KEF Owners Thread - Page 183

I got R500s and keep thinking about trying LS50s instead. The thing that stops me though is that LS50 is pretty much just a beefed up R100 (I think its the same driver, just better cabinet and probably different crossover) and R500 is a true 3 way speaker. And if I would go LS50 way the wasted 4th speaker makes it not much cheaper than R500s + R200c.
But a little man in the back of my head keeps bugging me:)

Yah, I think it's a good setup, the R600 will sound a little different than R300s, but how much of multichannel music will you really listen too? I think 99% of music sounds better in stereo anyways.
For the sub I think R300s don't need sub for most music, I got a HSU VTF-2 MK4 and really happy with ability to go sealed or ported and adjust the Q.

Many thanks for your reply

Decision decision...it isnt easy.

Are you satisfied with the R500?, and do you plan to use sub if you going the LS50 way?

About that 4th speaker. When I was talking to a rep from KEF at RMAF this year, she let me know they are changing their pricing and packaging systems to allow for singles to be sold. I asked because I was/am debating KEF's, and was looking specifically at the LS50's and the R300 as an LCR set up. She advised this would be possible, but the dealer would need to special order the solo speaker.

Also, my $.02, while I really liked a lot about the LS50, I think I would have an issue with the diminished bass and dynamics. Based off of my too little time spent with the two speakers, the LS50's had more detail but seemed to roll off too early for me. Granted, no sub in the mix, but I left thinking the R300's would be better LCR's in a HT setup. Music and near field, the LS50's. Not a bad dilemma either way.

No.

Next, please.

LS50 with sub.

But the R400 sub (while cool looking) is poor value for the performance. I would buy one really good sub, and then maybe another KEF HTB2 (really good, for what it is, a "designer" sub) and a minIDSP, and do something like this. FWIW, a production sub that's very similar to the DIY sub I used in that system with 2 HTB2's is the SVS PB12-NSD. The SVS sub uses an evolution of the same Peerless driver I used (which, interestingly, KEF also used in a sub for a while, the only instance I know of KEF using an OEM driver) with more power in a bigger cabinet.


And different voicecoil on the mid, and some changes to tweeter too. And that horrid color, alas. But the midwoofer vs. midrange thing is interesting. I'm using Pioneer Elite concentrics that were designed by KEF alum Andrew Jones as dedicated midranges in my next speakers. (I would've strongly considered the R-series dedicated mid, but couldn't get ahold of them. The Pioneer Elite magnesium mid/ceramic graphite tweet beat out the Q100 driver, but it was a closer call than I expected given that the KEF driver is used in $500 speakers and the Pioneer driver is used in well-regarded $4000 speakers.)


Excellent, and about time. If that had been the case six months ago with the Ref 201/2, I'd have a trio of them.

This is consistent with my local KEF dealer - I double checked today and they can order a third speaker of any R series or higher. (They don't carry Q series.)

To clarify I will mainly use this setup for movies. I chose the R600c to go with the R300's soley due to the matching driver sizes if the R200c will do as good a job then i would happily change as it would save me $700.00.

DS-21

Thanks for your advice, and sorry for my late reply.

Some say its very difficoult to get a sub integrated with front speakers, so i am alittle sceptic

It's not that difficult, it just requires some basic competence. The better auto-calibration systems (ARC, Trinnov) do a passable job for those without much time. Trinnov is a lot better than ARC in my experience for subs-mains integration, but Trinnov's only consumer-level application thus far is a discontinued and somewhat buggy old Sherwood AVR. (It is still available from accessories4less.com, I believe, and extremely inexpensive for the build and sound quality if one can put up with its foibles.)

That said, one sub with "bass management" filtering out the bass from the mains is often worse than no subs, because instead of driving the room at two points, you're only doing so from one.

Multiple subwoofers are needed for anyone who cares in the slightest about high fidelity reproduction. For an extended view of this argument, with supporting measurements, see here and the bottom of here.

Thought everyone might like to see what can happen in shipping, if the shipper is sufficiently dastardly.

Backstory: last week I sold a KHT-3005SE set on eBay. I shipped it to the winning bidder via FedEx Ground, in the original KHT-3005SE box, with each speaker inside the original sub-box and Styrofoam clamshell and brown cloth dust-cover. Two days later (the buyer was not far from me), I get a message that one of the speakers sounds like something was broken inside, and only the tweeter worked. Fortunately, at the time of the sale I had two of KHT-3005SE, so I could make the buyer whole. I asked the buyer to send it back to me, reimbursed the buyer for the return shipping, and sent the buyer a different egg. When I received the egg, I picked it up, and sure enough, it rattled. I was curious, so I decided to take the HTS-3005SE egg apart. It was easier than I had feared, meaning I didn't destroy the thing: I used my fiancee's Elchim hairdryer to soften the glue, and butter-knife to remove the rubber baffle coating. Underneath were two hex screws with the same size head as the screw connecting the base or stand to the egg. Undo two screws, and it popped open. Here's what I found:



As you can see, it was jarred so hard that one of the crossover inductors snapped off. I believe that inductor was supported by a zip tie as well as its leads and the glue on the circuitboard, because there was also a broken zip tie inside the egg.

