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

I have mine set to Eth only and volume works with Roon app as expected.

I’m not giving up on Roon. I just want a device that works with it. I think V.1.8 is a big step forward granted that it has had it’s problems. Hope they will iron out in coming days.

In fairness to @Pim there has been some confusing stuff out there. I’m thinking specifically of the John Darko (JD) review that came out quite early because he had been living with a pair of LS50W ii for quite a few weeks before they were launched and he gave the definite impression that he had been using them directly with Roon, or at least that’s the impression I got because JD knows Roon very well and is fully aware of the difference between connecting via RAAT vs using Chromecast or Apple Airplay.

I’m wondering if the pre-release units JD was given/lent might have been running a version of the firmware that did advertise a RAAT endpoint on the network but prior to actual release Roon determined that the implementation was not yet complete and/or stable enough to earn Roon Ready certification so told KEF to take that functionality out of the initial release firmware until certification was achieved.

Hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer. Just speaking for myself I know that KEF is denying itself at least 1 extra sale because of the lack of Roon Ready certification because I’d have almost certainly upgraded my version 1s by now if they were officially certified as Roon Ready and I suspect I’m not the only one.

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It would be cleaner and a tad cheaper than adding a raspberry pi. I feel for 100 bucks extra the problem is solved. Not sure why so many people are holding up, or wouldn’t it provide the same functionality ?

(albeit a bit more visually messy from the back)

The main reason I switched to the Kef WII’s was the idea of having everything internally, except for my turntable. Now I’m still stuck using an RPI4 with an external DAC. (I know I can go for HAT as well, but I don’t want that)

Yes it sounds fine, but it’s not the reason why I changed to this system.

I don’t know the WII so I’m trying to understand, would the PI feed the internal DAC through USB or SPDIF ?

SPDIF, there’s no USB input on the WII’s anymore. Instead we got HDMI.

RIght, so the SPDIF won’t feel the internal DAC ?

image

So you don’t get the full potential.

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aha ! I see !

Indeed spdif is max 96kHz/24 and coax 192kHz/24 …

Mhhhh…

and the previous version had USB with up to 192kHz/ 24-bits.

Wonder why they did not keep the USB.

One can only speculate. But I would trade HDMI for USB any day. But once Roon is implemented all will be fine. Once…

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That would be spdif Toslink is max 96kHz/24 and spdif coax 192kHz/24

Both are spdif or S/PDIF (also written S-PDIF or S/P-DIF) (Sony Phillps Digital Interface) only Toslink is optical :slight_smile:

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I’ve been using spdif (or whatever other spelling one prefers) for literally decades, sometimes grumbling when something I wanted to buy that otherwise looked good didn’t have the appropriate connector, but until today I had no idea what spdif actually stood for. Thanks ogs!

Any recommendations here?

I’ll break in on this one.

Raspberry Pi 4 (2 or 4GB) running Ropieee with a Flirc case and a Topping D10S works very well.

Cables needed: USB A - USB B & a digital coaxial cable.

If you want everything in one box and just one cable I suggest Raspberry Pi 4 & a SPDIF HAT by Hifiberry or Allo.

Bigger budget:

Get a Bluesound Node 2i

But if you use a laptop or something, just the Topping D10S works great.

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Sounds like a good setup: notebook —> Topping D10S via Koax-Out —> KEF LS 50 Wireless II. Should deliver high-res music as well as sound for videoconferencing. Once the KEF is roon certified I could also use it as a standalone roon endpoint without the laptop. I would use KEF in a wired mode, since a wired router is nearby. Thanks.

I use it now, and the only thing that bothers me is that I still have to use it on the Kef’s. Sound is neutral and good.

Again this mourning about the KEF’s not being Roon ready. Read some of the earlier posts and just be patient instead of starting the same conversation over again.

I cannot speak for others but I have a vain hope that KEF will see that dragging this out may discourage potential sales to other Roon users. We seem to have no other leverage.

No one is ā€œmourningā€ here. No need to be overly dramatic. We are simply feeling misled.

BTW. I actually like my KEF’s and have a front end used via coax that may already surpass whatever KEF enables as their onboard ā€œRoon Readyā€. I personally feel that KEF has falsely advertised their product or at least prematurely released it with an unfulfilled promise.

Do you own Mark2’s?

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