In case you’re beginning to take your music listening expertise extra critically, it’s pure to look into getting a speaker setup. That’s till you notice that you just’ll have to select a preamp, amp, and DAC to get your dream speaker setup. That’s lots analysis and setup, which is kind of intimidating to a hi-fi beginner. However what if there was a speaker system that simply labored out of the field? What if all you needed to do was plug the audio system into the wall and activate some music? Fortunately, this dream system is actual and it’s made by the parents at KEF. The LS50 Wi-fi is an all-in-one speaker system that’s dead-simple to arrange and allows you to play from quite a lot of sources out of the field, with room to develop with you through the years.

After spending a number of months with the KEF LS50 Wi-fi, we had been blown away by the bundle that the corporate was in a position to engineer. The audio system provide mind-blowing sound high quality with absolute neutrality, hologram-like imaging, and an expansive soundstage. Plus, it was useless easy to arrange and use from any of its sources. Whereas not low cost, the LS50 Wi-fi is definitely fairly a discount when taken as a whole bundle. Design The KEF LS50 Wi-fi are a beautiful pair of bookshelf-sized audio system that can look nice in your desk or in your house theater. Our unit got here in a shiny piano black however there’s a white and silver model as effectively. The entrance of the speaker is dominated by KEF’s Uni-Q drivers which places the tweeter within the heart of the bass and midrange woofer.

This, claims KEF, permits the audio system to supply a three-dimensional soundstage regardless of the place you’re sitting and it actually works (extra on this within the Efficiency part). On prime of the appropriate speaker you’ll discover contact controls for energy, Bluetooth, supply, and quantity. The controls are illuminated when the audio system are turned on and are simple to press, although they don’t present any tactile feeling since they’re contact management. Nonetheless, there’s an included distant that gives bodily buttons should you miss the tactile really feel. Talking of the distant, the one which comes within the field is pretty fundamental that’s only one step above the terrible card-sized remotes with membrane buttons that ships with nearly each soundbar and preamp.

The distant is fabricated from plastic however nonetheless feels good within the hand and it replicates the contact controls on the highest of the speaker plus buttons for earlier/skip observe and mute. One nitpick we had in regards to the LS50 Wi-fi is the truth that should you change inputs utilizing the distant management that you haven’t any thought what enter you’ve switched to until you on the panel on prime of the speaker.

This implies you both should memorize the sequence of inputs or should rise up and take a look at the speaker. We want the included speaker included devoted supply buttons to modify immediately as a substitute of biking by means of them – but it surely didn't stop us from loving the audio system. Options The KEF LS50 Wi-fi packs a ton of options however let’s go over what options make it sound so good.

For amplification, KEF designed the LS50 Wi-fi with two 230-watt energy provides in a bi-amp twin mono configuration. This implies every channel will get its personal devoted amplifier for interference-free energy supply. On board is a DAC for every channel that’s able to as much as 192 kHz and 24-bit sources. Whereas not the bleeding edge by way of extremely excessive decision audio, it’s a stable DAC setup that ought to final for years to return. We spoke with KEF about why they didn’t embody help for brand new codecs like DSD or MQA and had been instructed that the corporate wished to design the KEF LS50 Wi-fi to final so long as potential and determined to not embody unproven codecs. When it comes to wi-fi connectivity, the KEF LS50 Wi-fi helps 2.4GHz/5GHz dual-band wi-fi N for streaming music over your property server.

We tried this with our residence Plex server and it labored effectively streaming high-resolution FLAC information over our community that’s powered by the Netgear X6S Nighthawk router. The cell app used to browse music and management playback is a bit laggy at occasions so hopefully KEF and preserve enhancing the cell app expertise. It’s a bit disappointing that neither Google Forged nor Apple AirPlay are supported, as it might have been simple to manage by voice utilizing a Google House speaker. Nonetheless, Spotify and Tidal customers can management the LS50 Wi-fi straight, which is a pleasant contact. In case you don’t have your individual music server, Roon, or Spotify, there’s at all times the Bluetooth four.zero enter, which helps the for CD-quality sound. Bluetooth sounds good and is handy to search out and stream music from our telephone. It’s a bit of disappointing that aptX HD isn’t supported, as it might have been the Bluetooth enter sound even higher.