I can only guess that FedEx dropped it hard on the corner above that speaker. Fortunately, the others were unaffected.

I also learned one secret about why the HTS-3005SE egg is clearly deader-sounding than the similarly-sized Tannoy Arena egg (also have four of those) in the knuckle-wrap test: the KEF egg appears to be plastic inside, whereas the Tannoy egg is just the metal shell. (And the 3005's port is the longest I've seen in such a tiny speaker! It goes up, elbows, and extends almost to the front of the egg.)

Also, that's a fairly expensive and complex crossover for a reasonably-priced "designer" speaker. (Though with current neo prices, I suspect they wouldn't be able to design a new speaker with that driver and that crossover at the same price today.) No wonder they measure so smoothly, and sound better than anything else I've heard or seen in their size class at any price. One may quibble about the two iron-core inductors, but remember the size constraints here. Nice job, KEF!
Edited by DS-21 - 11/15/12 at 8:55am

Many thanks agian for your help

My amp(Pioneer LX85) did a very good job with mcacc and the main speakers Infinity kappa 600 with a "10" sidewofer in this little room, but with the kef 3005 and the kef sub it was very boomy and far to much bass.

Had to take the main speakers out of service because a tweeter was blown, so now i use the 3005 but want to upgrade to the kef LS 50, R300 or R500

Dear KEF Fans,
We have heard you loud and clear! We are now selling KEF LS50s as individual speaker for use as a center channel. Please follow the link below for anyone that wants to place an order.

http://www.kefdirect.com/ls50-single-speaker.html

We appreciate everyone's feedback and support. Please continue to give us your opinion and thoughts on all KEF products. We would also appreciate any reviews we can get on KEFDirect.com for any KEF product you may currently own.

We will continue to innovate and push the limits of speaker engineering.

Sincerely,

KEF America

That's very nice. Where we're you when I wanted a single 201/2?

There have been talk of the Q900 having midrange cone breakup. You can see it on the Stereophile plots. Can a KEF engineer comment on this?

Any Body have KEF Reference 203/2 , give me idea pls . What is the best Power Amply for 203/2 thank

I have KEF 104 and 104/2's but this would be my suggestion if you think you need more power:

They are currently having a sale.

http://shop.emotiva.com/
Edited by XStanleyX - 11/17/12 at 9:50am

You're not seriously expecting a KEF engineer to comment on this, are you??!!?

No way would marketing allow that to happen without some *serious* editing of the engineer's comments.

Why not?

There's 2 sides to every story. Doesn't the KEF engineer get his chance to defend himself?

Everyone thinks he is an expert. I bet the KEF engineer thinks he is an expert too. So why not let the KEF engineer defend himself?

what do you think about McIntosh . they sale expensive .......
thank you

I've never owned any Mcintosh gear. Krell and Bryston are the only upper end amps I've owned. They didn't sound any better then the lower cost amps I've owned.
The Macs are real pretty though.

Here's a little of the gear I've owned:
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=f5af57802417850e&id=F5AF57802417850E%21175&ref=1&sff=1

i saw You like PowAmp brand Bryston

I bought a pair of those on craigslist for a very low price. I tried them out for about a week and sold them. They didn't sound any better than the RX-V1 receiver I had at the time.
Most of the gear I've owned I bought used off craigslist or audiogon.

I keep looking Preamp+ Pow amp for reference , give me idea pls .

You're missing the point, ADTG. A KEF engineer may very well like to respond, but the business types at KEF would not want them to without first clearing every single comment made. They don't want an engineer to "say the wrong thing", ie, admit they were aware of the issue but decided not to address it for whatever reason ($$, or just to make sure their more expensive models really are better).

On my budget it would be emotiva.

Jack Oclee-Brown is a Kef engineer and comments freely at diysound forum. See, for example: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/full-range/218281-kef-ls50-4.html

OK, ask him there and see whether you get an honest answer.

If you do, then see how long it takes before somebody in KEF management stops him from posting.

Trust me, I've been in his shoes. I know how this works.

.
Ok , I will try , thankkkkkkkk

Just saw Stereophile's KEF LS50 review (which means I read the measurements in depth but haven't really bothered with the text).

Looks like an absolutely excellent design.

Wonder if (looks aside) a set of LS50's on narrow side-firing "flanking sub" stands with appropriate filtering would give the mighty KEF Ref 201/2 or Pioneer S-4EX a run for the money.

Yeah, R500s are here to stay. no matter how I look at it I just don't see LS50 as a step up from R500s. I would definitely want to hear those one day.

KEF says LS50 driver is a special edition of R100's driver, but R300 and all the R towers have a different driver made only to play down to 500Hz and than u get dedicated woofers from 500Hz down where LS50 has to play that region with the same mid driver.


My guess is that LS50 is not as laid back as R series and in that sense it may be a more accurate speaker, the imaging will probably be better on LS50 since the whole sound comes from 1 point. But towers are towers, if they would make LS50 in tower version I would seriously looked at those:)

I just noticed something about the R series ... none of them use the 6.25" Uni-Q, they all use a 5" Uni-Q. The one exception is the R100 which uses a 5.25" Uni-Q, same as the LS-50. Wonder if this is related?
Edited by sdg4vfx - 11/18/12 at 10:49pm