If this behavior occurs across multiple apps, then it would surmise this is a hardware issue. What other apps did you use to test for this behavior?
You may want to perform a factory reset of the speakers and check to make sure you’re on latest firmware to see if it helps, but if that doesn’t help then yes, I would reach out to KEF directly.
So this problem has never been recognised by KEF? I recently purchased a pair of LS50W and have the same problem streaming files over 96khz. Mine is fabricated in Jan 2019.
KEF support told me it was news to them. If you are within your return window, maybe swap them out for another pair. My second set have no trouble above 96kHz.
I’m having the same issue on two sets of LS50w. I get skipping when trying to plan 192Khz, but 96Khz plays fine. I’ve updated to latest firmware. Is there any solution to this issue?
Hi David,
I have contacted KEF and after a few emails they agreed to swap for another pair. However after swapping the new pair still doesn’t work. They are from the same fabrication date (Jan 2019). Is there something wrong with that batch that KEF didn’t aware of?
I believe there must be an issue because some can play, some cannot. I think the people that streaming high res files to the KEF are not many, that’s why KEF don’t care much. Therefore no solutions so far… 
I’m really not sure. I am only a customer and my issue was resolved after swapping. Sorry to hear. Hope you get a resolution.
Hi all,
Also impacted by this issue. Fabrication date jan 19.
Will contact Kef and keep you posted…
I have the same problem as some of you. I am unable to stream any file to the LS50W that exceeds 96/24. When I do I get crazy jitter and some do not play any sound. I recently contacted KEF product support and after a few days of in home trouble shooting and emails they contacted me directly. The tech service manager for Canada phoned my cell directly and offered to pay for shipping my LS50w’s to them and also offered to ship me out a replacement pair. All of this on their dime. By the sounds of it KEF wants to get a hold of as many faulty units as possible to try and isolate the defective part / problem to prevent other units making it out into the market. The tech manager emphasized that I was the 3rd person that he knows of to bring this to their attention. You could very well be the 4th person with this problem. Overall, I am disappointed my first set didn’t work but I am absolutely blown away by the product support I received from KEF regarding this issue. It looks like they are taking the problem very seriously. If you are experiencing something similar I would highly recommend talking to KEF product support. The more customers they hear from the better equipped they will be to solve the problem.
Sadly, I am also having Roon problems with the Kef LS50W speaker/amplifier system. Since I acquired my LS50W speakers form someone who had exchanged his twice and sorely wanted to remove them from his life (they were new in sealed box), I probably have no warranty.
I have 8 zones in my home, a Roon Rock server and a Tidal subscription. There are a myriad of Roon endpoints (Ropiee, Squeezeboxes with 192 patch and all sorts of DACs. With exception of LS50W, all work perfectly with Roon.
I have the same issue as described above, seems to be inherent to the LS50W, when it encounters any of my 192 files on the Rock, it glitches out and makes those horrible sounds.
This occurs over wifi, Cat 6 or whatever. At one point, I had the router/modem/Rock right beside the LS50W’s and tried every combination, so wifi or cabling is definitely not the issue, seems bizarre to me that people indicate that resolved their issue, as the scrambled sound indicates a DAC resolution issue to me. Also as a technically oriented person, in the soldering iron way, with both network and audio electronics skills, I think from my situation and from reading above, it seems to me that there is an inherent design issue with the Kefs in regards to Roon compatibility.
My solution to date, has been, and more panic driven if the volume is fairly loud, to dive through the air for the control device before my ears are pierced and skip to a lower resolution version of the music or skip forward if it is in random play!
Another long term solution would be to remove the 192 files from the server, which would be a pain, as there are a lot of them and some are my only versions. And that would not resolve the second major defect of the LS50W.
The second issue is that the LS50W, for reasons unknown to me, either Roon or Kef, will not allow them to synchronize with any of the dogs breakfast of other Room endpoints in my home. This is really unfortunate, when on the rare occasion there is a larger gathering and it would be nice if the background music was playing through the whole home. So, on those occasions, I just don’t turn on the Kef’s, even though they are located in a main room.
