LS50 MK II Does “Roon Ready” mean I could use 4 of them for forming a 4 channel setup

Audio Gear Talk KEF
1

Sorry for stepping in sideways :wink: - could you please explain to me if “Roon Ready” for the LS50 MK II means I could use 4 of them for forming a 4 channel setup - or even 4.1, if I connect a sub to the “main” speaker via its coax sub output? I think this would imply a feature of the KEF speakers making it possible to group two stereo pairs together to a 4-channel setup with a dedicated channel layout seen by Roon.

Thanks for any pointer,
–Geefes

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I guess you could, as you could make a group zone. One with and one without sub. Essentially all playing the same music at the same time.

Sadly they aren’t really Roon ready yet.

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Well, I think a group zone is not the same as a 4-channel setup because the speakers of the latter need to bear the attributes ch1…ch4, meaning FL, FR, RL, RR. This is different to the usual stereo setup…

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In that case I have no idea, haha.

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The .1 aspect as a discreet channel - definitely not out of the sub out of LS50WII (the sub output is essentially the same as setting a crossover in an AVR, so only doing the routing of bass from the main channels to the sub, as opposed to doing that AND the LFE channel).

In terms of 4.0 - I’m not actually sure, it’s not something I’ve tried because

a) LS50WII is designed as a two channel system
b) I have no multichannel audio personally so have never dug into the whole channel mapping thing in Roon, but from what I understand the device itself must be multichannel capable (i.e. you can’t group two sets of devices together and then map the channels as required - which would be cool, actually).

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6

Harkens back to Quadrophonic perhaps in the 60’s & 70’s. I wouldn’t hold your breath for this sort of option from Kef or Roon IMHO.

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Agree. Quadrophonic or multi channel would require that Roon could decode this and route channels through RAAT to speakers. Not very likely.

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I cannot answer your question but I can say with certainty that it is unfortunately moot.

Although KEF states that the speakers are Roon Ready in certain parts of both their advertising and even their documentation they also say, usually in a different section, that it is coming “soon”. So far that “soon” is at least 3 months old and seems to be receding over the horizon.

The LS50 Mk2’s are not Roon Ready yet. It is hard to say who is holding it up…

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