KEF LS50 Wireless II Active Speakers Review: Music, Movies, Gaming!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ค. 2024
- Daniel reviews the new KEF LS50 Wireless II Active Speakers - testing them for not just music, but also movies and gaming. With the USB input being replaced with HDMI Arc, the new KEF LS50W II opens up a lot of new opportunities in the Soundbar alternative space, tested with everything from CDs and Blurays to games on the Xbox Series X and even the Playstation 2, these speakers prove to be an absolute force to be reckoned with.
Check them out in our online store here:
www.lenc.com.au/products/kef-...
Check out our unboxing video here:
• Unboxing: KEF LS50 Wir...
The multi-award-winning LS50 Wireless speaker system set the bar high for high-performance wireless speakers, and in the same spirit of invention and innovation that created the original, the LS50 Wireless II (also called Wireless 2) is much more than just a new generation.
The result of three years intensive research and development, the new KEF LS50 Wireless II is a fully active wireless stereo speaker system that delivers pristine, KEF signature sound coupled with great usability and high-performance wireless capability. LS50 Wireless II has been built on a whole new acoustic platform, the LS50 Meta passive loudspeakers, while the brand-new wireless platform has been engineered from the ground up.
Active electronics, Digital Signal Processing (DSP), wireless streaming platform and the new KEF Connect app all combine to set a new benchmark of class-leading acoustic and user experience.
With the first generation KEF LS50 Wireless being one of the best active speaker's we'd come across here at Living Entertainment, the LS50 Wireless II had some serious shoes to fill.
Upon first listen, it was evident that KEF had taken everything that was great about the Gen I and improved on it in almost every way. The refinements in materials, connectivity and overall design have taken them to another level of performance and user experience.
The dynamics, detail and bass response produce an immersive and stunning audio experience that truly bridges the gap between digital products and dedicated Hi-Fi. In everything from streaming and movies to traditional components - the KEF LS50 Wireless II make it easy in every way and are outstanding at every turn.
Darcy (our Website Manager) didn't hesitate in securing a pair for himself as soon as they came available and will be happy to sing their praises to you if you'd like to chat about them!
Dive in below to find out about all of the key details and improvements for the KEF LS50 Wireless II.
All the music, all the time
The new wireless platform that sits at the digital heart of the LS50 Wireless II ensures that no matter how you like to listen to your music, you will be able to do so with the minimum of fuss and in fantastic sound quality.
LS50 Wireless II gives you direct access to your favourite music services, including Spotify (via Spotify Connect), Tidal, Amazon Music, Qobuz and Deezer. You can even tune in to Internet Radio Stations and catch up on the latest podcasts through the KEF Connect app. AirPlay 2 and Google Chromecast seamlessly connects your compatible Apple or Android device, whilst Bluetooth expands the options even further. There are also wired connections for your TV, turntable, CD player and games console, via the HDMI, analogue, optical and coaxial inputs.
LS50 Wireless II has audiophiles covered with support for streaming music files up to 24bit/384kHz, as well as MQA Decoding, DSD256, and Roon Ready. These features mean that even the experienced hi-fi enthusiast will marvel at this exceptional loudspeaker’s ability; LS50 Wireless II really does offer something to everybody.
Let you be you
Even beyond the flawless musical performance, the LS50 Wireless II speaker system is a breeze to set up, intuitive to use and offers over-the-air firmware updates for bringing you new and improved features with the minimum of fuss. You can choose to connect the speakers with the supplied cable (24bit/192kHz resolution) or wirelessly (with 24bit/96kHz resolution) for a completely clutter-free set up. You can even select your favourite source to wake up LS50 Wireless II whenever it comes on, giving you immediate access to your favourite source. Plus, when using AirPlay 2, Chromecast or ROON you can stream to multiple speakers, so you can play music all over your house. The brand-new dedicated KEF Connect app walks you through the set-up and controls the system on a day-to-day basis, including intuitive sound settings, so you can tune LS50 Wireless II to your own personal tastes.