However nitpicky audiophiles are usually not doubtless utilizing the Bluetooth enter for critical listening within the first place. The inputs carry on coming with optical TOSLINK help for hooking as much as sources like your TV.

This implies you’ll be able to have the LS50 Wi-fi be your speaker setup for every part from tv, wi-fi, and analog sources like a turntable. One factor to notice that the optical enter caps out at 96 kHz 24-bit so the USB enter is preferable for connecting a DAC. Final however not least, the analog audio jacks allow you to join your individual supply gadgets. This generally is a turntable or you’ll be able to connect your individual DAC, should you please.

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Across the again of the audio system you’ll discover the speaker’s DSP controls. You possibly can specify when you have the LS50 Wi-fi on a desk or on stands and in the event that they’re proper up in opposition to the wall or have free house behind to breathe a bit of. This can be tweaked inside cell app so that you don’t should go digging behind the speaker each time you need to change a setting. The app has much more superior controls, which lets you tweak issues just like the part correction and subwoofer crossover. Efficiency Not one of the above would matter if the KEF LS50 Wi-fi doesn’t sound good. That mentioned, we’re blissful to report that the LS50 Wi-fi sound phenomenal.

General, they’re staggeringly detailed and their stand-out sonic characteristic is their holographic imaging and instrumental layering: We might hear precisely the place every instrument was coming from and every instrument sounded distinct and by no means blurry. Soundstage was expansive with good house to the aspect and above the listener. Decision is great because the speaker can dig for the micro-details that get misplaced in lesser audio programs. Tonal steadiness is extraordinarily impartial, which may be tweaked barely within the cell app. You possibly can heat up the sound by setting the audio system to “additional bass” however the steadiness is close to excellent from default to our ears.

Nonetheless, bass-lovers will need to add the non-compulsory subwoofer to get visceral bass affect that’s nice for motion pictures of digital music. With out the sub, the LS50 Wi-fi nonetheless produce a shocking quantity of bass and we had been fairly blissful with out the subwoofer for important listening. The LS50 Wi-fi sounds so good, you’ll be staying up all night time rediscovering your music assortment as a result of that’s precisely what we did.

We performed file after file on our to check how numerous music genres sounded on the audio system. The LS50 Wi-fi sounded wonderful with each style we threw at it and each enter sounded spectacular.

When it comes to sonic high quality there’s little or no to nitpick in regards to the KEF LS50 Wi-fi. Verdict The KEF LS50 Wi-fi is a tremendous pair of bookshelf audio system that has nearly each enter possible.

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The flexibility of the audio system is basically their promoting level, as they may simply match into anybody’s audio setup. They even work effectively as TV audio system as their holographic imaging makes watching motion pictures enjoyable. You’ll need to pair them with the non-compulsory subwoofer if you wish to get room-rattling bass, although. That mentioned, out of the field, we discovered the LS50 Wi-fi’s tonal steadiness nearly excellent.

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So who advantages probably the most from the LS50? Largely it's audiophiles who need the comfort of wi-fi audio, whether or not that’s straight from web streaming companies like Tidal or Spotify or from a house server.

Whereas it’s a bummer Google Forged and Apple AirPlay aren’t supported, we predict most individuals will we pleased with the myriad of different methods to play music. At $2,200 (£2,000, about AU$2,840) the KEF LS50 Wi-fi is some huge cash, however you’ll be onerous pressed to place collectively a greater sounding and extra versatile system for a similar worth. This speaker setup is ideal for the audiophile who doesn’t need to throw down a number of thousand to piece collectively a system with monoblock amps, a preamp, DAC and wi-fi streaming gear. For seasoned audiophiles with high-end gear already, nevertheless, there’s at all times the wired LS50, which is sort of half the worth.