KEF LS50 Meta (Pair, Titanium Grey)

Loved the look when they first came out, but it’s all about the sound! The concentric single driver design is special for instrument placement. Highs are crisp and clean and the midrange for vocals is sweet, but the bass is a little lean (we can live with that). A bit hard to drive (dips to 4ohms) and it’s certainly no rocker, but you can find them on sale for a third off sometimes which is my buy point.

Beautiful sounding and crafted speakers that exude refinement and quality. Have the ability to reveal great detail when paired with other high quality components and quality interconnects. Pair well with a warmer sounding amp. Look great on their matching KEF stands (which similarly are not cheap but beautifully crafted and high quality). Strongly recommend.

Love ‘em. The most amazing thing about these speakers is that, by design, they are both time and phase coherent. So what? Well, that means on a good recording, you can hear exactly where the vocalists and instruments are placed in three dimensions. You can even hear different voices within acquire and different instruments within an orchestra very well. They also nail the dynamics of percussion like nothing I’ve ever heard in this price range. I don’t consider Stereophile magazine to be the absolute reference, but I do put some credibility in their reviews. They include the speakers in the “restricted low frequency” section of their recommended components in “Class A,” and some of the reviewers use them as their reference speakers. That is saying a lot, considering that many of their recommended speakers cost more than the average new car today. I’ve used them with extremely good separate components by Audio Research and McIntosh, but you don’t have to have that quality of electronics for these to sound excellent. I use them with a pair of subwoofers, but I have turned the subwoofers almost all way down, and they still have extremely good bass although not at the lowest octaves. I think the mids and highs are amazing too, especially considering that they use metal drivers. I got really turned off on metal tweeters by a pair of B&W speakers I had, but these exhibit, none of the sizzle and ringing that those did. Further, I think they’re great for almost any genre of music, from Black Sabbath to Beethoven. I have since upgraded my speakers because I got an incredible deal on a pair of Evolutions, but from time to time I consider swapping these back in because there’s something about them I kinda still miss. That said, I’m not selling them. They literally are the types of components that I know I would regret if I ever got rid of them.

Decent sound for a small bookshelf speaker. They were too small for my space and did not compare with larger speakers I previously had. Very good clarity but lacking low range that I am used too.

Still breaking these in. First impression: Very, very nice for orchestral music, especially strings. Strings of all kinds sound amazing: guitar, lute, violin--they're just amazing from Paul O'Dette to Prince. I agree with the assessment that these speakers have a richer lower range than the Anniversary monitor LS50s, to which they are kin in style, size, and precision. I adored and still adore the original Anniversary LS50s for their clarity and dispassion. They rock for transmitting the human voice--sopranos never sounded clearer or more accurate: Absolute faithfulness to the recording, no color added. The Metas are very similar, except--and I haven't read this elsewhere--they seem tonally warmer. Maybe that's in the expanded perception of a lower range. I am powering the Metas with a refined Yamaha Natural Sound AS-2000 amp. I revised my setting on Spotify to maximum data and turned off equalization for greater dynamics. There is no point in having speakers that can tell you the whole story of your music unless you feed them lossless or as close as you can come to that. My Yamaha Super Audio CD player provides excellent source material for these Metas. (I have too much invested in this CD collection to dump it or sell it.) I find Yamaha's best components provide subtlety in addition to power. I haven't tried yet the Metas' performance with my monstrous, higher-powered AdCom565SE amp. Familiar with a vast lineup of KEF speakers, I know KEFs like to drink up the juice. I can listen to these speakers for hours, the pleasure in hearing more is so satisfying! Meanwhile, I endorse this suggestion, echoed from other reviewers: Metas will sing their ohms best from an A or AB class amplifier with 80 or more watts per channel, connected with 12 gauge low or no oxygen genuine copper wire. Will they run on less power? Yes. It's not the mere power that counts, it's the quality. In any case, it seems unlikely a keen listener will be disappointed in these Metas. You might also want to crack a window. Right out of the box, and for a few days afterward, there is a very strong chemical odor--smells like epoxy, but probably a proprietary magic material KEF invented to house thIs genius.

