Interesting.
If the KEF is Roon Ready, how come it can’t be grouped with other Roon zones? I thought that’s partly what the Roon Ready “standard” was about - control over playback without worrying about the details of each equipment. Might have miss-understood things, I’m new to Roon 
They are not ROON Ready as they can not implement RAAT due to hardware limitations.
Ah ok. Would a Pi with DAC+AMP hat plugged into an LS50 non wireless would sound anywhere near as good as the LS50W?
We are straying off topic here, but i think you’d struggle to compare those. Of course you can make a pair of ordinary LS50 sing beautifully, but i doubt you could make them sound equally good as the active ones without paying at least as much.
i run a pi with digi+ pro into my LS50W so that I can group zones. Sounds great to me… 
That’s a pretty good idea.
No.
I have owned both and while I don’t know the exact number, I do know that you will not match the sound of the LS50 Wireless with the LS50 passives + separates for anywhere near the price. I don’t usually go for audiophile hyperbole but the LS50W’s do have absolutely amazing sound quality for their price bracket.
My poor-man’s trick for multi-zone audio is to use Amazon Echo’s. Maybe not going to achieve the best SQ but for light listening – which is what I imagine “moving around the house” usually entails for me – it’s workable. When I want to listen more seriously to the KEFs I stream over the network from Tidal (KEF app) or Roon.
Have a Dot plugged into the KEFs and into small active speakers in the bedroom and an Echo in the kitchen and both bathrooms.
this is a very helpful thread…i’m about to p/u a pair this wkend…
I think i’ll ensure they’re wired to ethernet to avoid running into as few problems as possible.
have shared this thread with other kef ls50 wls owners on another site…maybe there will be more feedback given here.
Happy LS50W owner…
I have had mine since April 17.
Hardware:
iMac27 (Bootcamp Win7) . USB out to iPurifier > iUSB > USB to LS50W.
Roon remote on my iPad.
LS50W is connected to my LAN via Ethernet cable.
My Path:
Tidal > Roon > LS50 ASIO drivers. MQA “Master” files at 24/96 are passed through to the KEFs.
I upgraded the firmware once. Never needed anything further. Occasionally left channel drops and I have to turn the speakers off/on to reset. This issue may be covered by a more recent firmware upgrade. Too busy listening to upgrade again.
My small listening room has 10 acoustic panels (2" Roxul) to damp the bass boominess.
KEF setup is -5db bass and + 2db treble.
Enjoying these for many hours every day. The pinpoint soundstage and magical DSP provides the best sound system I have ever owned (50 years of tweaking stereo systems).
Okay, having had them for a few weeks now, I definitely get the “blinky lights on startup” problem; I’m 99% sure it has to do with the master speaker not sending the right power-up command to the slave speaker, because when it happens I always hear the “click” of the master amps starting up but not the second “click” a half-second later from the slave speaker. I can tell when it’s going to light-flash without even looking at the speakers due to the audio queue. It also seems infinitely more likely any time the wires got jiggled in any way.behind the speakers. I’d say it’s happened… eh… maybe 5% of the time they’ve started up. Power cycling doesn’t always solve it, but re-seating the ethernet cable usually does.
I did just see they pushed out another firmware update in mid-Nov, i’m going to see if that resolves the issue.
Can you try another cable and see if gets better?
I have had LS 50’s for 8 months with no problems. I did the update,(took several tries for me) went wired direct, Roon found it immediately AFTER restarting Roon and restarting the Kef’s. I removed the Microrendu and actually prefer it direct.
So it happened…heavy distortion like radio static from time to time, on all digital inputs the left speaker distorts heavily, sibilance is horrible. Tried reset, unplug, etc, no dice.
The sound is just fine on the analog inputs though…
I am talking to KEF service now, we’ll see how it goes…
Sorry to hear this. Unfortunately it does sound like the hardware failure issue that myself and a few others on this forum have had (and required replacement of the speakers). Fingers crossed this is not the case for you.
That’s very odd given that the analog input gets converted to 192/24 digital before being processed just like the digital inputs. And the digital inputs get upsampled to 192 first. Or so they say. What happens if you play a 192/24 file from Roon (originally at that rate or via upsampling in Roon) ???
I own LS50 Wireless and haven’t had any issues with them outside of 1 incident where the left speaker would play and the right did not. Pulling the plug and waiting for a moment sorted the right speaker back out.
Out of curiosity what is the warranty period on these?
I’ve had my LS50 Wireless since April and have not had any issues. I’ve used a few different inputs and now just use the LS50W as an endpoint.
Yes, I found that odd as well, anyway, they’re on their way back to Kef. They said they’ll send new ones.
I have had my pair of LS50 Wireless for half a year now. They are mind-blowing. I just planned to test them out, but ended up selling my much more expensive Magnepan/Class A solid state/Linn Accurate DS-rig for these little wonders.
I have invested in a REL S2 subwoofer to, and with the Roon integration, it makes the package totally amazing.
I use both bluetooth, USB, ethernet, and analog input with my Rega RP3 turntable. No problems.
I have updated the firmware several times without any problems either.
To conclude - I’m a happy camper.