about KEF LS50 and was very tempted to listen to them. A month back, I got an opportunity to listen to R300 BS and then yesterday, heard the LS50. The setting was not very ideal during both the auditions but I got a flavor of both the speakers. My initial impression is that R300 are much more mellower than the LS50. The LS50 sounded very transparent but on some of the songs (Parineeta, Simon & Garfunkel greatest), they came pretty close to sounding sharp.

While I have asked the ProFx guys to get me a A/B comparison between R300 and LS50 with the same amp, wanted to understand if anyone else has had experience with these two speakers and which one came up trump? I want to avoid a placebo effect of all the rave reviews of LS50 and ignore what seems to be a potentially fatiguing speaker.

Cheers

I had an extensive listening session with the LS50.They deserve a better amplification than Profx uses (denon). I listened to them with my Sugden A21 SE amp. They are the most transparent speakers you will get at this price range and if you are into vocals , this would be at the top of my list.
They are very detailed and may sound a little hot at the top if not matched with a neutral/warm amplification.Bass is not their strongest area. However I only listened to a brand new piece without break in.

You will need top level electronics to make them sing , otherwise they will always sound ordinary.

 

[denom]

:thumbsup: Kushanava, as your observations are spot on! Break in or not, you pair the LS50's with cheap amplification, they sound CRAP!

 

[mpw]

mss,

for stereo whats your plan or budget for amp and source ?

it takes 2 to tango.. so please look at the chain.

rgds

 

[RAAGA]

:thumbsup: Kushanava, as your observations are spot on! Break in or not, you pair the LS50's with cheap amplification, they sound CRAP!

Agreed, totally !

 

[vijwilso]

May be with a devialet 120. Very few speakers are SAM tuned with devialet and ls50 is one of them . that shows its capabilities . kef should have priced it higher and people would not complain then

 

[milestoneseeker]

My budget - it depends I know I will be replacing my Paradigm FS with quality BS. Hence, now, I have close to 1-1.25L for a good stereo amp in budget, assuming 1.25L on the BS speakers.

I know I need to look at the complete chain and not the speakers in isolation. Hence I want t understand from you all if you have had experience as clearly I would not get to hear the entire chain of DAC/Amp/BS.

I went back to Phoenix ProFx to listen to R300. These guys are now universally using a stereo+DAC from Adcom which I have to confess I have never heard before. No idea how good or bad the DAC in there was. They said it has 80W at 8 Ohms, not sure if it good enough for LS50. For the R300, it was not able to control the lows and the bass was bloated on some of the songs.

However, I at least now heard the LS50 and R300 back to back (almost) using the same chain. From what we heard, my wife thought R300 was no better than what we have today too and it speaks a lot about the amp they used. I am assuming the R300 are better than my Paradigms

The question is - how expensive are the amps that would do justice to LS50? When I had heard ATC SCM11, I dropped it only because of the required cost of chain to make them sound good. Is LS50 on the same track?

 

[Kushanava]

Frankly , none of the Bookshelves you have listed , will give you the quantity of Bass that you get today from the paradigms .You will have to add a sub or go for a bigger volume bookshelf like the Dynaudio /Ushers/ old B&W etc ..

When you are looking at KEfs , specially the LS50 there magic is over 100 Hz.
I would at leaset have a budget of 1 L for the amps unless you get something used at the cheaper price.

Amps you can look for ..Sugden Mystro (Kef Blade is used often with Sugden Masterclass ) , Exposure or even a Rega.

I have never heard an adcom .. so can't comment.

Profx is now dealing with Electrocompaniet ..that should be a very good amp to run these speakers....

 

[mpw]

btw, there is a naim xs on sale on the forum..

my 2 bits.. choose well spend maximum ( even at a stretch ) and be done with it for a long time.

this may entail going for either speakers or amp first and then saving up for 6 months and getting the other. So be it.

in the meantime.. audition and taste your own sound preferences.

If LS50 or KEF doesnt cut it for you.. there are other brands too. Bangalore has lot of audio shops.

mpw

 

[vijwilso]

I tried Exposure 2010S2 with KEF LS 50 , it was not able to drive it properly . Also used Naim XS ( 60W ) which has got the similar power and signature of Exposure 2010S2 . So i doubt these will be able to drive it .

I think we should have 100+ quality watts to make it to sing good .

 

[reignofchaos]

Someone has already mentioned it - the LS50 would be perfectly at home with the Devialet and similar class of amps. The least expensive good amp I could suggest would be a Sugden/LFD or a Trigon or a high quality 30/40W Push Pull Tube amp like an entry level ayon. So look for used/preowned/demo equipment. You'd have to spend similar coin on a good source else again it won't do justice to the speaker.

If you want an amp that sounds great with not so amazing amps, look for a used harbeth. However the source expense still holds. The bitter truth is that good stereo is expensive and it is uber expensive if you are sitting here in India and buying.

