I think one of the coolest things that E project has created with this channel is that we've developed a community here, where we discuss our opinions on all the different speakers and amps that he's been so awesome about providing demos of for us, at great cost to him. The only thing I regret is when I sometimes disagree with someone and I act like an immature little child, and then I feel ashamed of myself, but that's on me, and no one else. We are all super lucky to have this place where we can make all these comparisons of gear that many of us don't have the opportunity to go hear in person. We should all be extremely and eternally grateful to E Project for all his amazing effort and hard work, and for providing this online community for us to discuss and debate all things audio. It's really become much more than just another TH-cam channel, and he should be really proud of what he's created here
Well said. Remember, music is all about emotions. I noticed I learned a lot from you guys. Good thing is that we kinda know eachother by now and soup is never eaten as hot as served (Dutch proverb). 😄 E Project is gold. Cheers to that!
Great comparison E. Muchas Gracias. Surprisingly close as all here do say. LS50M a touch more upper mid/treble forward, R3 more bass and dynamics. Agree that it's mainly about room size and also amp matching.
I'm surprised that in this battle of the two big guns from KEF, that they sound as similar as they do to me. I would have thought that the Meta would be a lot weaker in the bass and a lot more forward than the R3, but I don't really hear that as much as I expected. The R3s do sound a bit bigger, but the Metas sound more focused and balanced to me, and I think I prefer them overall to the R3, which really surprises me, because I really like the R3s a lot. This video is recorded so much louder than others have been that I had to turn the master volume on my laptop way down, because otherwise the volume was too loud for me through my Sony headphones, even with TH-cam's volume almost all the way down. I may have to listen to this comparison several times to be sure which I prefer. I think the Metas actually have more resolution, transparency and detail. One of the things I listen for to determine detail retrieval is the background vocals that are a female voice, at lower level than the main voice, singing in unison with both the female and male lead vocal during the second half of their parts on the song Time Traveling, and the Metas win that test hands down.
I find these quite similar. There is a little more extension and detail on the R3's bass; while the R3 has slightly mellow highs (not a bad thing) in comparison to the forward sounding Meta's. I feel that the Meta has more "presence" in the mids, but the R3 makes up for that with a bit more clarity. But, have a 3-way shoot out with the R3, Meta and the Q530, I'd be hard pressed to find too much difference in them to justify the high price points of the higher end models.
@@DougMen1 Indeed! Hopefully I get to pump mine at some higher levels this weekend. Apartment living in Japan has its downsides for audiophiles/music lovers!
The Meta is hard to beat. Better details, midrange, soundstage, but bass drops off early. I like the R3 for being full-sounding, dynamic, detailed enough and overall a touch softer sounding. In a practical sense, depending on roomsize, the Meta are in need of a subwoofer(s) The R3's can mostly do without and also play much louder. The Meta's win, imo, but with some considerations.
I'm not a big bass freak, and I imagine, in my small room, the Metas would have enough bass for me, because most speakers with a larger woofer are too bassy in my room, and those with a 5" woofer are better balanced and have enough bass for my taste, and they usually have better mids too
@@DougMen1 They will do more than fine in smaller/medium rooms. Roomgain does the trick. I would suggest a beefier amp, as they really scale in all aspects from that. And when you don't play above 85dB >>> Meta. For me it's the other way around. Large room and that sucks at times.
@@34332 I can't afford any new speakers, and even if I could, my limit would probably be the XT20 or Q150 at most, but only if they were still on sale. I'll have to remain content with my Diamond 9.1s and classic KEF C40s from the 80s
@@34332 the Metas arent really distorted at 85db, they can get loud with inaudible distortion. 90db avearge and a wre bit higher @ 3.5 meters isnt a problem at all for the Metas, thats the room I heard it in. Yeah, just dont drive it with a puny amp. Thats the part thats going to cost most owners money, the speaker itself isnt really THAT expensive especially with offers everywhere.
