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KEF LS50 Need Help

I have been auditioning the KEF LS50 for a week now. Very nice speaker overall and clearly understand why it is so well reviewed. The speaker sounded very poor out of the box and loosened up after about 2 hours and finally started to sing. I have 25+ hours on them now (of course KEF says 100-200 needed????).

The bottom line for me is that they do not have enough bottom end for my taste, and the vocals an high pitch violin, etc. can seem too loud and a bit harsh at times. My gut feeling is the speakers will not change much more from now? This is a reference type speaker in my opinion. I guess there is always a thin line between perfect detail and rich soulful sound. I am looking for both (like most people) with a slant towards the rich and soulful side for me. I am upgrading my dedicated listening system from Klipsch KG4. (not a bad speaker by the way, different league of course)

I am considering two options going forward. ($3,000 budget max and prefer closer to $2,000) I kinda knew I would need a sub when I decided to try the LS50.

1.Try a sub (and soon) before my return window expires. SVS SB it most probable to due generous demo policy. The KEF R400 would be nice to try but cost more than the speakers?? I would consider it if gave me the results I want.

2.Return LS50 and find a suitable floor standing that will not need a sub, like Salk Song Tower ($160 shipping each way- bummer), or possibly KEF R line, or other??

I guess I am hoping for some input from those with similar experiences and the choices you ended up making.

My set-up
McIntosh MC 2150 solid state
Parasound Halo P5 pre-amp
Airport express via Toslink to Preamp DAC
Rotel CD player via digital coax to Preamp DAC

I currently use Tributary A1 Silver RCA cables and Tributary 12AWG Speaker wires. Blue jeans digital cables 14 x 19 room carpeted 75% or the area
torxx
yyzsantabarbara
5,008 posts
 
The sound does improve a lot around 200 hours. However, these are small monitors and you are not going to get huge bass out of them. I use them on my home office on a desk for near-field listening and it is incredibly good for that purpose. If I had these speakers in a bigger room I would be disappointed. I like the LS50 so much that I am thinking of getting the KEF Blade for my main rig in the future.
wolf_garcia
6,742 posts
 
Yes there IS a substitute to a "well designed full range speaker"...adding well designed sub to your KEFs! After all, a "full range" speaker is a speaker with a built in sub of some sort, powered or otherwise. An advantage I've found with my REL is that I can turn it up or down easily to instantly compensate for bass heavy or bass light music. A good thing since I don't use room correction gizmos and my preamp has no tone controls. A main speaker that cleanly goes down to 25hz would be too big and expensive for my listening space and I really like the sound of small baffle speakers anyway (Silverline Preludes currently). If you run a sub being careful of its level and have it take over right around the low frequency cutoff point of the mains, it can be a seamless musical addition that that you will never want to do without.
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 

12-20-13: Audioconnection
...
The highest performance loudspeaker designs today are sophisticated multi enclosures with drivers placed in their own ideal structure(s). ….

The LS50 provides a high resolution point source in a vibration-free cabinet. It is optimized for ideal dispersion, and is rated by Stereophile as Class A sound from about 70 Hz on up.

If you add a quality powered subwoofer (or two) in an inert cabinet, aren't you then creating a full-range system based on the principle you just mentioned--multiple enclosures with drivers placed in their own ideal structures?
torxx OP
29 posts
 
i will say that these speakers are most impressive with good source material. my only hesitation in at least trying the sub option is the harshness of the highs, at times, as a sub will not have an impact on that. break-in may soften the highs, but, it will have to happen before the return date comes... i also get the impression that subs can be hard to match to speakers and rooms. boomy bass would not be cool. i think my nature makes it hard for me run my stereo system when not listening just to break in the speakers. in my mind i am wearing the other components. probably foolish thinking.
jimmy2615
443 posts
 
Sometimes when you are missing the lower octave (Bass), you unwittingly turn up the volume to compensate, and given that small monitor speakers such as this are putting out only the higher frequencies, it can seem like they are harsh. Get your subwoofer in the mix, and it may change everything. Now, that said, if your room or electronics are creating the harshness in the high frequencies, then that's a different problem. Also, depending on where you have them now, you may want to try moving them farther apart from each other. I find them to be pretty neutral speakers overall.
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