I’m pretty sure you’re going to like streaming direct to the KEFs. The main benefit for me is the synchronised volume control. I can’t really comment on any SQ improvements as my speakers were replaced with a brand new pair recently and they are still breaking in.
These roon folks have created a great user experience! I updated my Kef firmware (using an old mac) with zero issues. Followed the instructions and the update was smooth.
I then built a NUC7i3 based roon server using the ROCK distro. Took all of 3 hours from unpacking the HW to having a running roon instance. The roon team has done a great job of creating step by step instructions.
Have been using this over the weekend and so far very happy with the setup. Just great to be able to manage the entire music collection (Itunes + TIDAL) from an iPad.
Thanks roon team for making this happen!
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I love that this integration is done. I like it so much that I put my ultraRendu/LPS-1 combo up for sale this morning. Don’t need it anymore. 
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Thats pretty great 
Wow! My Auralic-rig is definitely going up for sale! And some of the money i get, is being used on a lifelong Roon-account!
Roon picked up my LS50W`s without any delay, and I was able to play 24bit/192kHz files wirelessly within seconds.
I have been playing all night now, and haven’t experienced one little hiccup.
Even gapeless albums like Pink Floyd - The Wall is played gapeless, as it should.
It may be pseudo acoustics playing tricks on me, but the soundstage seems wider than with my Auralic rig. The dynamics sounds more punchy too.
All in all - I love this upgrade.
Whats next? MQA support?
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Earlier in the year, KEF had said that MQA support was coming but there’s been nothing since. I question whether we will ever see that in the LS50W firmware …
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Congratulations ! Good decision. I kinda did something similar some time ago
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I just did the exact same thing. I am down from a streaming/transport, DAC, integrated, lots of expensive cables, and giant speakers, to an Ethernet connection and two small beautiful incredible-sounding speakers.
Used the $ from some initial equipment sales to fund a lifetime Roon sub. Roon is extremely cool on it’s own for sure, but coupled with the KEFs, it’s a knock-out combo I’d heartily recommend to anyone spending under 50k for a system.
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Hi All
I’ve been using Roon Rock for a few weeks now initially on a j1900 atom (Mock) just to get a feel of the software and have a taste of what it does.
Very impressed which made the purchase of a Gen 6 I3 NUC easier to commit funds to. I had mine from Ebay which arrived with SSD and Ram pre-installed for a pretty low price. I have around 800 Flac Lossless files so the i3 seemed like a good choice and works very well indeed.
I was previously using a SMS200 as Roon end point which worked well and sounds good but to my ears Roon network connected directly to my LS50 sounds a little better. It’s a little more dense and focused to my ears so the SMS is going to do secondary system duties from now on.
To my mind Roon is a must have for the LS50 and creates the sort of user experience that makes the speakers a pleasure to use (unlike the Kef App).
My Roon tryout runs out on my birthday 
so it’s going to be happy birthdays for some time to come for me.
A big thanks to all of the great contributions on the wireless thread and a huge thanks to Roon for bringing the Kef’s into the fold.
The Roon interface is just glorious.
Great work guys.
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Kef should also implement Airplay 2. It’s done in software so you would think it could be done.
I want to get these so much, but they don’t sell them here in Israel 
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Hi John!
Please let me know your thoughts on the audio difference noticed if any when you go direct and remove the lps-1 and microrendu from your Kef LS 50W’s. I am going to wait until I get some feedback from trusted sources like you, before I do the upgrade.
Thanks in advance,
Lee
Why? If you don’t like the results from using Ethernet you can back to the Microrendu and LPS1.
Lee I can detect no real SQ difference from using the ultraRendu vs the native LS50W implementation. If I had to strain to hear a difference I might say that the native implementation is actually a little more airy and a bit more deep. Hard to compare. I specifically did not make a head to head comparison since I was determined to the sell off the ultraRendu once I was happy that the native implementation to the LS50W worked. I am extremely satisfied with the set up now.
Hey John,
I made the upgrade today. Had a bit of difficulty at first. Contacted KEF and they told me it wouldn’t work with Roon yet. It
upgraded on the 3rd try and works perfectly. I guess my microrendu, LPS-1, and Cabledyne silver USB will be up for sale!
Thanks again.
Lee
I am going to try an allo USBridge into the LS50W’s, and compare vs ethernet and vs my SMS-200 stack (which is currently used elsewhere).
The direct Roon Integration is missing really one important thing - it’s not RAAT so I can’t include it in a group/zone with other endpoints and do multi-room playback. For that you still need a USB endpoint. Not sure a heavy duty and costly USB setup a la SMS or mRendu is worth it, but if a small/cheap box like the USBridge has similar SQ to ethernet then I might leave that there to improve functionality.
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Glad you got it all working. Strange that KEF told you that the LS50W did not work with Ron yet. Sounds like they really need to get their act together over there.
That first bug fix ref: low voltage detection causing a system failure looks very promising. This might resolve the ‘flashing lights’ issue that many of us have been having.
Fingers crossed this issue is now resolved for you all.