For all things hi-fi or to get in touch be sure to visit our website.
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Great review of my current go-to speaker. New subscriber 😊
Wonderful to hear, we have a follow up video on the new LSX LT on the way.
I have the SVS SB-3000 subwoofer with the KEF LS 50 WL 2, and that combination sounds great.
Similarly, I have the SVS SB 1000 with the Kef LS 50W 2, and for my living room, they sound really full. My volume on back of the sub is around 11:00 and on the Kef app it's about 8. I did experiment with raising the volume of the SB and turning it down on the app, but for my room, it sounded a little muddy.
Glad to hear there’s not much difference between the Wireless I and II. You’re the second reviewer I’ve seen mentioning the toning down of the “sparkle” on the II-most likely due to the wireless II’s Meta Absorption technology.
There's a very good chance that's exactly what's toned it down.
Loved the retro gaming segment!
I get mine in the same color as your review next week on Monday. Pretty excited and really enjoying your video. I’ll be using them on my desk for work so I can listen to some nice tunes and definitely looking at the KC92 to go with it. Does their sub ever go on sale? I was thinking about holding off until Black Friday sometime in November.
Alot of entry level KEF stuff go on sale, not so much for the premium stuff
Very impressed with your review. I would expect sonic impressions of music but using them for television and gaming was interesting. I’m currently using a pair of powered Paradigm Shifts for tv and music. Appreciation and comparison of movie’s sound tracks is suddenly wow!. The system is great with tv. Music exposes an upper midrange glare. Would the kefs be much better?
I have not heard the Paradigm Shifts personally so I can't make a direct comparison, but I am very senstive to upper and midrange glare and I personally didn't ever experience this during my time with the Kef LS50WII.
Such a nice review
Can you have them setup in something like a 5.x surround sound system?
If so which components would you use in addition?
Thanks for the review,, is this too powerful for a small 13sqm media room? movie ,. Gaming and music ....
Can I use a external eq like the spotify eq for the kef ls50 wireless 2's, aside from the kef apps eq?.
i wanted to upgrade ffom my q acoustic 3030i would either of these be a good upgrade path?
Thanks for the great review! Did you notice any audio lag during gaming? I'm a bit afraid that all those DSP processing can add audio delay even with optical/eArc.
I didn't personally notice any lag.
@@living_entertainment Cool, Thank You!
Hi, Nice review.
I have an order placed with best-buy since it is on back order.
I have a relatively small office that has a TV and my desktop.
I do not listen to music very loud, my question is can I enjoy music with low volume with all the nuances of musical instruments and vocals?
Much appreciate your response.
Thanks for the kind words about our review. You can definitely use these speakers nearfield, but you will need experiment with the speakers placement and tow in to fully experience the imaging and sound stage they have to offer. You will know you have found it as soon as you hear it though.
Is there a lot of latency? Always wanted LS50s for MY PC rig
Hi, just found your channel. This is very impressive review. This might be a silly question but can you compare this speakers without a sub with the B&O beosound stage soundbar? I will use it mostly on movies. I cannot afford the full home theatre system because my gf does not allow to. Thanks
Thanks for the very kind words! Unfortunately, we are not a B&O distributor so we can not do any direct comparisons. Apologies.
The need for a subwoofer is a challenge for me, for such a pricey speaker. However, you did say if you’re using for music first, it would be fine. Especially for smaller/medium sized rooms. Would you recommend other WiFi/Bluetooth powered speakers out there?
These are the only ones we have access too outside of the Kef LSX and the Audio Pro range. There is a huge difference in performance between these speakers and the Audio Pro A26 and A36 however.
Did you test the Dolby atmos with any movies on the Xbox? I have mine set to stereo but have been toggling off and on the Dolby atmos for headphones setting
I did not get around to trying movies unfortunately.
Are the inputs auto sensing? For example if you have been playing Spotify, and then play something via optical - will it switch automatically?
As far as I have tested no, outside of HDMI ARC, but it's possible that it's something they will patch in at a later date, or it's a setting I didn't find in the app.
