Here are my two cents:
I own LS50s for three years and I’ve never heard the Revas but I’ve heard other Wharfedale’s models and other speakers that employ woven kevlar or carbon fibre and they all had two very characteristic colorations that I didn’t like. They exhibit to a degree cupped hand coloration and there is something I call Kevlar hash convoluted in the sound that I simply call the "hghhh". It’s some sort of graininess that makes the sound too analytical, very detailed but accents seem to be uneven to the extent that some of them interrupt your listening experience. Like a snare that’s way too forward and out of balance or a stringed instrument with too pronounced body. A very projected and in your face sound.
Some, like B&W couple these with first (electrical order) crossovers crossed way too high and further add to problems caused by uneven dispersion, like small sweet spot (lobing), dependency on treated rooms and increased honkynes (suckouts away from the sweet spot).
Unfortunately there is a growing trend in employing first order crossovers even in entry to mid-level products simply because of reduced costs. First order designs require extremely well behaved drivers and still require trade-offs.
It is exactly the reason I parted with these designs. I ended up with KEF LS50s with which I am quite happy, but they are not perfect either. Here’s my summary:
Pros:
- Very neutral sounding. Not forward, not laid-back, right in the middle
- Extremelly well designed mechanically and electrically, very decent 2nd order crossover
- There is nothing to irritate you with any kind of music
- Vocals to die for, very smooth, very detailed and very natural sounding
- Great imaging and sound stage
- Very even sound when listened from any angle. You could enjoy them for casual listening way off axis, do something else and still be surprised with stereo and feeling of space
- Very detailed but never irritating.
- Very transparent. You will hear amplifier differences easily, I even heard differences rolling op-amps in my amplifier. But I wouldn’t agree that they are very hard to drive. I even drove them with an ancient Marantz integrated with 40 Watts@8 Ohms and it was still very pleasing experience only not so transparent
- Bass is actually not bad, there is sufficient extension and the bass is very tight and defined. KEF engineers didn’t employ any midbass humps to cheat on the bass perception.
Cons:
- A bit tipped-down highs for my age
- They want to be pushed to sing at their best. If you mostly listen to low/night levels, you would need a loudness control on your amp.
- Can be tiny bit shouty in upper midrange/lower highs with some music. People say it depends on the amp, but my gut feeling is this is due to the twitter waveguide.
- If you want rock and very low frequency, pair them with a subwoofer
- Overall sound weight depends on room size and placement. They strangely disperse deep bass, and you will hear plenty of it sideways in your room but you have to play with distance from rear wall to maximize bass at your listening position.
- If you are like me and prefer a bit of mid-bass hump and a bit of plumminess, you will not be able to fully fix this with a sub-woofer. These guys ask for a three way design with woofers, not subwoofers.
- In my opinion, these speakers could work great with a pair of capable subwoofers and a preamp/integrated with sub output that can offload LS50s from bass completelly (like 200Hz down).
A note on LS50W and R300. I’ve auditioned both of them and had very high expectations of the LS50W that I was ready to sell the passives and upgrade to the actives without even listening.
I think that the superiority of the LS50w is a hyperbole. I heard nothing of it on my listening test. Ok, they were not broken-in, but two things were instantly apparent to me. They sounded more constricted, less open (transparent if you wish) and boxy sounding then the passives. I wish I was wrong about this and still have a small reservation due to not being broken-in and the listening environment, but I didn’t have a chance for a second audition yet.
I auditioned the R300 before buying the LS50s. This is an easy listening speaker, well balanced and also devoid of obvious colorations. The bass is abundant and fuller than the LS50s, but would still benefit from subs. It is from my memmory, midrange laid-back compared to LS50s so they will not give you goosebumps as much the LS50s would on vocals and brass instruments, but they will reward you with less pickyness about the source quality or a recording that is natively bass shy and you would spend more hours in casual listening with R300s.
R300 and LS50 are similar speakers but LS50 is a step above in build, finish, refinement and transparency. The last will give you more options to experiment with other components and tailor your own sound signature.
If you want to play on the safe side, use no subs and use your existing amp, R300 is a very competent speaker.
If I upgrade, I would again be KEF, I wish there is LS55 or LS60 with a a dedicated woofer!