Other than basic Roon incompatibility, the LS50W have been a fantastic sounding and convenient speaker/audio system. I recently coupled them with a new Kef Kube 12” subwoofer and that has improved the experience somewhat too, though not as much as expected, the LS50W still kick out reasonable bass punch on their own. Sound is very nice, and the technology/concept is probably the future of home audio. I just do not use them for Roon, they are connected to my TV at this point and sound great in that application, though being relegated to sound bar duty was probably not the primary intended use by their designers…
As far as I can remember the LS50W can’t be grouped together with any other zones besides itself or other KEF LS50W’s. I’m fortunate that I’ve had no issues with my LS50W’s. I only run them with Ethernet connections and make sure that I have the latest updates.
Seems to be a lot of members who’ve had troubles with these speakers.
I have the same here. No files above 96Khz play without distortion.
I bought my speakers in July 2018. They played all tracks, including 192Khz. But then in July 2020 the Wifi-component in my LS50W’s broke and had to be replaced. Since then they don’t play above 96Khz.
So earlier posts were hinting on another wifi-board introduced at a certain time that does not play higher resolution files.
I will contact my dealer and Kef about this issue and will come back hopefully with useful info.
Another option (obviously again a compromise) would be to downsample for this endpoint - I do something similar when playing >= 96KHz to a Chromecast Audio puck. You can do this through the DSP settings.
My understanding was the same as @Shawn_Costello, that the LS50W doesn’t implement RAAT and therefore can’t be grouped with other endpoints. If this is important to you, I think some folk feed their LS50W with an RPi using a HAT that has SPDIF optical out - just install Ropieee on it and you’re good to go.
They are not Roon Ready and never been sold as such. Using Kefs and Roon is only possible using Kefs own protocol they never developed RAAT or used Roons SDK. So like other Roon Tested products can only be grouped with other products using the same protocol. Syncing multiple devices that use different methods just isn’t feasible in Roon nor any other product that’s why they developed RAAT.
Roon indicates Kef is a partner and the Roon/Kef link specifically list the LS50W as Roon ready. I am suggesting that this is a bit misleading…
Not so - the KEF page is listed under the Roon Tested section on the Partner page. However, these distinctions are certainly not clear, and some partner pages list both Roon Ready and Roon Tested devices, without clarifying which is which.
Thanks, these seem like two good suggestions worth trying.
Unless I am entirely focussed on it, I cannot really hear any difference between 192 and 96, so setting up a permanent down sample on that system might be fine for me and will definitely sound way better than the high decibal shrieking I get on 192 material.
My understanding is that LS50W dac cannot be bypassed, so running through 2 DACs might be interesting, I do have some spare pi’s and dacs - hats and separates, so can experiment with that too to try for synced systems feature.
Idea of the LS50W is the all inclusive minimal clutter, earned me some brownie points in this household, particularly well earned as you may have noted the plethora of spare bits I have mentioned in comment above, but I guess can snap it together on the rare occasions when the whole house audio is desired…
The LS50W Kube 12 sub is a decent set up that I have no regrets about, noticed I have entirely avoided using Roon as the source on that system for a couple of months now. Will give it another try with these.
Under the Partners matrix it clear states
KEF Streaming
Roon supports network streaming to KEF LS-50 Wireless and KEF LSX speakers.
Due to the technical details of KEF streaming these speakers are not Roon Ready, so linking multiple pairs of KEF speakers is not possible and some RAAT-specific functionality (like convenience switching or advanced Signal Path functionality) is not possible.
Yeah I agree misleading might imply intent and I doubt that, call it confusing as you suggest. I admit they partly work, but not well enough to regularly use them together in my case, I have not used Roon on them for a couple of months now.
DHusky mentioned some work arounds that sound promising. I will give them a go.