Nice review what do you think about klipsch fives, sevens and nines
Haven't heard them so I don't really have an opinion. Sorry.
When watching netflix, would you put the audio to original 5.1 or original stereo having in mind a subwoofer?
You definitely want to have the sound output from Netflix set to stereo. The LS50WII cant mix down a 5.1 signal on their own.
I have the LSX and I am wondering how do ls-50 II compare to the lsx in terms of sound quality? Is it worth the upgrade?
Hello David, I have the LSX myself and I definitely think it is worth the upgrade if you can stretch your budget, especially if you have a larger room. You're getting a much bigger, bolder, and more detailed sound with the LS50WII along with the hi-res support and all of the other new features.
Got the LSX as well and like them very much. Maybe adding a good subwoofer is the right way to go?!?!?
Hi mate - great review, very helpful. I have a pair of the LS50W i and LSX. I’m considering either selling the version 1 and buying version 2 to use more natively with the tv or getting a bluesound node to connect to the version 1s…. Any thoughts/help would be appreciated? Thanks
Man, that is a tough one! Personally, if you're looking to set it up better with the TV I think the LS50WII makes more sense, using the Bluesound with the original LS50W means passing through the audio and could create lag, it also means your paying for a streamer twice which doesn't make a lot of financial sense to me.
@@living_entertainment true - the KEF LS50W doesn’t have MqA or airplay 2 … hmm tough one $$$
Yeah great realworld review thanks.
Im doing my best!
My nose tells me there is a fellow gamer here... Mesa like dis. Maybe wesa... bein' friends. lol Great video, big thumb up.
Im glad you found the information in our video useful! And your absolutely right, I do enjoy a good gaming session on the odd occasion I actually have enough free time to do it haha.
Great review. I decided to get off the high end audio merry go round a few years ago and sold all of my equipment. I needed to stop the obsession with upgrading components. I recently decided that I wanted to purchase a product that looked good and would give me some decent sound with streaming so I picked up the LS50 II. The sound is as you described, and the speakers are very recording dependent to my ears...I guess quite transparent without being overly analytical. I do feel at times that I would benefit from a sub for music as my room is quite large, but maybe it’s because I was used to floorstanders for so long. My main problem with these speakers is that they won’t connect via HDMI to my Samsung tv. The handshake is lost after a few seconds which is quite annoying, so I’m using the optical connection for now while I wait for a replacement set of speakers. Overall I’m pleased with the speakers and do think that they offer a very good package for the price. Connectivity through Tidal connect and Spotify connect is great. I will probably change the power cables at some point to see if that makes any difference to the sound quality. Thanks for covering all of the bases in your review as you reinforced many of my views of this speaker.
No worries, glad to hear you love the sound as much as we do, we hope you can get the handshake issue sorted, unfortunately this is still a common issue between certain products and TVs. We would love to hear if you notice a difference in sound once you upgrade the power cables!
is LS50 Wireless 2 same as LS50 Meta in terms of audio quality? I know ls50 meta is passive and not wireless but the driver and the meta tech is the same right?
Thats going to depend on what source you are feeding them, given the right amplifier the LS50 Meta can no doubt out perform the LS50WII but I dont know that you can find an amplifier to pair with them that can do that at the same price as the LS50WII so thats the trade off.
What's the best pairing with the Meta that gets close for a similar price in your experience?
@@mrebear9758 The Hegel 390.
@@living_entertainment Isn't that a 10k amp?
@@mrebear9758 Whoops, apologies. That should have said the Hegel 190, which is still quite expensive. The Hegel 120 comes relatively close as well but the 190 definitely comes closer. While there is a big price jump the LS50WII are very specifically engineered so its not surprising you need a higher end amp to get a similar experience with the Metas, atleast in our experience, there are lots of amplifiers we dont have access to in order to test.
So wait how does the Dolby atmos for headphones work? Do you plug headphones into the back of em?
