Dynaudio Xeo 20 vs KEF LS50 Wireless


Dear masters,

Did anyone ever compare these 2 active speakers? Which has the better sound quality? Thanks.
nibongese
Mine streams fine using the Kef's as a Roon end point. With that said, I like the sound achieved through the usb and I had a Macbook available. It all depends on your wifi setup and your router. No issues here.
Thank you, that is good to know. Having it just work is an important part of getting it right.
Sorry to revive a 4 month old thread, but hopefully this will be helpful to someone, since there are clear practical differences between these two.

Yesterday I auditioned the Dyn XEO 20’s and tried to listen to the KEF LS50Ws as well, but the LS50Ws in the shop were having connectivity issues so it proved impossible. I was only able to audition the XEO 20s (and really liked them, btw), and sadly was unable to make a direct comparison.

The only point I want to make here is these two speakers have vastly different levels of "wirelessness." The KEF LS50W’s require an umbilical cable between the master and slave speaker, while the XEO 20’s do not. Furthermore the LS50W master requires wired connections from all source-types except bluetooth and those connected to your household WiFi network. The XEO 20’s, on the other hand, can be fed all source types wirelessly from Dynaudio’s Connect/Hub device, which does the chore of receiving all the wired inputs (including analogue) and then broadcasting them to the speakers over its own native wireless connection (including to multiple sets of XEO’s in multiple rooms/zones).

In practice therefore, the XEO 20’s are far more "wireless" and can, in fact, be placed anywhere within a powercord’s length of an power outlet, irrespective of the location of your source equipment, and without running a stupid wire between the L & R speakers. This is a significant advantage in terms of equipment placement options, WAF and future-proofing.
I was under the impression that the KEFs provide a wireless option between speakers as well?
@mapman LS50W require the shielded interconnect still but it affords them 24/192 connectivity where as the Dynaudio are limited to 24/96 via their proprietary wireless connectivity. The new Kef LSX are similar to the Dynaudio in that they connect wirelessly Master (control speaker) to Slave but at 24/48 instead.

Great thing about Ethernet connectivity of the LS50W is that a shielded Ethernet cable is affordable and come in a multitude of lengths to use.

I’ve owned both of the Kef’s I mentioned and the similar Dynaudio Xeo2. All 3 great speakers. For a desktop setup the LSX were my favorite. For stand mounts the LS50W. The Dynaudio are great also but more along the lines of background listening appliances to me versus critical listening. As a side note I used the LSX connected via Ethernet so they were 24/96 in my office.

***a few other things to consider, the inputs on the Dynaudio are more limited for a desktop setup where you’re likely to have usb connectivity versus toslink or rca outputs on your computer these days. The Dynaudio are a more laidback sound so if that’s preferable to a forward revealing sound then they are worth a listen for sure. I settled on the Elac Navis ARB51 for my home office (stand mounted) listening setup btw. They are in between the LS50W and the Dynaudio to my ears as far as dynamics and detail. Very happy with them.