Darwin I think you may have missed my original post on this. There was instruction earlier in the thread for how to make sure the LS50W speakers stayed on for longer than the normal 60 minutes when no music was playing. What I said was that I followed the directions to insure that they stayed on all the time but have been unable to get that to work. Mine still shut off after an hour when no music is playing. I want them to stay on all the time until I decide to shut them down.
I posted the first standby settings in the LS50W firmware thread right after the firmware came out as I found them in the FAQ which was several weeks ago.
When I first set standby I did 60 minutes which worked at first then it went to it never stayed off at all but was on all the time.
I reset to to 60 minutes again and now it has been working for a few days.
However I was sure the original directions on the FAQ said to set the middle directions between wall and free space for 60 minutes and now it says set the right one for 60 minutes. Either the FAQ changed or I screwed up. I lean towards I screwed up 
So 60 minutes is working for me.
Roon through the Ethernet port would simply play no matter what source it is set to? Since Ethernet is not one of the source choices.
Also straight to Ethernet is better than USB how? Avoids converting from Ethernet to USB?
Good point re: the source setting. Maybe KEF could add an option in the app for the āWifiā source to switch between wifi or ethernet?
For me direct input via ethernet would be better than USB because Iād prefer not to have a computer or network renderer near the speakers. This makes the setup as simple as possible, one of the attractions of the LS50Ws and then I could sell my microRendu and buy a lifetime Roon subscription!
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I m sure we all love it if Roon could send through ETH (Roon readiness etc) and LS50W can receive over ETH. However USB is still a keeper for rainy days.
LS50W is an appliance, atleast for folks in my home, started to use it in whatever mode they think is good (mostly BT, they are good with SQ I guess )
Good question on why ETH is better than USB. High Level, packets are sent over ETH are checked for Read Ack on each packet sent for correctness. Each bit is XORed with next bit to generate a signature for each packet sent, or something like that? USB is direct stream no correction ?
I m not an expert. Experts can comment better
Ok Iām an IT guy so I speak ethernet but not for the purposes of audio
Wouldnāt straight through ethernet be better because using something like a Rendu there has to be a translation of some sort between ethernet and USB?
Also all these USB reclockers give me pause about USB.
Plus it would be great to play Roon through the Def ethernet port and not have to switch sources.
Speaking of that my iFi PSIDF "purifier arrives today. My Kefs are connected to my Samsung JS900 and it will be tine resting to see if this improves anything. They sure get good reviews.
Plus the Samsung JS9000 TV optical is supposed to be so ādirtyā that Sonos speakers drop packets on them.
Iām using it and music is clearer. Can hear more details in depth and width.
Sounds great 
As long as I can play Roon to the Kefs without intermediary devices Iāll be happy
Anything else is nice to have.
Got the iFi and plugged it in between my Kefās and Samsung JS9000 optical out on One Connect box. Wow. Well worth $149. More distinct and separated and even seems louder.
I tested it playing the 2L Album Nordic sound with Mozart Viloin concerto from Tidal both with and without the iFi.
Iām going to order another one for my bedroom Vanatoo Ones on Aperta stands that are fed via Apple TV airplay and optical.
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Guys, reading through this thread has made me want to buy the KEFs. My wallet will suffer 
I understand the app is a work in progressā¦ One other thing I noticed in the specs is the max SPL (1m distance) of 106dB. Do you find this is enough for a medium to large living room without running the speakers near the max? Of course I am not listening at 106 dB but if this is a reading at 1m, what happens when you sit 3 m away and want to listen to say up to 85db with some headroom?
For comparison, the Dynaudio X14a are rated at 116 dB
Just FYI - my room size 16x18. I sit around 14ā from LS50Ws. I donāt record in dB, but I m like reasonable low-mid when I owned Devialet. I think itās about same volume level for LS50W. These sometimes feel enormous.
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192KHz SPDIF Works on the LS50W
Quite a few folks have been bemoaning that the LS50W only supports 96KHz SPDIF. Alhough the spec says 96kHz Iām finding that 192kHz SPDIF works very well - see the screenshot below. More specifically Iām using:
- A Raspberry Pi 2 connected to the Roon Core using a PowerLine Ethernet connection, with
- A Hi-Fiberry Digi+ Pro board. The power goes straight to the Digi+ board - search for ādigi+ pro power separatelyā to find out how. Tests have shown that this improves the sound by avoiding noisy power circuits in the Raspberry Pi, and
- A 5V iFi iPower power supply to drive it, as well as ā¦
- An Audioquest Evergreen SPDIF cable to connect the Digi+ pro board to the KEFs - although I guess any good quality cable would do.
Iām familiar with electronics so I built it myself in less than a day.
This has been working for over 6 months with no problems and the sound quality is very good. I canāt really tell any difference in the sound quality from playing the files through the Raspberry Pi/Digi+ Pro from the KEFLS50W playing the same music directly using UPNP Android app.
I think of this as a āpoor manāsā microrendu, but it will do for me until the LS50Wās become Roon Ready.
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Many SPDIF and Optical interfaces can actually do 192/24. However, achieving it and having it be stable depends on all the pieces in the chain being able to handle it, the cable, the signal originator, etc etc. I once talked to a NAD tech about it, and he told me off the record, that while the NADās optical interface can handle 24/192; they donāt officially support it because they do not want to handle the tech support issues that arise from users whose rest of the chain canāt handle it. So, he told me to just try it and see if worked. I did, it did, and I still have it setup that way today.
Thanks for this. I just changed the DSP for my ultraRendu to 24/192 via USB and fed it to my LS50W speakers and it plays fine. Works for me.
Edit: I just checked the specs and it is supposed to do 24/192 via the USB input so I am not doing anything crazy here. Oh well.
So this is interesting.
Talks about using it with the Kefās. This will also allow the first MQA unfold.
Iāve wondered why Roon doesnāt have UPNP built inā¦perhaps thats how they plan to make it work with the Kefās?
The article you linked to contains many of the reasons why Roon does not support UPnP.
Like what?
I am about to order the KEFs ā¦ and will wait patiently for Roon integration. In the meantime, a bridge will do just fine
On a related issue about connectivity options. Do you find that the available inputs are enough? Basically we have one usb and one optical port (discounting the analogue input). Most high end streamers etc use coaxialā¦ should I worry?
Wellā¦ Thereās this:
the issue with UPnP/DLNA is the loose definition of the standard, and thus of the implementations, that leads to compatibility issues
And this:
UPnP devices donāt return maximum sample-rate compatibility information
And even this:
This decentralised free-for-all means quality varies from one UPnP-based audio streaming implementation to the next
Thereās more to the UPNP story than is in the article, but the above goes a good part of the way explaining why it is a not a great idea to try to support a standard-that-is-not while aiming for good user experience.
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