KEF ls50 meta’s are on the way

Yes, thanks. Definitely more refined overall than the originals and the originals are no slouch for their size either. Still have a lot of listening to do to soak it all in. The litmus test for me in the end is how long a setup holds my attention and makes me want to keep listening. Good omen so far for that. We’ll see. My much bigger Ohms (no subs) have been the litmus test for that for me in my house to-date. I never want to stop with those once I settle in. Both run off the same gear just in a different (adjacent) room of appropriate size so its always a pretty good apples/apples test for speakers.

The Metas are reviewed in this months Stereophile. The measurements look very good and JA liked them better than the originals. The one thing I didn't see in the measurements were the off axis response results. On-axis was very flat from 300 Hertz and up, and the speaker had exceptionally clean spectral decay. I would love to hear them some time.

Regarding off-axis response the KEF blurb says they disperse evenly throughout the room and indeed that is what they seem to do.    The tonality holds up well even where I sit at my desk in between and somewhat to the their rear.  That is no easy trick and very impressive.  I'm a bit surprised it has not been talked about more.    Audiokinesis would be very impressed with that I suspect!  They say it's a combo result  of the new waveguide and curved baffle. Seems like they nailed it pretty well this time around.

I’m at my desk again in between the speakers as seen in the pic link above.

Sounds like a very good pair of headphones but more spacious from there :-). Dispersion!

Hope to get some more listening time in from the sweet spot on couch near rear wall (not in the pic) very soon and will report on that.

So far, I might question some of the more extended bass claims I have read on the new metas elsewhere but otherwise no surprises given what I read prior to buying. They live up to the published claims extremely well to-date. These are very good small monitors within their limits. Somewhat better than the originals perhaps in ways only a real hardcore audiophile would care about. Adding a powered sub (Klipsch sw308 located near rear wall in my case) removes those limits at least for my smaller 12X12 room just like before. I think even most audiophiles would have trouble pointing out faults. Lots of detail, nothing harsh, very smooth, big soundstage, and excellent imaging and dispersion.

System summary:

Logitech Squeezebox Touch -> Audioquest optical TOSLINK ->mhdt Constantine DAC-> DNM Reson IC->Audio Research sp16 pre-amp -> DNM Reson IC -> Bel Canto ref1000m Class D monoblocks -> Niles speaker switch -> Audioquest cv-6 speaker cables -> KEF ls 50 meta speakers (titanium grey). 

Supplemented by same Audio Research sp16 pre-amp -> Audioquest ICs -> Klipsch sw308 subwoofer.