I probably should have clarrified this in the video a little more in the video. Dolby Atmos for Headphones is essentially an app that takes a Dolby Atmos signal and tries to squeeze that 3D sound into a 2 channel sound signal. By using that app (through the xbox in this case) my Atmos experience was sent as a stereo signal to the Kef. Its sort of a cheat I suppose.
@@living_entertainment ah right! hey thanks for responding, I appreciate it. and to my other comment on your other video haha
@@sickhcivc Thats what we are here for! :)
Do you have a chance to test with turntable?
We have not unfortunately. Perhaps we will do a follow up video in the future with turntable and phonostage recommendations. :)
@@living_entertainment Thanks
I use my LS50w (I) with a relatively high end turntable, cart and phono preamp directly into the RCA inputs and the speakers are totally transparent and reflect the sonic signature of the vinyl setup.
You will need to test different carts to your taste. My cart (Ortofon Quintet Black) is a little too revealing maybe, I think I’ll try a Nagaoka at some point to ease a bit the upper highs. Since the Wireless II seems to have slightly smoother upper end, I’m pretty sure you can mix and match a decent hybrid system with those.
In fact it makes comparisons quite interesting between some high end releases and high resolution PCM or SACD (on this system, high res digital really shines if you use decent cables). Similarly, you can add a good drive or even a DAC to you setup, with interesting results (although it kind of defeats the original idea of the Kef system).
Bottomline : I play a lot more digital with the Kefs, and my analog rig gets a lot less attention these days. YMMV.
Nonetheless, the signal path is definitely digital so vinyl purists will want to keep a separate analog setup for their vinyl
Nice review. Thanks.
Thanks for watching!
Very much appreciated the retro gaming element to this review. 👍
Haha, I would love to cover more retro gaming in terms of sound in the future if the interest is there. It was a silly experiment but I had an absolute blast doing it.
I just bought sl50 w2, and.. a new tablet just to be able to run them, went with the Galaxy tab A7 lite, since my wallet is rather empty, looking at you kef minus 3000 euros.
havent gotten the speakers yet but...
when installing the app via store, there is this little tiny message right under it claiming " this app may not work on you device" ..
well thats ashame, really, so were is the gud o'l system requirements for it? so i i can buy an tablet that will run silky smooth with 0 bugs an crashes. ???
what R others experience with this? does the app run smooth regardless of the message? on my brothers old potato, there is no message.
pls share all your tablets you use that work wonders with the KEF Connect app . skip the expensive apple ones. i went for speakers, not apples.
Can I pair 2 x kef kf92 with the ls50wii
Yes
The only thing that stops me buying these is the lack of regular analog phono inputs for a turntable.
I can understand that, but to be honest, at this price level you should probably be using an external phonostage to get the most out of your records anyway.
I think you could use a preamp with a phono stage and tape output connected to the analog input on the LS50s. Connect all your sources to the preamp and use the preamp remote to select any input.
I feel like it plays great with music in anything but in movies it’s hard to hear people talking
That's pretty much all 2 channel systems I've heard.
Need to correct: the Meta takes away up to 99% of reflections/ distortion from the Tweeters ONLY. NOT from the mid/bas. This is great, but waiting for next level meta to absorb these from the more energetic mid/bas.
Your statement is confusing. In their website says it eliminates 99% of the unwanted sound from the rear of driver. Doesn’t specifically says only Highs.
@@jetlagfrias values like 99% etc. are mainly for marketing. You need to dig in deeper in their English sites. On their German site they got it on first page. On UK page: “Metamaterial Absorption Technology eliminates 99% of high-frequency distortion for pure, natural sound”. uk.kef.com/products/ls50-meta
On their US site, when you want to read more on Meta, you land in a 404 page!
If you really want to get a full scientific picture, you can read the published white paper:
www.aes.org/tmpFiles/elib/20210314/20758.pdf (enjoy reading 😀
Nevertheless, these are great sounding speakers!
Мне не хватает в них параметрического эквалайзера, хотя бы на 6 полос. Чтобы можно было подстроить комнату под их звук.