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LS50 and Classical

Hey everyone. I purchased a pair of LS50's (the originals, not the Meta's) about a year ago and my impressions are somewhat mixed. On rock, pop, jazz, blues and hip-hop they generally sound great. But 80% of my listening is classical and I find them somewhat 2-dimensional with the vast majority of my classical collection.

I don't have the space for floor-standers but I'm wondering if anyone has a recommendation for a bookshelf / monitor speaker that will give me more of the 3-dimensionality that I'm looking for. My budget would be up to $3000.

Other equipment:
Schiit Freya S Preamp (running balanced to power amp)
PS Audio Stellar S300 power amp
Denafrips Ares II driven by Volumio
Pro-Ject Debut Carbon with Ortofon 2M Blue
eshafran
turnbowm
353 posts
 
Adding a small sub (Rel T/5i) to augment the low end on LS50s provided a major improvement in my listening pleasure. The increased soundstage (depth, in particular) was significant and, with added body to music, the little Kefs no longer sounded small.

Adding a sub (or two) is highly recommended for anyone with small stand-mount speakers.  
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dbphd
1,628 posts
 
turnbown, I noticed a distinct increase in sound stage when I raised the crossover of the pair of Velodyne HGS-15s that supplement KEF Reference 1s from 40 to 80 Hz.  I was surprised. 
ei001h
287 posts
 
LS50 won't sound good with classical no matter what you do. If you must stay with stand mounts you'll have to add a sub. But I'd definitely get rid of LS50 and replace with Harbeth or Sonus Faber. Alternatively, Focal micro utopia will sound much better than Kef. Here is one from audiogon in your range. Listen to samples on YouTube, you won't regret buying this speaker. 
turnbowm
353 posts
 
ei001h166 posts01-24-2021 7:56pm"LS50 won't sound good with classical no matter what you do...."

I'm sure there are many happy owners that would disagree with you.
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dbphd
1,628 posts
 
Count me among them.
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