My experience has been great, as a new owner of LS50iis working through some typical and atypical setting-up issues Support has been very responsive on this site as well as directly thru KEF customer support. No complaints so far.
Dark Theme (and Reset Home Screen, actually) is missing the (coming soon) tag. Should read (coming soon) just like, for example, the Normal Mode EQ section does. That will be amended.
On the rest, would you mind PMing me some more details? Iâm sat about 15 metres away from our UI/UX team in Hong Kong, theyâd like to know a bit more (we canât see the customer service side of things because of GDPR).
This morning I found a good interview on Audiophile Style with members of the Room Team.
My particular interest was the section starting at about the 38 minute mark regarding âRoon Readyâ.
It gave me a lot more sympathy for the Roon Team and a lot less for KEF. Roon Ready is a very steep slope for a manufacturer to climb in order to meet some very exacting quality and compatibility standards.
KEF has taken on an ambitious task and really should edit their sales literature and product documentation to give prospective buyers a realistic view of what âComing Soonâ might mean âŚand also the possibility that it might not come at all or possibly even require a product change.
I am enjoying the sound quality from my LS50Mk2âs but if I could do over again I think that I would delay my purchase until certification was complete. I might even have chosen another product altogether.
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I wouldnât be too surprised if at some point new LSIIâs would be sold as RoonReady (without âcoming soonâ) while we first investors in the LS50 Wireless IIs would have to bring back our speakers to the dealer for a motherboard-swap.
My last hope for âRoonReadyâ is that Roon will bring an update in the coming 4 to 8 weeks and at the same point KEF updates the App and the Firmware of the Speakers and all is done and happy.
But if we see a Roon-update without hearing or seeing anything from KEF regarding a RoonReady update, then a Hardware-update might be necessary at some point.
On another Note: Why does KEF not explicitly mentioning âAmazon Music HDâ in there Marketing-Material and Documentation for the LSIIâs? Only âAmazon Musicâ. Arenât they allowed or does âHDâ not work or what? I donât get it.
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âBut if we see a Roon-update without hearing or seeing anything from KEF regarding a RoonReady update, then a Hardware-update might be necessary at some point.â
I had that same thought 
I called my sales source today and asked them to contact their KEF rep to see if they could get an update.
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Keep the lies of Kef alive to warn others not to make the same mistake as some of us.
Can you shed some more light on the âcoming soonâ issue? Or is that too much to ask.
I like the series for my entertainment area so Iâm still interested in upgrading my gen 1s. Airplay 2 / Roon are my essential upgrades so Iâm glad that this thread is here to remind me to wait until the functionality is real.
I wouldnât expect otherwise but at least it is good to see that folks are overall happy with the sound. I hope you early adopters get Roon functionally soon without any hardware swap hassles.
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If KEF didnât choose internals what could accommodate the Roon software bits then they had no business including Roon Ready as a [coming soon] feature. Theyâve already had experience with a certain level of integration in previous products and itâs not like the published requirements from Roon are a moving target (or are they?). I have to believe this is strictly a software integration hurdle to overcome. If a hardware hurdle also exists, then Iâll be officially up. set.
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Not sure if KEF is aware of this but Audiophile Style had done an article on the fact that Amazon Music HD is still lossy and not lossless. Not sure if that is why. Some can argue the same for MQA.
I donât think this is the reason. Amazon is a biggie, and HD is what the KEFâs all about, so Marketingwise it should be a given that KEF uses the Label âAmazonMusic HDâ instead of only âAmazon Musicâ. Maybe KEF only wants to promote TIDAL/Qobuz/Deezer for Highres. Something along those lines I guess or they just have included it because it was part of the App which might be a outside developed customised shell used as Basis for the connect app which might be used for other Hardware manufacturers as well.