 

[milestoneseeker]

Thank you all for the feedback! I am not looking for a bass matching a FS and what I heard from LS50 goes well with me for music. TBH, I do not watch enough movies at home to think of a SW but if need, I may go for it along with the BS I will chose.

I am willing to stretch to 1.5L for a quality amp like Naim as I would like this to be my final upgrade ... we have heard this one before

The only exception to the BS rule I have in mind yet is auditioning the Lyrita Harmony or Horn Petite speakers which I am planning this week as I am travelling to Delhi. Else, I am singularly focused on BS. The BS I have heard and are worth remembering are:

• ProAc Studio 115
• Harberth P3ESR
• LS50
• R300
• ATC SCM11

There are still some others that I am very keen to hear:

• ProAc D2
• Spendor BS (no idea of price range of D1 or the classic series)
• Totem BS
• Blumenhofers BS

Net-net, the wishlist is a long one and till I gain a coherent view to which speaker suits my taste, I have no idea how much I need to stretch! What I really liked were the Blumenhofer Big Fun17 but I will have to rob a bank to get that speaker itself, leave alone rest of the chain.

 

[Nikhil]

milestoneseeker,

Have you looked up AP for an amp? The have an integrated design that is in the 50k range and is rated at 75W. Should be plenty of amp for a bookshelf. Since you are in Bangalore they should be in your list of amps to listen to before you make your decision. The integrated is not on their website but it exists and is a very good amp.

You will not need to look further for any of the speakers in your list including the LS50.

 

[milestoneseeker]

Thanks Nikhil. I had spoken to Shiva's (I think I got the name right) team and they did mention the amp plus some of their peerless drivers speakers which are present in their audition room.

This was quite some time back, and just after we had the Bangalore HiFi meet in 2013. May I will look them up - as soon as I listen to Lyrita tomorrow

 

[nishikant]

I was using LS50 with NAd 356 BEE for some time. But when I upgraded to Primare I30 they really surprised me with amazing vocals and controlled bass. They need quality amplification to sound their best. Keep budget for atleast 1.5 to 2 times their price.

 

[Nikhil]

Thanks Nikhil. I had spoken to Shiva's (I think I got the name right) team and they did mention the amp plus some of their peerless drivers speakers which are present in their audition room.

This was quite some time back, and just after we had the Bangalore HiFi meet in 2013. May I will look them up - as soon as I listen to Lyrita tomorrow

Yes this was some time back. AP doesn't have speakers on offer anymore.
They do make them on custom order basis but even that is when they can make 2-3 pairs at a time.

FM varma_vikas had a pair of AP FS on sale just a month ago for about 40K. These are essentially 2 way BS speakers with a tower cabinet (which saves on the costs of the stands). Couple these speakers with the AP Integrated and you will be done within Rs 1L.

 

[milestoneseeker]

I got the opportunity to audition Lyrita (Viren) pre-power amp combo with both Harmony One as well as Horn Petite speakers last weekend.

For me, the combo is so much better than what I have been hearing with the bookshelves in this thread, and at a lesser price

For a quick view, I started off with the Harmony One and I was startled to see how tall were they! Seeing them in pics did not give a scale of their height. I ran through my usual set of songs which comprised of Parineeta, Simon & Garfunkel, Jagjit Singh, Dire Straits, U2 and REM. The songs are all on original CDs but with varying degree of qualities.

Harmony One was very mellow with no hint of brightness but when Viren switched over to Horn Petite, the scale was brought out superbly in these speakers. Yes, there was greater sparkle on top end which was accentuated by certain not-so-great recordings but for 95% of the songs, it sounded so much better. Better soundstage and scale, greater transparency. Does not take away anything from Harmony One which would make for awesome easy listening.

Net-net, I have chosen the Horn Petite even though the purchase is quite some distance away due to other priorities.

 

[nils9]

I am running KEF LS50 with Hypex NC400's Mono Blocks. Marantz 7007 is being used as a PRE for the Hypex. After nearly 1 year of usage looking out to integrate this setup with a sub-woofer. Looking at either using the Hypex DS4.0 with Dayton Reference 12" and building a box of my own but given the efforts and tools required I am also looking at an option of even buying REL T5 or KEF Kube-2. I am really confused which way to go. Experts your comments would be really appreciated.

 

[shkumar4963]

http://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/reader-feedback/604-kef-s-coorg-clarifies-the-uni-q

 

[Kushanava]

The real bad thing about dealers for KEF in India is , they don't give them the right amplification (specially the LS50) to justify their potential.They often pair them with Denon amps which are very flat and robs the transparency and dynamics of music reproduction for which the LS50 is so famous of.If I am given a choice I would drive them with something like a Plinius or a quality Class A.