Near field listening: (mostly)- KEF LSX or Bluesound Powernode 2i + B&W 606?

Setting aside the price difference … KEF LSX or Powernode 2i + b&w 606?

Use cases:

Home office

Near field listening (mainly but not exclusively)

Low to medium volume levels (but I like a full meaty sound with details at all ranges)

Jazz, folk, rock

Roon + Tidal exclusively, no need for phono, or CD, etc. Ethernet home network.

Like the idea of small (LSX) but worried about lack of a full sound. My big setup in the living room is Cambridge Audio CXA81 + CXN v2 + Linn Ninka floorstanders. Love the detail and full sound even at low volume.

Thanks!!!

For near field listening you shouldn’t need to worry about fullness of sound. And the uni Q drivers Kef employ will be more likely to give a coherent near field experience.

I have the the kef lsx in my family room to double for tv sound and the kef ls50w in another room for more focused listening. I can’t compare to your other set up and never heard the b&ws but I would say the ls50w are “meatier” . With that said, I enjoy both Kefs the same. I’m new to Roon and hifi only a couple of months but I would imagine the best and probably only way you would know is by testing the lsx yourself in your own space. As far as ease of use the active kefs eliminate the need for the powernode 2i and work flawlessly for me as a roon endpoint. I love the modern look of both kefs which was just as important to me for them to fit my decor. There was a you tube comparison of the 606 to the passive kef ls50 and the reviewer rated the kef better in all categories except the 606s sounded “deeper” .


Let me know if this helps.
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Interestingly my LSX’s will be delivered tomorrow. They will be primarily for the Home office (plus the occasional movie with a sub-woofer) and our musical interests are similar.
I’ll let you have my initial impressions in a day or three.
I hope they will perform well in the near field, my main soundstage is going to cause a long acclimatisation.

Wow you can say that again! Let me know what you think of the LSX’s. Will you have them on a workdesk/tabletop? Or bookshelves?

Great. I hope you like them. It’ll be good to get your feed back since the kef lsxs have been a new purchase for me as well and I have zero experience in comparing them first hand to anything else but my ls50w. I’m hoping you’ll get a fuller sound to your liking in a better closed sound space like an office compared to my open family room set up. I will warn you the kef streaming app is like Fisher Price toy compared to using Roon but does allow to access tidal without Roon if you just want to have tidal playing on it’s own. I subscribe to both tidal and qobuz. I thought about adding a streamer that integrates both as a stand alone and actually thought about the cambridge cxnv2 but since the active kefs have a built in DAC adding equipment just for software streaming convenience outside of roon is not a priority and may be a waste of money. I’m now trying to decide if I want to get the kef kube subwoofer or another brand to match up to the speakers so if thats in your plans I’ll await your impressions. Enjoy…

Right. They’re Roon tested not Roon ready. So I have a nuc running rock as my roon core. How would i send music to the LSXs using a roon client? Do I simply connect the LSXs to my Ethernet home network and they show up as a roon endpoint?

If you connect the lsx by ethernet they will be recognized by your core. You’re a step ahead of me because I currently have the lsx connected via wifi using my laptop connected to wifi. I’m thinking about a nucleus and a separate CD ripper vs a zen mk3 mini to eliminate usng my labtop as a core as well a way to build my library for the few cds (300) I have. I also have to figure out how to make use of my orbi mesh system to hook everything up to ethernet. In the meantime I’m enjoying the roon journey of sitting back and discovering new music

I use the LSX in my home office and I’m very happy with it. For my taste, the LSX perform well in the near field. I have a wired connection to my network and it works flawlessly with roon core on a NUC. That’s how it looks like: Showing (off) your Roon setup - description and photos

The intention is desktop mounted but wall mounting is also possible if space is required.
Working from home is causing some space issues at present…and they’ve just arrived :slight_smile:

I just received a pair of (red) LSX’s last week and I like them a lot. I use them in our home office space is very limited and Because I have my Mac situated in a corner I’ve positioned the speakers on either side of the Mac. I am also sitting about 2-3 feet away from the computer so `I was worried that I would be too close to them but I needn’t have worried. I’m amazed I can sit so close and get a great sound distribution. I got these to replace a Bose Accoustmass module which I thought was good but the LSX’s are superior.
First post be gentle with me.

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Welcome to community, we’re normally a friendly bunch but if anyone gets “over enthusiastic” the moderators are on hand :wink:

I anticipate my KEFs (Installed around an hour ago) to be in the same or similar position to yours once I get my study back from the company.
Setup took a few minutes, the app seemed a bit clunky but Roon made short work of setup & control. I really like the red model but decided, for potential resale Reasons, that black was the better option.
They’ll take a little while to get used to as my main system goes low, but there’ll be no sub with them.

Initial impressions are encouraging.

I’m about to get the LSX’s for use in my home office and have been researching a suitable sub. Did you find one that was a good match?

I added a Kube 8b to the LSX in my Home Office. Good match – adds a nice foundation without being too overpowering.

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Thanks, that’s good to hear as I was just looking at the Kube 8b and wondering if it would be a good choice.

My home office requirements ended when I left the company, unexpectedly, and retired. I sold the LSX’s as I have returned to my main system. Casual listening, for housework, is through Naim Musos which are scattered around the house.

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