@@AbsoluteFidelity 85db at your ears is actually VERY loud. I never listen that loud anymore. It hurts my ears and excites my tinnitus (from many loud rock concerts in the 70s, listening to speakers and headphones far too loud, and playing in too many bands where we practiced in a tiny garage and we played way too loud without hearing protection, and I was far too close to the drummer's crash cymbals). You younger guys should be careful about playing your systems too loud, because once you do permanent damage to your ears it can't ever be reversed. According to the experts 85db is safe for 8 hrs., 88db for 4hrs, but 91db is only safe for 2 hours before damage ensues, 94db for 1 hour, 97db for 30 minutes, and 100db for only 15 minutes
R3's sounded better to me, more open and felt they gave more, easy to listen to. Ls50's sounded good but just slightly more restricted. Though i do think the genre of music made a difference. Just my thoughts and i was listening through my speakers lol
If I could steal a pair of either one or the other of these really easily, I'd probably get busted anyway, while trying to decide if I should take the Metas because they're more practical and the box is smaller, or the R3's because they're more cool and outragous.
Admitting your questionable morals to the whole world, lol? I'd probably try to get both and park them next to each other or with the Metas on top of the R3s, with the R3s on short stands. Seriuously though, that TH-cam channel I told you about with all the vintage stuff is called BIG AZ SPEAKERS, not whatever I called it before> He doesn't have a lot of good sounding speakers, or he doesn't record them very well, but there's a pair of balck Klipsch Heresy E that sound really good. I feel like a kid in a candy store looking at all those cool amps. He's got a tube powered Trio receiver from when they still called their audio gear Trio, before they changed the name on audio gear to Kenwood and only used the Trio name on ham and marine radio gear
Metas, anytime anyday. With or without a sub. The differences are bigger in real life. The newest gen tuning aint fcukin around, I would get the R3 if it had a 'Meta' version. Price and model dont play a part in how speakers compare in this instance, the Meta and a sub will outright kill the R3. Bigger room? No probs, bring out the subs. Not dynamic enough? With subs and crossed over at 100hz or so, the Metas will be more dynamic than you can ask for with so much burden taken off the 5 inch driver. Dynamism and clarity in spades.
Mark is getting angrier and angrier in each reply of late. Seems like his family will be forced to pry the Metas from his dead cold hands when they bury him.
I own the ls50's meta's with a Hegel H120 and have been considering upgrading to these R3's. My room is medium sized and i sit fairly close to my speakers, i wonder if i would really benefit from moving up to the R3's?
Though meta is already better than the original LS50, it still sounds just like a small speaker. Small speaker can sound very good for solo instruments, but very constraint for backing parts like messy distorted rhythm guitar or massive backing chords in classical. Size do matter in comparison btw similar designed products. Room size isn't the same topic, larger speaker in small room may have booming bass or emphasizing peaks and dips in the low end, but they still got better instrument timbre than smaller ones, do some room treatment and DSP can get good rewarding. Also, R3 is not really a big speaker.
![[Sound Battle] Revel Concerta2 M16 vs Kef R3 / Peachtree Nova 300/Integrated Amp/Bookshelf Speakers](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/h8sjkFRfOno/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Sound Battle] KEF Q350 vs ELAC Uni-Fi 2.0 UB52 Bookshelf Speakers w/Arcam SA10 Integrated Amplifer](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Qt_12WX1PyI/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Sound Battle] KEF R3 vs Elac Debut Reference DBR62 Bookshelf Speakers/ Yamaha A-S301 Integrated Amp](/img/n.gif)
I think one of the coolest things that E project has created with this channel is that we've developed a community here, where we discuss our opinions on all the different speakers and amps that he's been so awesome about providing demos of for us, at great cost to him. The only thing I regret is when I sometimes disagree with someone and I act like an immature little child, and then I feel ashamed of myself, but that's on me, and no one else. We are all super lucky to have this place where we can make all these comparisons of gear that many of us don't have the opportunity to go hear in person. We should all be extremely and eternally grateful to E Project for all his amazing effort and hard work, and for providing this online community for us to discuss and debate all things audio. It's really become much more than just another TH-cam channel, and he should be really proud of what he's created here
Well said. Remember, music is all about emotions. I noticed I learned a lot from you guys. Good thing is that we kinda know eachother by now and soup is never eaten as hot as served (Dutch proverb). 😄
E Project is gold. Cheers to that!