I have a 12 x 13 ft. home gym with two Sonus Faber Olympica Nova II main speakers and an SVS SB-3000 subwoofer. But I wanted a more immersive stereo sound for my music listening to keep me motivated through my morning workouts. After much research (with extensive help from AI chat agents like Copilot, Perplexity and Gemini), I selected these KEF speakers to use on the opposite wall from my Sonus Fabers. And WOW. I feel like I work out inside a set of headphones. Total immersion, and beautiful, audiophile musicality fills my ears. It turns out the KEFs and Sonus Fabers are a very good match for this type of setup. I doubt I would have been happy with just the KEFs as the Sonus Fabers naturally deliver a much bigger presence (they are floorstanding and 8x the cost of the KEFs). But the pin-point imaging and wide soundstage of the KEFs, along with their neutral and precise sound, complements the warmer, more embracing sound of the Sonus Fabers. Together they are like magic. Pure bliss. Thank you, KEF!

These speakers get really great reviews here and by audio magazine journalists, but I’m not sure why. As another reviewer here stated, these are good, but not great speakers. They definitely don’t live up to the hype. Very questionable if they are worth the now $1600 price (up from $1500 when I purchased). Here’s the good and not so good- Good: 1.) The KEF LS-50 speakers are really solid and well built. The design may not be for everyone, but they do look kinda cool. 2.) The speakers have a very full, wide, smooth natural soundstage. Plump and juicy might be a good way to describe it. They put out a sound that belies their small size, provided they are set up per the manufacturer’s instructions. (8-12 ft apart and 18” from wall), and fed enough power. 60 WPC is absolute bare minimum and then only in a small room. I’d recommend 150-200, and find an amp that has a musical sound. Amps that have a sterile, dry, and precise sound will not pair well with these speakers. Spend some $$ on a good amp and your ears will be rewarded. I have a Schiit Rag2, and while it sounds good with the speakers, 60WPC is not enough power. 3.) Really good bass for speakers their size. Will suffice for many listeners, but you’ll want a subwoofer if you like to rattle the walls. So what’s not to like? 1.) The sound from the LS-50 meta lacks depth and detail (it’s very ‘flat’) and therefore they have *very* poor imaging- from the perspective of being able to identify the location of instruments in the soundstage. The positioning of instrument in the soundstage is not well defined, and is very vague and indistinct. The sound from instruments seems to emanate from everywhere because of the lack of detail. Really poor for speakers at this price level. This is the major issue with these speakers. 2.) These pups will take 100 hours of listening to fully run-in. Don’t invite your audiophile friends over to listen to your new speakers the week you get them--you will be embarrassed. They are very closed and very tight and “boxey” at first and don’t begin to open up until 40 hours and then really don’t sound reasonably good until you get past 80. You *will* have buyer’s remorse at first, but give them a chance and they will get better. Play them while you’re at work or not at home if you can, to speed up the run-in. There are posts on the web on how to do this without pissing off your neighbors. Final thoughts: I’d recommend these speakers for those people who grew up listening to digital music recorded from the mid-00’s to date. Starting around that time music was compressed and brickwalled in the studio during post-production which had the effect of removing all dynamics and detail from the music. Here’s a description of brickwalling from Steve Hoffman forums- “I call something brickwalled when there are no dynamics left in the music. Everything is so limited and compressed that all passages of the music are the same volume. Songs mastered this way are perceived to be LOUD LOUD LOUD!” So you won’t miss the detail and dynamics because it never existed in the recorded music to begin with. I would *not* recommend these speakers to those who are listening with vinyl or high quality digital sources of music (DSF or HD Flac) recorded before mid-00’s. You will definitely miss the lack of detail, dynamics and imaging in the soundstage, especially if you are listening to acoustic, vocals, or classical music. My test system consists of- • Emotiva XPA-5 Gen 2, 200 watts per channel class AB amplifier and Schiit Rag2, 60 WPC • Oppo BDP-205 Blu-ray and streaming music player • I used really well recorded DSD128 files for auditioning • High quality speaker cables, and Mogami Gold studio quality balanced audio cables between the analog audio output of the Oppo and the XPA-5 inputs I also compared the LS-50 Meta’s to the Dahlquist DQ-10s. The DQ-10’s are 80’s era speakers with a cult following and are some of the best sounding and imaging speakers out there today. While I didn’t expect the LS-50’s to match the DQ-10’s they fell far short of my expectations.

