The KEF Blade Thread

A pre isn't fully necessary. If you have a high quality source with a built in pre, that's enough. I've recently used them with a Wadia 381 CD/pre and they sounded amazing.

I can't say I've ever used a PS3 as a source. I didn't even find it a good enough console to keep hold of (based on the games I wanted - Wipeout and GT5) :)
 
I spent an hour or so with the new LS50s at Munich and they are (imho) excellent. Neutral for sure but also very revealing and with a very decent and clean bass for such a small box. I have ordered a pair :)
John Dawson (Arcam)

John, do you feel the new design with the LS50 have good warmth and weight compare to the KEF Q and R series? I feel their high just a little thin or bright.
 
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John, do you feel the new design with the LS50 have good warmth and weight compare to the KEF Q and R series? I feel their high just a little thin or bright.
As studio monitors, the LS50 should not be designed with 'warmth' or 'brightness' in mind.
If they were, they'd be rubbish studio monitors.

The monitors job is to allow a recording engineer to hear everything in the mix and to easily identify a good balance in frequency, volume and position. The 'tonal character' needn't be pleasant to function well as a monitor.
A good mixing engineer will probably hook up a second pair of normal loudspeakers to test their mix on after monitoring.

Some Hifi speakers work 'ok' as studio monitors, but a good monitor is usually better suited to mixing.

Similarly, some monitors work 'ok' as hifi speakers but a good hifi speaker is likely to present music more tidily and be much more palatable over a longer listen.

Studio monitors are also usually designed to be listened to from close range (typically just behind a mixing desk) and be voiced for accuracy at this position.

As someone who produces music, I will definitely be checking out the LS50's at some point, but will stick with my R500s for normal listening.
 
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If you check the specs of the R100 and the LS50, you'll notice that the bass response is better on the R100 as the LS50's rolls off earlier. This is a characteristic you'll also see in other studio models like the LS3/5a. In testing, KEF claim that many people guessed that they cost about £2k due to the level of detail coming from them. Once I get to hear them I'll confirm that - can't wait!
 
John, do you feel the new design with the LS50 have good warmth and weight compare to the KEF Q and R series? I feel their high just a little thin or bright.

Sorry I can't comment as I don't get to hear lots of speakers these days. However after my listening session I was shown the frequency responses of the R100 vs the LS50 and the latter is flatter over the passband. You also have to take into account the much better cabinet in the LS50 with its considerably improved vibration control and the front baffle, curved in two planes. The KEF engineers threw a lot at this one :)

John Dawson
 
A pre isn't fully necessary. If you have a high quality source with a built in pre, that's enough. I've recently used them with a Wadia 381 CD/pre and they sounded amazing.

I can't say I've ever used a PS3 as a source. I didn't even find it a good enough console to keep hold of (based on the games I wanted - Wipeout and GT5) :)

Fair enough. How do I run these in a 5.1 system? Would I need to incorporate an integrated amp as well? Or should I even bother using rears when watching movies, if the soundstage is so good maybe they would be adequate on there own?

I apologize for my naivety in the field but I currently own the R900's and an opportunity came to purchase these for an extremely good price from someone who won them in a contest and was in need of cash so I couldn't help myself.
 
Soundstage mini review of the LS50 here

Thanks John, Jules and David for the response.

Quoted from the mini review, this sounds very excited and definitely wanted to check this out when my local dealer have them. Now I hope KEF will create a series base on this new design.

"I found everything about this speaker cool except for the sound -- the LS50 has an incredibly warm, full-bodied sound that could belong to a speaker five times its size. I just couldn't believe how much energy was coming from the pair of them. The LS50's bass reach caused my jaw to drop (KEF specs a -6dB point of 47Hz, and, from what I heard, it's plausible), and the pair played extraordinarily loud in the very large display room without a hint of strain."
 
Fair enough. How do I run these in a 5.1 system? Would I need to incorporate an integrated amp as well? Or should I even bother using rears when watching movies, if the soundstage is so good maybe they would be adequate on there own?

