When will KEF LS50 Wireless II be Roon Ready? [They are now!]

Presumably, actual RAAT implementation in this second generation model.

AJ

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That would explain why they’ve had the LS50Ws on sale recently. Cleaning out old inventory.

Actual RAAT would make them a possibility. Be nice if they implement it.

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Wow Airplay 2 & actual Roon Ready, if both are true then I might need to upgrade from my gen 1. I like that they’re keeping the sub output because it’s great for tv/movies.

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I also see an HDMI port on the back…hhmmmm
Capture

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HDMI on the master loudspeaker could be used to extract and distribute multichannel audio wirelessly to multiple slave loudspeakers. Conjecture at this point, however.

AJ

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Damn I just bought LS50s last month.

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Is the first generation KEF LS50W not roon ready?
Mine don’t show as problematic?? :thinking:

They’re Roon ready but not RAAT certified. They can’t be zoned together with other RAAT devices.

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Probably eARC

Thanks for the Info.
That is good enough for me.
When the KEFs play, they play alone anyways

AJ

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eARC it is indeed.

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Roon Ready means they integrate Roons sdk and use Roons Streaming protocol RAAT. This gives Roon more visibility as to what can be controlled and what the specs of the device are. Its the gold standard.

Roon tested means it uses a different method for Roon to play back to. They have been tested thoroughly and are guaranteed to work with Roon but cannot be grouped with other devices that don’t use the same streaming system. In the case of the Kefs it’s using Kefs own protocols which they reversed engineered. Same goes for Sonos, Airplay and Chromecast they are all Roon tested. So Kef can only be grouped with other Kefs for multiroom playback.

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On the US product page in a comparison to the Gen1 both are listed as being Roon Ready. Hopefully an oversight and Gen2 gets the full implementation rather than the workaround from Gen1/LSX.

The What Hi-Fi review is promising, this might be a no brainer upgrade for me as long as they come through with full Roon Ready.

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Spec lists a promising 32/384 via hardwired ethernet, but max to the other speaker (via cat6) is 24/192 so re-sampling is taking place before playback. Still, if the re-sampling is good it may be better to let the speaker do it than your player software. No USB input by the way, but coax SPDIF and HDMI both support 24/192.

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That 384 kHz max input sample rate via Ethernet is a red herring. Unless KEF states otherwise, no way do the internal IIR/FIR filters for digital crossover, frequency response adjustment, and time alignment operate at 384 kHz.

AJ

Yes, more likely 96kHz. KEFs site says
image
but the sample rate used for processing is (naturally) not given

So I’m confused with what that really means…Network up 384/24…then Interspeaker (wired) 192/24…?? Has a possible customer, I would obviously be buying these speakers for a stereo setup, in what scenario I’m leveraging the 384/24 resolution?? Since even if wired all is resample to 192/24…? What’s the point…? Sorry, not very versed in this “new” digital world… :slight_smile:

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They most likely mean, It can read/play a file of 384KHz/DSD256 but it will be downsampled/converted to 192KHz. Kinda misleading.