I got my LS50 W speakers as soon as they were available in the USA. Moved up from the Audioengine A5 Plus speakers and the sound was in another league. WOW!!! I play music every day on my home stereo and here on my computer. Software was very difficult to ge to work properly until one of the updates and the new controller seemed to allow me to actually connect them thru bluetooth. Once that app worked and I could setup the DSP stuff it blew my mind how amazing they sound with my HSU sub. About a month ago I got the scratchy distorted thing happening. After contacting KEF they asked me to send them back for repair. I was so bummed out but excited to find out that KEF was going to get my speakers repaired at no charge well out of Warranty. Great customer service for sure. Having to pay for boxing the speakers and sending from California and insurance cost me $200 - YIKES!!! I will save the box they send the speakers back to me in. Hoping to get them back in a couple of weeks and I will update when i get them back and dialed in again. Listening to my Audioengine backups for now - and they are good but don’t compare with the LS50 Ws
Got this reply from KEF service yesterday – Seems like they are on top of my speakers being repaired very quickly. I really miss them as they definitely sound so much better than the Audio Engine A5+ - I seriously cant stand listening to the A5s now.
Hi David,
We have determined that the main boards on your speakers will need to be replaced. We should have the repair completed at some point next week.
Thank you,
Repair Depot Supervisor
I got tracking number from KEF and hope to have my LS50ws back by the end of this week - they have been emailing me throughout the repair process.Hoping they are completely fixed. I can’t complain about the great customer service they have extended to me so far. - I’ll follow up once I get them back and setup in my office system again.
I also have left speaker problem, after 30min of playing start to make cracking noise.
Tried to contact to KEF they response is slower than dead turtle, i recive their response once in a month, looks like they dont want to reply.
Also warrany ended this summer. How do you think these speakers is possible to repair?
Keep trying. They repaired mine after the warranty explored. No issues since the repair.
Since last friday, proud owner of a pair Kef LS50 W and a Arendal Sub 1. Fantastic sound!
Is the DAC inside the LS50 W an upsampling DAC?
All inputs get translated into 192kHz/24 bit. So depends on what you mean by “upsampling”…
I’m one month into owning LS50W and no issues yet. If they fail, I really hope it’s within the warranty window.
Hello,
Please I have my new house under construction 400m2
I need buy several wireless speakers
in my dedicated home theater and hi-fi rooms I have very high-end equipment.
and I have a living room of 45m2 I want to put the kef ls50 wireless and in the other rooms and cooking bluesound pulse 2i
I ask is what you advise me bought the 50 wireless and all the problems mentioned in this subject have disappeared since the first series of manufacture and new models are repaired with new motherboards and failures no longer exist or well the defects always persisted even have the last series of manufacture and the best to steer safe of other brands and to avoid the ls50 wireless
Thank you
As far as I am aware the latest revision of the LS50W speakers has updated electronics to resolve some of the issues of the earlier versions.
On thing I would say in general though, if you are having your house built from scratch do not use wireless for end points. Put Ethernet cabling throughout during the construction and avoid wireless as much as possible. It will only improve your experience with both audio and video.
Also remember that you cannot “group” the LS50W with any other Roon groups by themselves. They are not fully RAAT compatible, you would need to hook them up to a RAAT compatible endpoint to be able to group them.
Thank you for your answers
All my smartphone and tablet it’s android
Please ls50w can use in wireless " wifi " not bluetooth music service like deezer Spotify tidal qobuz and many other or it’s limited in store app
Kef support again this speakers with the last update content new system or application
Or this model it’s old and kef stopped to make new option and all work now for lsx
Yes, you can use LS50W in wi-fi mode with Roon. If you want to stream 192/24 to them from Roon, you need a good wi-fi connection.
I use mine wirelessly with no issues.
The LS50W are still made and fully supported by KEF to my knowledge. They have not been discontinued. The LSX is a different model of speaker entirely.
Bought a speaker from them in 2016, i rarely every play music but started playing about 20 minutes a day past few months and now Right speaker doesnt work. They told me they no longer carry that speaker and want me to pay 600 US to upgrade!!
I think that we should start a class action suit. If they had told me that they were not going to support the speaker I wouldn’t have purchased it…
I don’t use roon but i’ll contribute to this thread.
My LS50W’s were bought On august of this year. The manufacturing date on the box said June 2018 so they’re supposed to be one of the newer revised models. I’ve been keeping a log of all the issues i have had for the last 4 months. They were bought from the EU and using them in Pakistan so I have 2 years warranty. Anyway here are all the issues i have had.
LS50w problem log:
Common issue; Speaker makes a quiet static sound wfter turning off the spkr with the power button followed by a Tick sound on the left spkr. Happens less often during winter. Could be an issue with the “heat shield” inside the speaker.
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19 sep 2019 (around 1:10pm)// source + bluetooth light blinking on
right speaker after left speaker stopped playing for a few seconds
while playing at around 60/65db volume. Issue fixed after a few seconds. -
30 oct 2019 (starting around 10 pm)// Each time when speaker was turned on via remote, speaker made a pop sound. Has happend twice in succession but not the third time. Could reoccur again. Speaker was connected to pc while pc was on.
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8 nov 2019 (at 6:44 AM)// Listening at low- medium volumes, left speaker made a click sound and turned offf or a brief moment (2 seconds) before making a click noise and turning on again. Right speaker was still functioncal and playing during this time. Was not able to look at the touch panel during this brief time.
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3 Dec 2019(at 8;28am)// Left speaker made a tick sound and turned off briefly(for 2 seconds) and ON again while watching a youtube video at low volume. No status change was noticed on the touch panel on the right speaker during that period.
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3 DEC 2019(at 12:56pm0// left spkr DC’d again for 2-3 seconds while watching videos at whisper volume. Three middle lights on right spkr started blinking during that time. Speaker has been switched to never power off automatically to see if the issue happens again. (That’s 2 disconnections in 1 day).
So in short all the issues i have had been sort of minor in nature; brief disconnected left speaker, some kind of static when powering them off/on and pop sounds when powering on the speaker. All of these issues could be signs of speaker dying on me in the future. I use these in nearfield so I’m more susceptible to minor pops and cracks from them. Anyway that is my report.
One of the click sounds you hear in the left speaker is a Relay. You should hear it slightly before hearing the ‘welcome’ tune when turning on, and slightly after hearing the ‘goodbye’ tune turning off.
Other pops from the actual speaker driver itself are not normal. I’ve had one very occasionally.
If your left speaker clicks ‘the relay sound’ and goes off and comes back on again while the right speaker is powered, it might be worth double checking the Cat 6 cable connecting the two speakers?
I might be barking up the wrong tree here, but it’s worth a check.
Hi Dan I know the ticking sound is because of the relay powersupply in the left speaker and is normal, I just wanted to explain in detail exactly when my left speaker DC’d.