Great comparison E. Muchas Gracias. Surprisingly close as all here do say. LS50M a touch more upper mid/treble forward, R3 more bass and dynamics. Agree that it's mainly about room size and also amp matching.
Yes,, this is a really test!!!
THANKS...
Wow! You have been busy! Thanks again for another new video so soon! 😊👍🤙🙏👏
I'm surprised that in this battle of the two big guns from KEF, that they sound as similar as they do to me. I would have thought that the Meta would be a lot weaker in the bass and a lot more forward than the R3, but I don't really hear that as much as I expected. The R3s do sound a bit bigger, but the Metas sound more focused and balanced to me, and I think I prefer them overall to the R3, which really surprises me, because I really like the R3s a lot. This video is recorded so much louder than others have been that I had to turn the master volume on my laptop way down, because otherwise the volume was too loud for me through my Sony headphones, even with TH-cam's volume almost all the way down. I may have to listen to this comparison several times to be sure which I prefer. I think the Metas actually have more resolution, transparency and detail. One of the things I listen for to determine detail retrieval is the background vocals that are a female voice, at lower level than the main voice, singing in unison with both the female and male lead vocal during the second half of their parts on the song Time Traveling, and the Metas win that test hands down.
I find these quite similar. There is a little more extension and detail on the R3's bass; while the R3 has slightly mellow highs (not a bad thing) in comparison to the forward sounding Meta's. I feel that the Meta has more "presence" in the mids, but the R3 makes up for that with a bit more clarity. But, have a 3-way shoot out with the R3, Meta and the Q530, I'd be hard pressed to find too much difference in them to justify the high price points of the higher end models.
The Q350 and even the Q150 are really good for their price IMO
@@DougMen1 Indeed! Hopefully I get to pump mine at some higher levels this weekend. Apartment living in Japan has its downsides for audiophiles/music lovers!
Great demo, which stands do you have they look great? Thanks
The Meta is hard to beat. Better details, midrange, soundstage, but bass drops off early. I like the R3 for being full-sounding, dynamic, detailed enough and overall a touch softer sounding.
In a practical sense, depending on roomsize, the Meta are in need of a subwoofer(s) The R3's can mostly do without and also play much louder.
The Meta's win, imo, but with some considerations.
I'm not a big bass freak, and I imagine, in my small room, the Metas would have enough bass for me, because most speakers with a larger woofer are too bassy in my room, and those with a 5" woofer are better balanced and have enough bass for my taste, and they usually have better mids too
@@DougMen1
They will do more than fine in smaller/medium rooms. Roomgain does the trick.
I would suggest a beefier amp, as they really scale in all aspects from that. And when you don't play above 85dB >>> Meta.
For me it's the other way around. Large room and that sucks at times.
@@34332 I can't afford any new speakers, and even if I could, my limit would probably be the XT20 or Q150 at most, but only if they were still on sale. I'll have to remain content with my Diamond 9.1s and classic KEF C40s from the 80s
@@34332 the Metas arent really distorted at 85db, they can get loud with inaudible distortion. 90db avearge and a wre bit higher @ 3.5 meters isnt a problem at all for the Metas, thats the room I heard it in. Yeah, just dont drive it with a puny amp. Thats the part thats going to cost most owners money, the speaker itself isnt really THAT expensive especially with offers everywhere.
@@AbsoluteFidelity 85db at your ears is actually VERY loud. I never listen that loud anymore. It hurts my ears and excites my tinnitus (from many loud rock concerts in the 70s, listening to speakers and headphones far too loud, and playing in too many bands where we practiced in a tiny garage and we played way too loud without hearing protection, and I was far too close to the drummer's crash cymbals). You younger guys should be careful about playing your systems too loud, because once you do permanent damage to your ears it can't ever be reversed. According to the experts 85db is safe for 8 hrs., 88db for 4hrs, but 91db is only safe for 2 hours before damage ensues, 94db for 1 hour, 97db for 30 minutes, and 100db for only 15 minutes
PLEASE! KEF LS50 Meta VS KEF R3 With NAD C388.