Endgame stereo monitors. Period. If you want the highest quality, best sound, and pristine aesthetics, look no further than these KEF monitors. I have paid way more many other brands, but nothing beats the value for dollar of these KEFs. They are the perfect size for almost any room small to large, and I’ve ever heard of folks using them as desk monitors. You cannot go wrong with these speakers. I’m running them with a Wiim ultra and Fosi monoblocks and have had zero issue with distortion, peaking, sound quality. Exceptional speakers for any space. Would highly recommend these!

Purtroppo per questioni di spazio sono costretto a scegliere solo casse da scaffale così optai, su consiglio del mio rivenditore HIFI abituale, per le KEF Q350 che sono impressionanti per il loro rapporto qualità/prezzo. Suonavano bene ma qualcosina non mi convinceva soprattutto nel medio-alto, mancava un pò di precisione e dettaglio. Ho quindi acquistato questi bellissimi diffusori Titan Grey e....beh, a parte il design strepitoso, non credevo ci fosse tutta questa differenza. Ora mi è chiaro perchè KEF continua a migliorare questo progetto e perchè questi diffusori continuano a vincere premi. Abbinate al mio Cambridge Audio CXA81(non consiglio di scendere sotto gli 80w per canale perchè sono diffusori non molto efficienti), ho perso qualcosina ma veramente poco nel basso rispetto alle Q350 che hanno un driver più grande, ma è ancora molto presente nel mio ambiente. Il medio-alto invece è un qualcosa di spaziale, ogni volta che le sento mi stupiscono, credo rimarranno lì per molti molti anni. Ne è valsa veramente la pena anche se il costo, rispetto alle Q350 è quasi il triplo. Consigliatissime!!!!!

Alırken tereddüt etmiştim acaba sesi tatminkâr olur mu? diye. Doğru ses üretebilen, yetenekli bir hoparlör. Midler yumuşak doğal, vocal sesler çok rafine, tizler parlak değil tam olması gerektiği gibi, bas sesleri sürücü çapının üzerinde üretmesinin kabin rijitliği ile ilgili olduğunu düşünüyorum. 24 mt2 odada kullanıyorum daha az hacimdeki bir odada çok daha iyi sonuçlar alınabilir. Kaliteli bir sub ile istenilen büyüklükteki odada rahat kullanılabilir. Hifi severlerin dinlemediyse mutlaka denemesini tavsiye ederim.

parfait, son et design magnifique

In combinatie met de Marantz melody, zelfs een beetje underpowered. En moderne klassiek wordt heel gedefinieerd en ruimtelijk neergezet, zelfs op laag volume. Eender welk genre, zelfs de betere electro, kan je lang beluisteren zonder vermoeidheid. Klasse.

Compre estas bocinas hace poco más de un año. Debo decir que mis primeras impresiones fueron malas. Si, compre unas bocinas caras con reviews alucinantes que sonaban como unas Klipsch rp500. El problema fue que el periodo de break in se tardó muchísimo, en mi caso unos 4 meses usándolas a diario mientras trabajaba en casa, alrededor de 200 horas. Al día de hoy, uufffff, suenan espectacular, se disfruta muchísimo la música a cualquier volumen, son simplemente adictivas, difícilmente apagas la música una vez que la enciendes. Muy recomendables. Por último debo decir que se necesitan de unos buenos cables para que la imagen del sonido sea perfecta, con buenos cables se hace más preciso saber en donde están las voces, instrumentos, etc. en mi caso utilizo unos cables WBC calibre 7 con un Hegel H95. También tengo un Cambridge Audio CXA81. Con ambos suenan bien pero con el Hegel me parece que suenan mejor. Espero sea de utilidad mi opinión. Saludos.