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Can the KEF LS50 rock?

Hi,

Right now my setup includes a Rel T5 sub and a pair of Wharfedale 10.1s. I just got a peachtree nova 125se which should be coming soon. For the longest time I have been looking at buying a pair of KEF LS50s. My room size is medium and I rarely get to play my music loud. All that being said if I bought the Kefs and paired it with my sub how would they do when I occasionally feel the desire to rock out? Any other monitor suggestions would be helpful. I live in a small town so there isn't much chance to test drive speakers but maybe I can take a roadtrip to Denver in the future.

Thanks!
128x128brimel1974
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bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,717 posts
 

Whatever little speaker you decide on, it will sound much better by, as others have already said, putting a high-pass filter on the amp powering them. That will remove the bass frequencies (depending on the corner frequency of the filter) from that amp and the monitor, greatly reducing the distortion the speaker produces. All the filter needs to be is (usually) a capacitor soldered onto the power amp's input jacks (on the inside of the amp). The formula for determining the value of the capacitor needed is:

C = 1 / 6.3 x f x z, where C = capacitance in uF, f = the corner frequency of the filter desired, and z = your power amp's input resistance figure.

This will NOT be possible if you hook up your sub to the same power amp as the speakers, obviously.

johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
You probably need to spend upwards of $3K on floor standing speakers for the cabinet to not be a liability and then there's no guarantee.
Generally true, except for Magnepan. I've had some 1.7s for 2-1/2 years and love them. They combine the vibration-free delivery of a mini-monitor with the natural ease and room-filling advantage of large dipole radiating surfaces. 

The .7s are only $1400/pair.

brimel1974's avatar
brimel1974 OP
35 posts
 
Thanks bob_reynolds. I am definitely leaning towards the Jade 3s and trying to blend in my sub. They are a bit cheaper to. Do you think they will have a forward treble on them? I usually turn up the treble on my av receiver because I like that extra sparkle. Or maybe I am just hard of hearing and have trouble picking up vocals. The new peachtree does not have tone controls.
wolf_garcia
6,686 posts
 
A note on REL subs...I have 2 of an older generation of these, a Q150e and a Q108 II, and upon taking them apart to tighten stuff and look around, I've noticed they are very well built torroidal transformer based amps assembled to a very high standard, and they sound great…exactly as designed. Nothing "cheap" about them. The REL's high level input of course does take the speaker signal and reproduce at least the lower range that the power amp is sending out (tube in my case) regardless of what the mains are doing, and small driver mains like the LS50 aren't expected to create earth shattering bass anyway…I use mains with 2 powerful small drivers (plus single tweeters) in each that naturally roll off below a certain point (you have to drive the crap out of them to get them to give up, so they don't get over driven unless subjected to accidental drunken "knob turner" abuse) and that's how it should work. Leaving the mains full range utilizes the speaker designer's mojo, and the RELs job is simply to energize the room and provide the lower octaves if you want 'em. I defy anyone to detect tonal aspects in RELs that aren't from the amp, as hey…it's all low range of course and to my (working professional sound tech, pro guitar and bass player) ears seemingly neutral…they might have a tone of their own but my 2 RELs, albeit with a different output and driver size, are absolutely identical tonally, and they don't seem to noticeably add anything to whatever tone character the amp sends to them.
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