R3's sounded better to me, more open and felt they gave more, easy to listen to. Ls50's sounded good but just slightly more restricted. Though i do think the genre of music made a difference. Just my thoughts and i was listening through my speakers lol
If I could steal a pair of either one or the other of these really easily, I'd probably get busted anyway, while trying to decide if I should take the Metas because they're more practical and the box is smaller, or the R3's because they're more cool and outragous.
Admitting your questionable morals to the whole world, lol? I'd probably try to get both and park them next to each other or with the Metas on top of the R3s, with the R3s on short stands. Seriuously though, that TH-cam channel I told you about with all the vintage stuff is called BIG AZ SPEAKERS, not whatever I called it before> He doesn't have a lot of good sounding speakers, or he doesn't record them very well, but there's a pair of balck Klipsch Heresy E that sound really good. I feel like a kid in a candy store looking at all those cool amps. He's got a tube powered Trio receiver from when they still called their audio gear Trio, before they changed the name on audio gear to Kenwood and only used the Trio name on ham and marine radio gear
@@DougMen1 Didn't knoow that about Kenwood. Never saw a trio component.
Must have been before I came into hifi awereness.
@@williammiebach1798 It may also be that they used the Kenwood name in North America and Europe, but still used the Trio name in some other markets
Metas, anytime anyday. With or without a sub. The differences are bigger in real life. The newest gen tuning aint fcukin around, I would get the R3 if it had a 'Meta' version. Price and model dont play a part in how speakers compare in this instance, the Meta and a sub will outright kill the R3. Bigger room? No probs, bring out the subs. Not dynamic enough? With subs and crossed over at 100hz or so, the Metas will be more dynamic than you can ask for with so much burden taken off the 5 inch driver. Dynamism and clarity in spades.
The Meta sure does measure better than the R3 or the OG LS50
@@DougMen1 screw the OGs, I have em and I do not like em at all.
@@AbsoluteFidelity I was actually really shocked when E Project did a comparison of the 2 and the Metas made the OG sound like s__t!
@@DougMen1 i dont know why so many reviewers are saying they sound almost alike, to me the differences are huge. Tone deaf mfers.
Mark is getting angrier and angrier in each reply of late. Seems like his family will be forced to pry the Metas from his dead cold hands when they bury him.
R3👍💪
I own the ls50's meta's with a Hegel H120 and have been considering upgrading to these R3's. My room is medium sized and i sit fairly close to my speakers,
i wonder if i would really benefit from moving up to the R3's?
Buy a sub. I have R3. Or you can wait for next "R3" generation
Or another option is floorstanders
@@streamnoremorse what sub would you recommend?
@@hclandscapes KEF KC62, Rel T7, SVS 3000. Standard. I haven`t heard them with sub. But I think replacing LS50 Meta with R3 is inconsistent.
Buy a good sub instead
Though meta is already better than the original LS50, it still sounds just like a small speaker.
Small speaker can sound very good for solo instruments, but very constraint for backing parts like messy distorted rhythm guitar or massive backing chords in classical. Size do matter in comparison btw similar designed products. Room size isn't the same topic, larger speaker in small room may have booming bass or emphasizing peaks and dips in the low end, but they still got better instrument timbre than smaller ones, do some room treatment and DSP can get good rewarding. Also, R3 is not really a big speaker.
Is Bluesound Powernode (2021 edition) would be enough to drive R3?
What do you think, guys?
I know a lot people love the LS50, and it does measure well, but it always sounds not quite right to me.
I can't tell any difference between the two! They sound exactly the same.
GOOD
Matching speakers that are more than twice the amplifier's price doesn't make much sense to me
KEF решили средние частоты возвести в абсолют.
kike it, thanks
Je préfère légèrement les LS 50