I apologize for my naivety in the field but I currently own the R900's and an opportunity came to purchase these for an extremely good price from someone who won them in a contest and was in need of cash so I couldn't help myself.

It might be worth listing what you have before recomending what you can do with your system :)
 
apologies if its a stupid question lol. how well would the new LS50 monitors work in a home theatre set-up?. maybe a pair at the rear and 3 at the front for left, right and centre. and maybe a bk mono or xxls400 for sub duties.

Tim
 
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Sit tight Tim - you might just find out! When I read about them , the first thing I thought about was a 5.1 system!

I'll be hearing them on Friday, and if they turn out to be "better" than the R300's, I'll be tempted to replace them with the LS50's.

When I say better, I like a lot of detail in movies. I like gun shots to have an edge. I like to hear small details. If the sound of the LS50's does bring out more detail as KEF says it does, these could very well be even better (for me) than the R300's.

I'll post up Friday and let you know :)
 
It might be worth listing what you have before recomending what you can do with your system :)

Well so far I have the Blades, two sets of Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun cables and (plan) to have the two Bryston 7's. Have two B&W dipoles still in box that I was planning on using for rears with the R900 set up, before I found out I was getting the Blades. Still looking into soTurce/pre amp. I also have a NAD T785 which is currently running the R900's and the R600c center that I picked up with the R900's.
 
Yes. In fact I will do that. Now that I was able to get the Blades I may set R900's up in the basement or I may sell them, they seem a little to high end to have them in a back up system that will rarely get used.
 
It's not the sort of sound that anyone is going to hear and instantly think, "they sound great"! The presentation of these is something you have to listen to and adjust to for a while, as many people will not be used to this sort of sound because many speakers out there are far from neutral. it's speakers like this that open your eyes to how 'coloured' most other speakers are.

I played quite a few different tracks, and as I did with the Concept Blade when I first heard them, I could appreciate what they were NOT doing. I don't think many people looked at the Concept Blade in that context, they were just treating it as another speaker. Nothing wrong in that, but these sorts of speakers need a slightly different approach when listening, I think.

Anyway, I'm very interested in hearing these at home on my system, and could well be changing my R300's to a full 5.1 LS50 system! I think the extra detail they produce will work very well in my AV system (which I'm currently using as my hi-fi system too). They sounded tight and punchy, and make detail effortless to listen to. I like the detail I get from my in ear headphones, and these give that to me :)
 
I posted the following up on another forum. Basically the same, but more to it.

The LS50 sound isn't the sort of sound thats going to be instantly impressive. The presentation of these is something you have to listen to and adjust to for a while, a little like ATC, as many people will not be used to this sort of sound because many speakers out there are far from neutral.

They're quite weighty little things, and "knocking" the cabinet like a door produces nothing more than a totally dead sound as though they're solid through and through. In fact, I'd say that they're just as well built, if not slightly better (due to their size), than the Reference series in this respect. At least you know the cabinet is having no effect on the end result...

I played quite a few different tracks, some on the Naim ND5XS/Naim Nait XS, but mostly on the Audiolab 8200CDQ/8200P. As I did with the Concept Blade when I first heard them, I could appreciate what they were NOT doing. I don't think many people looked at the Concept Blade in that context, they were just treating it as another speaker and were expecting to be wowed because they were expensive. Nothing wrong in that, but these sorts of speakers need a slightly different approach when listening, I think.

Straight away you can tell that there's no "bloom" to the midrange. It's clean, revealing, and lacking the warmth that shouldn't be there. I tried them with the bungs out - it'll be interesting to try them with the bungs in, as this should only affect the bass depth, and not the tonal balance of the LS50 due to it's design. Stereophonics' Mr.Writer, which isn't the best recorded track and can be quite muddled sounding, you can hear a lot of detail in what was going on, and I could hear the cymbal work more clearly, which sounded a little different than I've heard before on many speakers. Sneaker Pimps 6 Underground sounded nice. There's always lots of detail in overdubbed/sampled music which usually gets lost on bassy speakers, but it's all here. FNDMNTL's Serv It also sounded great, but in our demo room didn't quite hit the lower notes (like the lower note in 6 Underground), although I'll reserve judgement on the low bass until I can get a pair home and try them out properly in my own room, as my R300's at home are much clearer with better presence in the lower bass than the R300's in our demo room.

The Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magic was sounding nice and tight, with nice weight to the kick drum, and with as much detail as I have heard on the snare drums (on more expensive speakers, I mean). The only boom I was hearing was our demo room, which isn't perfect. The first couple of tracks of the Atticus Ross/Trent Reznor Social Network soundtrack, whilst not having the scale and depth of the Blades, seemed just a detailed and energetic - the LS50 has even more in common with the Blades than the R series does.

I also think that the UniQ's benefit of it's wide dispersion and imaging is realised more fully with the LS50's, which I think is down to the fact that the cabinet is playing no part in the presented sound. Like the Blade cabinet, the front facia curves back from the driver, eliminating reflections that a flat front panel would normally introduce.

For AV, I like a lot of detail. Many hi-fi speakers don't cut it for me, but the R300's have been pretty amazing. Having recently tried out the Audiolab 8200AP in my system, they're sounding even better than ever, and have really opened up purely because of this processor. I could quite happily live with the current sound that I have. But after what I heard earlier, I need to get a pair of LS50's home and try them out directly against my R300's. As I mentioned earlier, I think time spent with these will reveal their true strengths, as they're not immediately apparent.

Music used:
Boards Of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children
FNDMNTL - Subduction
Red Hot Chili peppers - Blood Sugar Sex magic
Queens Of The Stone Age - No One Knows
Sneaker Pimps - Becoming X
Stereophonics - Just Enough Education To Perform
Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross - Social Network OST
 
After further reading about amps, two other options have entered the equation. The Plinius SB - 301 or a pair of Parasound JC-1 Halos. Can get both for around the $5kUS mark, the Halos being much older than the Plinius. I wonder how these would work with the Blades? Both are supposed to be superb in general.
 
After further reading about amps, two other options have entered the equation. The Plinius SB - 301 or a pair of Parasound JC-1 Halos. Can get both for around the $5kUS mark, the Halos being much older than the Plinius. I wonder how these would work with the Blades? Both are supposed to be superb in general.

We run our Blades on the Plinius - although not a 301 - to great effect. I would say the combination is stronger than the Electrocompaniet set that we had previously and that is favoured by KEF. I have heard the 301 on the end of some 207/2's and again that match we superb. Unfortunately I have no experience of the Parasound amplification to offer a comparison. $5k is a good price though - I would expect very littte loss in that price should you need to sell on again.
Nick
 
Just seen on twitter that the Blades now have a celebrity owner in Jason Plato, by the gist of the tweet he was given them!!!!!
 
It annoys me when celebrities get freebies, especially as they can afford to buy them. But, KEF do sponsor him in the British Touring Car Championship (and have done for a while), and there's usually a bit of 'tit for tat' in those situations, if you know what I mean.

Thom York of Radiohead also owns a pair (which I know he bought).
 
It annoys me when celebrities get freebies, especially as they can afford to buy them. But, KEF do sponsor him in the British Touring Car Championship (and have done for a while), and there's usually a bit of 'tit for tat' in those situations, if you know what I mean.

Thom York of Radiohead also owns a pair (which I know he bought).

Well thats got to be a pretty good endorsement...for the product and you ;)
 
It annoys me when celebrities get freebies, especially as they can afford to buy them. But, KEF do sponsor him in the British Touring Car Championship (and have done for a while), and there's usually a bit of 'tit for tat' in those situations, if you know what I mean.

Thom York of Radiohead also owns a pair (which I know he bought).

He didn't buy them through your store by chance? The best band in the world IMHO.
 

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