Conrad Johnson Owners.com

I just picked these up today and so far impressed. A lot of performance for the money, I think.

Not surprised. This was voted as speaker of the year by one of the audiophile blogs I read.

http://www.cnet.com/news/the-audiophili ... -kef-ls50/

Thank you for the link, I missed that one.

I heard them a few years ago at the NY Audio Show in the same room as the 20X more expensive KEF Blade speakers. Thought the LS50 were a bargain especially at the reduced price of $1,250 being offered to attendees at the show. But even at their regular price, an excellent value. Produced a sound way larger than I expected.

Enjoy!

Bumping an old thread. I got a pair of LS-50s this past Saturday (on long-term loan--I may end up keeping them). Since I'm spending more time at my desk (being stuck at home), I wanted something better than the Bostons. I've heard these at AXPONA a few times, so I knew I would probably like them in my home system. I have yet to hook them up to my main system with the C-J components--I don't have any stands, or anything high enough to rest them on. For now they are on three-inch risers on the desk.

I will probably eventually get a NAD D7050 or PS Audio Sprout100 to use as my desktop DAC and amplifier but for now, and just for kicks to mess around with, I picked up one of those Reisong A10 amplifiers that Steve Guttenberg reviewed and liked. It's not all that powerful, but since I'm only listening at lower levels and in a nearfield setting, I don't need much power anyways. It came in a PC board version or a wired version, and I went with the wired, and without tubes. (Being wired point to point, I can repair anything as needed, or upgrade a few parts if I feel like it.)

Congratulations on the KEFs. Enjoy. They aren’t very efficient but sound great.

Wildcat wrote: ↑Wed May 06, 2020 11:42 pm Bumping an old thread. I got a pair of LS-50s this past Saturday (on long-term loan--I may end up keeping them). Since I'm spending more time at my desk (being stuck at home), I wanted something better than the Bostons. I've heard these at AXPONA a few times, so I knew I would probably like them in my home system. I have yet to hook them up to my main system with the C-J components--I don't have any stands, or anything high enough to rest them on. For now they are on three-inch risers on the desk.

I will probably eventually get a NAD D7050 or PS Audio Sprout100 to use as my desktop DAC and amplifier but for now, and just for kicks to mess around with, I picked up one of those Reisong A10 amplifiers that Steve Guttenberg reviewed and liked. It's not all that powerful, but since I'm only listening at lower levels and in a nearfield setting, I don't need much power anyways. It came in a PC board version or a wired version, and I went with the wired, and without tubes. (Being wired point to point, I can repair anything as needed, or upgrade a few parts if I feel like it.)

I got them for my desktop as well about a year ago. Paired them with a Sprout100 and an SVS SB2000 sub (underneath my desk, its a corner desk so plenty of room) and I really enjoy them. I have a 38" monitor and watch movies off my NAS and can shake the room next door with the sub but with music I can get it to blend fairly well. I put mine on IsoAcoustics Aperta Isolation Stands (6.1”W x 7.5”D) to get them high enough. I also made the mistake of thinking I needed to toe them in to my listening position but with nearfield listening it turned out to be much better to just point them almost straight out (which someone in another forum pointed out when he saw a picture of the setup). If not when I moved my head the sweet spot was so small it immediately disappeared.

Good luck with them.

Has anyone tried the LS50 Wireless?

The wireless would have put the LS-50s way out of my reach.

I did get a chance to buy some stands and listen to these in my C-J system. There isn't much bass to speak of, so I would need to reposition my subwoofers to use these here. But otherwise, they were relatively uncolored and imaged well. Still, they don't approach what I am hearing with my ESLs, which include beautiful rock-solid imaging and no coloration whatsoever that I can hear. The big issue is that my lower volume usage of the LS-50s means they will take quite a while to fully break in--I feel the bass will never be all that good, but it will at least flesh out a little more if they can get a proper break-in. I'm also afraid of moving them around much, since 1) they have no protective grilles and 2) the cabinets are flawless.

I didn't like the imaging if I pointed them more straight ahead, so I returned them to a toed-in configuration that gives me a solid image while I'm working.

That cheap Chi-Fi amp actually sounds pretty good. Nearfield at the desk, it gets louder than I would ever play it. And the small powered sub beneath the desk fills in the bottom end.

Update on the desktop situation--the cheap tube amp is now retired. I stuck it in my main system and learned just how muddy it was. The tubes are good quality (I bought those separately) but I fear the internal components are not so good. I set it aside since the metal case is sturdy, and some of the local tube guys and I might look into the circuit and see if it can be improved. (It's point-to-point wired.)

The PS Audio Sprout100 now drives the speakers, and quite well. It's a very clean amplifier, and puts 100 watts into 4 ohms. The Sprout overpowers the subwoofer, in fact, so I may swap in a smaller MartinLogan sub at some point. I don't play it loud, but this system does play nice and clean. Since I sometimes have to edit audio, having playback this good was worth the cost.

The PSAudio Sprout is really a cool device. Considering the prices of most PS Audio gear it's hard to believe that they crammed all that stuff into a $700 package. It really has everything,... preamp, amp, , headphone amp, phono input, Bluetooth, sub-out and DAC. Really cool. Lot's of bang for your buck. What do you think of the DAC onboard? I've been DAC shopping recently (and just bought a Holo Audio MAY KTE edition DAC) so I've been reading more about them.

I haven't really compared the DACs at all, and I've been meaning to try the Sprout in my main system to see how well it does. On my desktop system, I have no complaints about it. A separate DAC would usually always be a better choice (excluding the cheap DACs you see on Amazon of course), but I'm finally able to play pure DSD on the desktop and everything I throw at it sounds really clean and musical. Dead quiet, too. The amp does pack quite a punch for its size. My one complaint is that there is only one active digital input--I run the Sprout via USB, but have a Chromecast Audio puck connected via optical, and the unit will not automatically switch between the two unless I unplug one of the sources, or the computer is turned off. (Which actually isn't a bad thing, as I'd tend to use the Chromecast when the computer is turned off anyways.)