My LS50W’s have not seen any movie playback. I have a dedicated & acoustically treated home theater room but it’s used so infrequently that I’m considering selling all audio/video equipment in it and converting the room to a second family room.
Having said that, I do have a cheap 3.1 setup in our vacation home (based around a $149 Sony receiver) that serves us with Netflix & Prime duty.
Be careful with the LS50W’s if you’re going to use them for movies. I would use a sub and disable full Dynamic Range in the speaker’s settings otherwise you could damage the drivers.
Lastly, the reason I specifically chose the LS50W’s is because I’m finished with “hi-fi”.
I have a 5.1 too, but I use the same room for music and TV. My purpose is to dump all the 5.1 stuff and use only the LS50W and I will surely keep the sub only for movies. I know and I read above that a sub could serve well also with music but I think that in the real life (=no dsp on the sub) it’s very hard to tune the sub and the fronts for music.
There are some experiences of someone? It’s not a fine thing to read in the while I just ordered them.
I want to make all my listening stuff more “neat” and more cable-free that I can, that’s why I am testing the LS50W now, and I will be happy if I can remove all my HT stuff and use only those LS50W also for movies (TV->TOSLINK>LS50).
As a not native english, what do you mean exactly with: " I’m finished with “hi-fi”"?
I’m looking at this from purely a functional point of view not whether it’s someone else’s experience. No matter how good the LS50’s are they’re still bookshelf speakers. I would not want the full frequency of a movie soundtrack running through them.
I’m done with buying separates or spending more than modest sums on audio equipment for the sole purpose of listening to my music library. I view the LS50W as $1000 speakers + $1000 worth of front-end electronics (however you want to split that is up to you).
It all hit me a while ago when I found a box full of receipts for “hi-fi” gear I’d bought over the last 25+ years & started adding up the totals. Then I tried to remember (‘measure’) the musical enjoyment I got from that equipment vs the enjoyment I get from my much cheaper current setup.
When we do sell our current home & move to a much smaller space I’ll be using the KEF’s for music & will buy a sound-bar (without a sub) for TV/Netflix.
Time to simplify my life, and there’s too much other stuff to enjoy in the world vs fussing over asinine things like whether I should spend $250 on a USB cable to my DAC to “gain a little more airiness” in my music.
Yes, I’ve gone off on a tangent here & many people will disagree or simply have totally opposing opinions/experiences on the matter. I don’t care about those people.
I use the LS50W for everything (TV, movies, music) with a Sumiko S5 sub. I keep the speakers full range. Did not have any problems, but I don’t play them at insane levels.
I would be more concerned about consistent compressed loud music (poorly recorded metal??) then a movie soundtrack.
I think you really need to push them very hard to damage them, especially due to the tight integration between amplifiers and drivers (easier to put protections in place).
I find it sounds better. Played with high pass, did not like the results. I don’t want to bring the low pass filter too high, it’s around 75Hz.
Like i said, I don’t listen at very loud levels, so this way the sub just straightens the roll-off curve of the speakers.
REL recommends keeping the speakers full range with their active connection for passive speakers. My sub is pretty much a REL made by Sonus Faber.
Depends on your setup and on your room. You mention DSP. Do you mean room correction or sound tweaking?
When you use a sub you either set a crossover point to let the sub handle the frequencies below the crossover. No separate DSP necessary.
Room correction is also not much of a concern because bass is largely non directional ( as long as you don’t get any standing waves and those are easily avoided: just move the sub a few centimeters).
Answered above. My point was not to single out the LS50’s but was more about using bookshelf speakers in general when dealing with the sometimes sloppy low frequencies of a movie soundtrack. I, personally, would limit their extension & use a sub to avoid damaging them. Chalk it up to speculation on my part.
I have them and listen to lots of hard rock
Sounds pretty good to me. I don’t use a sub in my kitchen space where they are it’s a really big space but I do not at all feel they are lacking on the low end.
The DSP options are effective for sure
I did have an issue with distortion on my 14 month old speakers but they went ahead and provided brand new replacements no issue. Picking them up tomorrow…
The kef apps are bad and that’s being kind !
Once you get past that yeah they’re a great product with great sound
It’s a fair comment @ron_jeremy and would whole-heartedly agree with standard passive bookshelf speakers which could be partnered with any amplifier and could easily be destroyed by too much power and especially too much bass.
The LS50W are a bit of a different beast though.
They have amplification built in, which is matched by KEF to the drivers. Also… they have built in DSP which can monitor and take into account the frequency content of the signal that is being delivered to them.
Because of this, KEF knows exactly what the maximum power of all frequencies delivered to the drivers is.
I’ve got a pair of these and I think they are really hard, if not impossible, to blow up!
I say yes, I bought a pair and added the R400b Subwoofer. Many say that’s overkill for my 16ft by 14ft listening room (a garage, properly damped, tuned using REW, etc.). But I liked/preferred the difference the sub makes to metal.
Yes sorry , what I meant was, they did not satisfy me listening habits , and for a relatively medium sized room, I don’t think you will be happy even with 2 subs. They are however - decent sounding for a near field setup. I know they are a great value as far as being a turn key product, but it isn’t the right tool for the job, for my usages.
