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LS50 Passive Buyers Remorse


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9 hours ago, flanders said:

Good to see you managed to sell your very new speakers! I’m guessing you’re going for the Wireless? Out of interest, have you ruled out the Elac variety? There’s the new Elac Navis which is powered and wireless.

They look like sensational designs :)

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1 hour ago, jakeyb77 said:

Looks like a lot of people currently have LS50 remorse ?

seems like that ... do we need LS50 exodus thread ?

 

but seriously... what is it causing this exodus

 

are they a bit of a passing phase... ie rite of passage ...once done move on  ?

 

do they take particular care in partnering ? setup ?

 

are they are pecuniary taste ? 

 

come on ls50 owners band together stem the exodus ! 

 

 

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3 hours ago, jakeyb77 said:

Looks like a lot of people currently have LS50 remorse ?

Both of them were previously bought from here though. One of them was bought cheaper then current advertising price! I guess you lose/gain little being 2nd, 3rd...buyer :)

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When you see what appear to be regular used Ls50 passive for sale, it is that a huge number of these have been sold out there as a major commercial success and naturally used ones will be popping up as a statistical reality than others that have not sold in such large numbers. So it is not because they are no good and remorse is eating away the very foundations of some great mass audio myth.

 

As my previous post and links state, the passives clearly peel the skin off several great speakers I had compared them with including Lenehan ML bookshelves $2.5-3k rrp, Jamo Concert 8 $3.8k rrp, Sonus Faber Minima $2.5k rrp, Mark & Danial Maximus $4k rrp and Chartwell Ls3/5 (best of the Ls3/5a) $5k eBay affecionado prices. Some pictures of these below incase you dunno what these are.

 

Summary is that a passive Ls50 beats all of the above examples in the area of overall coherence of the sound, imaging and mid band detail. As good as the other speaker examples are they feel like there are two sound signals coming from the tweeter and woofer while the Ls50 is a lot more coherent and point source. If one does not notice coherence qualities among speakers then this may be over the head and not be relevant. The other speakers may have better treble and bigger deeper bass than the Ls50 but it is still streaks ahead in that important area.

 

Obviously this depends on the type and quality of the music one listens so if you are a scratchy grunge rock music listener the Ls50 will not do and all speakers are not to everyone’s tastes either and some people are not so good at finding matching amps and setup to making the most of it etc hence the Ls50w does not appeal.

 

 

A6348D7C-7FFE-4E7D-9C13-815E613302BC.jpeg

2C6AB45B-5ED0-4290-A3FB-BCBDF55E0C1C.jpeg

D1F6E5B7-BA6A-4C84-A4B2-1E439EB40779.jpeg

C9A24F3A-E9FD-45A9-831D-CE7B8392D699.jpeg

140F6DE3-86B4-41B8-868A-BB37FD8D63ED.jpeg

Edited by Al.M
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I've just sold a pair of Kef LS50s. It was definitely not due to buyer's remorse. They are fantastic. The first small speaker that has really impressed me. (I'm sure others would too if I heard them.) There was nothing to complain about in terms of sound quality, nothing lacking at all. And I loved how they responded differently to different amps. Contrary to what I had read, they were not particularly difficult to drive. They sounded gorgeous on a 12watt Nelson-Pass designed DIY amp. The sounded very good indeed on a 35 watt AMC amp (AMC in my opinion is to today's market what NAD was decades ago – excellent value no-frills quality.)  They sounded even better on a powerful Harman Kardon HK990, and probably better still on a Yamaha AS2000. And I think I joined @Cafad as being the only other person to ever match them with a Halcro DM38, and they lit up a pretty big room. I give bonus points to a pair of speakers that keep getting better with better amplification – and more bonus points if they still sound very good with not such pricey gear. But I have no seller's remorse either – they were never going to replace my big main speakers. People buy – and sell – for different reasons. I wanted to find out what all the fuss was about. Now I know. 

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Your experience with LS50s was similar to mine. However, I was slightly underwhelmed when I heard them at a dealers audition room. He allowed me to take them home and the difference was enormous in my room.

 

I bought them immediately and was gobsmacked for 2 years, but moving over to DIY hybrid 505 mini ESLs convinced me to sell without any buyers remorse.

Edited by robmid
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11 hours ago, Al.M said:

When you see what appear to be regular used Ls50 passive for sale, it is that a huge number of these have been sold out there as a major commercial success and naturally used ones will be popping up as a statistical reality than others that have not sold in such large numbers. So it is not because they are no good and remorse is eating away the very foundations of some great mass audio myth.

 

As my previous post and links state, the passives clearly peel the skin off several great speakers I had compared them with including Lenehan ML bookshelves $2.5-3k rrp, Jamo Concert 8 $3.8k rrp, Sonus Faber Minima $2.5k rrp, Mark & Danial Maximus $4k rrp and Chartwell Ls3/5 (best of the Ls3/5a) $5k eBay affecionado prices. Some pictures of these below incase you dunno what these are.

