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

I have been using Tidal Connect with my KEF ls50w II only because the kef is not yet Roon certified. As soon as I am able to use Roon I wii do so. But if I streamed only Tidal and had no need to access files from my network I think think I would enjoy using it long term.

I have my gen 2 speakers on the first gen stands. The top plate is exactly the same dimensions as the between the 2 speaker stands. I am not a big fan of bolting my speakers to the stands anyway so the performance stands are just fine for me.

Is there an ETA on Roon certification for LS50W2?

If there is, Roon can’t and won’t say.

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Just to add some more disappointing experience with the Roon-readiness issue:
My former LS50W Mk.1 performed perfectly, playing through Roon my library consisting of Tidal albums and Qobuz-bought FLAC files on my NAS. Until this summer my wifi-board broke down and was replaced. After this 192Khz/24 bit files did not play anymore. Sent back for repair to KEF the answer was: sorry, we have new wifi-boards and cannot repair it to the state they were. My dealer offered to switch them to the LS50W II since they stream up to 384(?)Khz. So yesterday I received my new speakers and was very disappointed. My speakers were found by Roon but everything above 96Khz is downsampled a lot! Screenshot:

Maybe Ben_Hagens has an idea? Or anyone else?

Correct me if I’m wrong but the LS50’s can receive source material up to 384K, plus various DSD formats depending on the source material and input selection. But as always converts everything to 192K if it’s a wired connection and 96K if it’s wireless.

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looks not right as the KEF speakers are seen as a Google cast device. Is that a setting in the KEF speakers if so adjust it to something like ROON and enable the KEF LS50 ROON Ready Audio device under setting on your ROON server?
I don’t own KEF speakers but Google Cast setting seems to limit signal path. Maybe changing Google Cast setting on the KEF speaker is limiting to 48kHz so might also look on speaker side setting for Google Cast?
Did you enable DSP on purpose as the only thing it seems to do is sample rate conversion? I think you might check setting in ROON player by clicking speaker symbol and then DSP. It has an option for ‘sample rate conversion’ which should normally be disabled.

The Roon speaker setting cannot be activated because the speakers are not Roon certified. Airplay and Chromecast are the only options


No, my LS50W mk1 could play wireless 192khz.
The LS50W II can stream up to 384khz. But they don’t


check my edited reply :wink:

Thanks Bart,

DSP settings are off by standard. I see in the signal path only downsampling with 192khz files. MQA and 96khz files are passed without downsampling.


I meant this ‘sample rate conversion’ setting as for some reason your ROON player is adjusting sample rate

That’s also what I meant: it is disabled, as in your screenshot.

Maybe Roon / KEF automatically reduces samplerate if wireless performance is marginal? Did you try a wired network connection or try putting the KEF master closer to your router / wireless access point? KEF advises a 5G WiFi connection.
I read this thread as a potential KEF LS Wireless II buyer :grimacing:

Wish that was the case
 I have a mesh satellite with strong signal in my living. Speaker is wired to the satellite. Also my LS50W Mk1 was connected that way without any signal problems.
This really is a strange thing. MQA 192Khz files in Roon from Tidal are passed through without downsampling. The 192Khz files on my NAS are all downsampled. Hopefully KEF-support has an idea.
Thanks for thinking with me Bart. I figure everything will be solved when the LS50W’s are Roon certified.

I hope you’re right about that but I would suspect any wireless connection between your ROON core and the KEF end point. Required bandwidth for MQA at 192kHz is comparable to CD quality i.e. 1.5Mb/s while the 192kHz files from your NAS might require up to 5 Mb/s.
It could be that if your KEF endpoint detects a non-5G network it limits it’s reported capability to lower bandwidth thus explaining the your current experience. It would also explain the downgrade after the WiFi board of your previous KEF speakers was exchanged. Hopefully KEF can report on this :+1:

It’s really not my network. It worked fine before with the LS50W Mk1. I also stream 4K television with no problems.

I came across a deal I couldn’t afford to pass up on an integrated amp and Roon endpoint so I’m going back to the LS50 Metas, I’ll be listing my LS50W2 on audiogon if anyone’s interested in a set of black ones that are a few weeks old let me know.

Joe

LS50 Wireless II is not yet Roon Ready. The original was Roon Tested, but as the platforms are so vastly different, we do not have Roon Tested carried over.

It looks like Google Cast is being used in the screenshots. Cast as a streaming tech maxes out at 24/96, and most hardware actually only supports 24/48 with Cast (either through hardware or firmware). Same would happen with any product being used through Cast (only possible difference between 48 and 96kHz downsampling). Same would also happen with any product being used in Roon via Airplay (albeit 16/44.1).

As shown and discussed earlier in this thread, LS50 Wireless II, when used with Cast in Roon, downsamples to 24/48, and we’re looking into why and how we can solve, as LS50 Wireless II supports higher sampling rates through other network sources just fine.

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I believe this has been disproven. It’s the common belief, because that’s what the Chromecast Audio hardware supported. But the cast target can advertise higher rates if it’s hardware supports it. And Roon will use it (this came up in some other thread on these forums where someone posted their signal path showing 192k via Google Cast). So when you set the flag in the descriptor that says you support hires, you can also advertise 192k as the max you accept.