I love them. After about 9 months, I got a crackling in the left speaker which started after about 10 minutes and progressed until the speaker shut down. Once my dealer could get them to pay attention, KEF fixed the problem without a question (although I had to pay shipment one way). Turned out, this was a known problem.
now, if only I could get the (Windows) firmware updater to work (to 3.0.0). I don’t like to upgrade firmware for no reason, but they’ve upgraded the KEF app on iOS so that it fails if the firmware isn’t v 3. So, if I want to adjust sound, I’m stuck upgrading the firmware.
Fabulous hardware. Lousy software.
I do own a pair in the beautiful Nocturne version in my dining. I got them for Christmas last year. Overall problem free I have to say. The software id a bit clumsy but I use Roon so besides the software updates nothing to do with that. Two or three times during the year I had the problem that the songs were not playing. Reconnecting the ethernet cable solved that immediately.
Great speakers. A lot of bang for the buck which is even more true with the LSX I guess.
My LS50W just died. It’s very similar to what @David_Burdett and @bartman described.
There was a loud cracking sound, the power circuit breaker was tripped. When I switched it back on the speakers were dead. At least the right speaker. I can’t tell if the left speaker works or not.
The problem is that these aren’t sold in my country. I bought them used from someone who bought them used from a private seller abroad. We do have KEF’s here but no one imports the Wireless…
I wonder if this repair can be made by someone other than KEF themselves. The words “main board” make it sound like it’s not some common electric component that can be fixed by just anyone… FML
Once the ELAC Navis are in market, I’d be really interested to A/B them with the LS50W. Sure they will both be available from some of the same retailers, mainly Best Buy. I’m seriously considering a pair of the ELAC Navis F51 floorstanders. The initial reviews have been, as expected, overwhelmingly positive.
your can try contact the first person who bought the LS50W so you could arrange shipping it to the original address. KEF said “warranty applies to the first purchaser only”, and unfortunately only valid in the country of purchase, so you must paying the shipping back twice.
that said. try fixing the problem yourself, maybe unplug and replug the cables as you check them.
restart the system after and trying update the firmware maybe they will respond as new again.
I know that KEF LS50 Wireless are very popular speakers that’s why we could see many reviewers.
but what’s interests me is that there isn’t any reviewers about Dynaudio for example.
so as we can see with KEF maybe because they got high attention.
but well, you could tell me that Dynaudio does not have any crack or static issues?
can you be insure that the new upcoming ELAC Argo B51 wireless would not have any issues with hardware?
I tried to find owners review on the net about Dynaudio there are only few talks.
Like @Henry_McLeod said, there’s no power going into the speakers. No lights whatsoever. So a restart or firmware upgrade is not feasible. I desperately tried switching the power cord, of course that didn’t help.
I knew that these problems existed and I took a chance and got them anyway even when there’s no proper KEF dealership here, and now I’m screwed (frigging 3 months after I bought them).
I’m going to try and get them to a local stereo equipment repair guy, but since in these cases the entire motherboard needs replacing I’m assuming that they won’t be able to fix them…
asking my self if there is any connection to the manufacturing date and reliable of the speakers, although I don’t think KEF change anything or recall the speakers…
that said, things could happens when there are mass production, KEF been sold thousands of LS50W,
if there was more than 200 owners that reports for a problems on hardware things were difference, but we can assume that from more than ten thousands only 20-30 were defects so KEF wouldn’t call for recall reproduction.
It would be perfectly good engineering practice for KEF to have made some small revisions to the components and/or design on the speakers, based on reported failures from the field. It is quite possible that a brand new pair of LW50W speakers would have “v 1.2” written on the circuit board, compared to “v1.0” on the original versions. The best car to buy (in terms of reliability) is usually the last one off the production line before the new model comes out as by then , they have sorted out all the common failures and gremlins over the life of that model.
Unless there was a safety issue, a company would not be under any obligation to issue a recall notice. They just fix the ones that break and perhaps mindful of the fact that they have had a few go pop, show flexibility over warranty (as company reputation is hard to build and easily destroyed). I had a Canton soundbar overheat and go pop when it was 2 months over the 2 year warranty and the UK distributor send me a brand new (newer model) replacement immediately. The web showed indicated that mine was not the only unit to have this problem so it was obviously a “known issue”.
It’s hard to determine if these reports of failures from the Roon community are statistically significant or not. It’s the people who experience problems who are generally motivated to report their experiences on the internet (I would imagine “LS50W working perfectly” comes low on googles list of searches). You’d have to know someone who works at a main distributor who knows what the return rates in order to get an accurate sense of failure rates but then you’d have to decide what to compare this data with. Obviously, a unit like this is always going to be less reliable than a pair of passive speakers so how does it compare to other amps and/or dacs? I have no idea.
@ [Chikolad] I’d have thought that a competent repair shop should be able to determine if it’s the PSU or main circuit board that have failed and then look to order replacement parts from your nearest KEF distributor. I would hope that these speakers are considered expensive enough units for KEF to show interest in helping to get them fixed and not simply though of as “disposable goods”. Otherwise, this would make me think hard before considering a pair myself in the future.
So if I understand from what you’re saying is that, it would be smart if a recent purchaser decide to buy a pair of LS50W after January 2019, two years after the first date of fabrication, its most certain that he would not have any hardware issues or problems failures?
Thanks @John_Mason.
I’m indeed going to try a repair shop first. My educated guess is that it will be the circuit board, as was the case with others who experienced the same symptoms as I have.
I really hope that KEF will be willing to send replacement parts to be installed by a local shop, rather than have me ship the speakers to an abroad dealership, incurring major cost.
I have the email address of the UK KEF support. I think I’ll wait till after the repair shop examines the speakers to email them.
There’s an explanation what caused this to happen, is it would have happened anyway by a hardware production failure or maybe because you made it happen somehow?