As for the findings of Audiophile Style: I donât give much of these as long as there are not 2 or 3 more Sources who make reproducible Measurements to confirm or deny these. Even then: For me AmazonMusic HD sounds damn good and sound wise I canât find any meaningful differences comparing them to TIDAL or QOBUZ. That, and the bigger catalogue of amazon, is all that counts for me. All else is just wasted time.
All the Music that means the most to me I buy or own as HD- or Highres Files.
Having read the article, Iâm a bit confused. Their conclusion is
âThe bottom line is twofold. First, itâs great that Amazon Music HD can be streamed to a HiFi system losslessly in high resolution. Amazonâs own applications are incapable of this, but fortunately the indispensable Bluesound Node 2i handles it with ease.â
That is not the same as the headlineâŚ
Iâm from the Netherlands and I got a very rare response to a question from Kef through the Kef Connect app: (December 4th, 2020)
Same standard response I received from the Hong Kong team months ago. My local KEF dealer is indicating an April release via a hardware upgrade. But who knows now?
Thatâs what I figured. A BS response to say nothing.
So, software upgrade, February, now you mention a few months later. And hardware upgrade. Maybe we should get ready for a class-action lawsuit. 
AirPlay 2 and Roon RAAT technology is also important to me with my Gen 1âs, so a little over a year ago I bought a Node 2i which I use as a transport via Toslink to the KEFs.
It â â â â â â me off that I had to buy another piece of gear, but now a year later I donât regret it as it works very well.
The only downside is being limited to 24/96 max sample rates (due to optical connection) and no full MQA unfold, but I can live with this vs. buying another set of Gen 2âs and being frustrated that KEF does not deliver what they promise.
For the basic user on their pc/mac using Amazonâs streaming app wonât get bit perfect playback. For example, your DAC, if it has a display will say itâs streaming 24/96 but itâs only streaming 16/44. For most itâs not a big deal. But then why pay the extra money if the app and your computer canât work together to stream the proper resolution.
The Bluesound Node 2i was one of the few devices that can stream bit perfect.
Boy. Do I ever hope that is not true. Did you mean to type âsoftware upgrade.â
How could they possibly sell speakers knowing that the user would need to send the them back in for the upgrade when they had advertised them as Roon Ready and Coming Soon?
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If a hardware upgrade ends up being the answer, then none of the scenarios wherein thatâs the solution are good.
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They didnât actually design the LS50W2 with Roon Ready in mind, either because there was a fundamental lack of understanding the requirements, OR that they did understand the requirement and made bad design choices and missed the mark.
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They did know full well that their design didnât meet Roon Ready requirements and that theyâd have to provide that day one feature after the fact with hardware.
IF a hardware solution is going to be required then I donât see any scenario where that wonât requiring shipping them back for a retrofit or perhaps shipping out some new accessory which solves the problem. Thatâs a costly endeavor for someone and Iâll be shocked if some or all of that cost isnât passed to us.
Were I to bet, I have to think that a hardware âsolutionâ to the Roon Ready feature canât be where this ends up. My money is on firmware. Hope Iâm rightâŚ
Looking back through the announcements in September here is my theory of how it unfolded.
As KEF gets the speaker ready they see that other manufacturers have successfully released devices with uncertified versions of Roon Ready. They proceed with uncertified as the minimum goal to clear for their initial roon functionality and accomplish their mission. During their development they figure they would have time later on to achieve full certification after release if they chose to do so.
Roon sets out to update the certification rules to prevent manufacturers from releasing half baked implementations. In early September they announce that after the 21st of the month new uncertified devices will no longer be able to be added.
On the 22nd of the month KEF unveils the new speakers to the world. Initial company marketing and media impressions still mention Roon Ready (uncertified) functionality because they were written before the program change.
Flash forward to the present and the initial goal of releasing with uncertified has bitten KEF as there are software/hardware challenges (???) that they might not have planned to address until some other time if ever.
This is pure speculation based on the timeline of announcements back in September, thanks for reading my novel.
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