 

Summary is that a passive Ls50 beats all of the above examples in the area of overall coherence of the sound, imaging and mid band detail. As good as the other speaker examples are they feel like there are two sound signals coming from the tweeter and woofer while the Ls50 is a lot more coherent and point source. If one does not notice coherence qualities among speakers then this may be over the head and not be relevant. The other speakers may have better treble and bigger deeper bass than the Ls50 but it is still streaks ahead in that important area.

 

Obviously this depends on the type and quality of the music one listens so if you are a scratchy grunge rock music listener the Ls50 will not do and all speakers are not to everyone’s tastes either and some people are not so good at finding matching amps and setup to making the most of it etc hence the Ls50w does not appeal.

 

 

A6348D7C-7FFE-4E7D-9C13-815E613302BC.jpeg

2C6AB45B-5ED0-4290-A3FB-BCBDF55E0C1C.jpeg

D1F6E5B7-BA6A-4C84-A4B2-1E439EB40779.jpeg

C9A24F3A-E9FD-45A9-831D-CE7B8392D699.jpeg

140F6DE3-86B4-41B8-868A-BB37FD8D63ED.jpeg

Maybe that's what has happened too when you auditioned 5 pairs of speakers you have mentioned.

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Guest jakeyb77
31 minutes ago, robmid said:

My experience with LS50s was similar to mine. 

Funny how that happens ?

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On 07/05/2019 at 12:40 PM, jakeyb77 said:

Funny how that happens ?

Whoops "My experience with LS50s was similar to mine."

 

Must have been talking to myself again, but at least I don't argue with me ?

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Righto time for an update in this saga. 

 

So after deciding on the wireless, i thought, now all I have to do is audition them.

 

Okay... first quick impressions of them... I think I liked the passives better. They sounded great and I could definitely hear more bass, but i felt the mids and highs weren't as prominent / forward as on the actives. The bass, while more of it, seemed just a tad muddy like it was leaking into the mids and highs.. Mind you this was listening from Bluetooth initially which may have contributed to the bad impression, but i also listened at another audio shop the same day using an iPhone. 

 

Then we switched to the passives with some 3k - 4k range amplifiers. Put on the same songs, and there is was again. the vocals and the depth of the vocals were amazing, they came alive and were coming out towards me. The sound stage was incredible.. there was definitely less bass but it sounded cleaner and the separation between instruments was more apparent I felt. I know the amps we used were a bit out of my budget so maybe not a fair comparison.

 

This is odd, i was fully expecting to prefer the actives. Everything i have read says the opposite of what my impressions left me with. Most people agree the actives have better sound stage, better tighter bass, more detail and almost all people who have heard both prefer the wireless version.

 

Going to go back and definitely give the actives another try in better conditions and using a turntable this time. I will try a/bing them side by side so I shall see which i prefer.

 

I didn't spend a lot of time with the wireless and i have heard that the DSP needs to be set up properly for them to sound good. So they do warrant another try because it may have been the listening conditions and I don't think i listened to the wireless enough.

 

It also might be a different story when I bring them home in a different setting. 

 

Anyway, just a quick update from someone who is trying to make his first speaker purchase.

 

 

 

Edited by Saladman
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1 minute ago, Sir Sanders Zingmore said:

I think he was referring to the grammar nazis who will pounce on the incorrect apostrophe and misuse of “there” in his sentence. 

 

Nope. He referred to their opinion in which they claimed to be correct in the supremacy policy. In regard to spelling and grammar, there is no opinion needed. It is either correct or incorrect.

 However,It is amazing that Godwin comes up so frequently on this board.

My apologies for being a smart arse mate.xD

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@saladman

ive been reading this since your forst post, you are well read in the amount of info out there for these speakers and seem pretty keen on a kef set up.

could this be limiting your chance of finding what you want? 

Obviously online reviews are great to get a shortlist of speakers together, but sounds like you may be better off keeping your options open to other speakers?

Other brands may have your answer

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Well, I'm either getting the actives or passives. I love the sound of them just choosing which one out of the two.
Adding more speaker brands to the list will just complicate it even more..

@saladman
ive been reading this since your forst post, you are well read in the amount of info out there for these speakers and seem pretty keen on a kef set up.
could this be limiting your chance of finding what you want? 
Obviously online reviews are great to get a shortlist of speakers together, but sounds like you may be better off keeping your options open to other speakers?
Other brands may have your answer
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1 minute ago, rantan said:

Nope. He referred to their opinion in which they claimed to be correct in the supremacy policy. In regard to spelling and grammar, there is no opinion needed. It is either correct or incorrect.

 However,It is amazing that Godwin comes up so frequently on this board.

My apologies for being a smart arse mate.xD

I was trying to be clever and imply that his comment was cleverly self-referential. I failed. Apologies too from me for being a smart arse :) 

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1 minute ago, Saladman said:

Well, I'm either getting the actives or passives. I love the sound of them just choosing which one out of the two.
Adding more speaker brands to the list will just complicate it even more..

It may complicate things in the short term but may end up saving you time and effort and dollars down the track. 

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