Kef LS50 competitors that fit on a desk

NADA looks cool...

1700€ a pair with cabinets..
http://www.ebelholztechnik.de/shop/HiFi/Klang-und-Ton/Nada-Set-Paar::2973.html

I like that it's closed. Active biamp that for ultimate nearfields? Of course I'd need another Gungnir Multibit and few Vidars or such.

 

Why of course, Dali Menuet (aka Mentor Menuet). Even more compact than LS50, and more engaging sound (more warmth, very dynamic). Love mine, but might be more expensive Stateside. Other than that but even more expensive, I keep hearing about the Harbeth P3ESR as the endgame in small passive monitors, would love to hear them by havent yet so...

 

I have also looking for new desktop speakers to replace my Focal CMS 50's. One manufacturer I'm interested in is Quested with their S6R and S7R models. They are active nearfield monitors, but they are reported to be very easy to listen to and non-fatiguing. Maybe worth considering?

Geithain RL906's are also well regarded, they are coaxial but unfortunately cost way over £2K :-(

My shortlist is currently:

Quested S6R / S7R (Active)
ATC SCM7 / SCM11
Amphion Argon / Ion+
PMC DB1S+ / DB1 Gold / TB2S+

I would obviously need an amp for the ATC's, Amphion's, or PMC's. Am thinking about picking up a second hand Rotel amp whilst waiting for Schiit Vidar.

 

Anyone heard the Vandersteen VLR Wood?



Looks like they could use a subwoofer and some amplifier power:
Frequency Response - 64Hz – 21kHz +/- 3dB
Sensitivity - 86 dB, 1 meter 2.83 volt input

And at $1,275 pair I wonder about the value aspect, compared to their least expensive floorstanding speakers - Model 1Ci $1,249 pair. Of course, floorstanders are not going to work on a desk. I watched a pair of VLR Wood with some (fairly minor) cosmetic issues go for under $600 on ebay last week. I was tempted. I really like the way Vandersteen Model 1 and Model 2 sound.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone had heard these.

 

But at least that is for the pair. With most studio monitors, they price per speaker.

 

to update, after months with ATC SCM7 V3 and Harbeth P3ESR's, I sold the ATC scm7 and will keep harbeth.
the harbeth are quite stunning, I feel the P3ESR are almost end game for my taste with a subwoofer in nearfield

Id love to try geithain but way to pricey! Ive loved my amphion one18 and now really love my harbeth. id like to try quested... likely the quested s7r mk3.

 

That sounds like quite an adventure. Enjoy

 

it is! im in the process of trying bigger speakers with bigger woofers. problem is that theres not many good and affordable reference 3-way.
the jbl lsr32/6332 is very good, but still doest match the harbeth midrange. Ive tried many big vintage speaker such as jbl 4430, altec valentia, tannoy 15 red, still nothing that sounds like the harbeth midrange.

 

I've got a pair of kef ls50 in my home office now. I'm alternately thrilled and disappointed depending on the song playing.

Room is a little over 11x13 feet, standard 8' ceilings, i think. Not much covering on the walls currently. Ls50's are sitting on isoacoustic stands on a desk. Speakers are probably 4-5 feet from the back wall (desk kinda in middle of room). I'm using Sonarworks for room correction. Aes out from computer to amb gamma 3 (digital volume control) to Anthem PVA 2.

Anyway, i haven't completely nailed down the variable in songs with great sound vs meh sound. It's gotta do with the bass, but I'm not exactly sure in what way...maybe when there's too much sub bass content (can get muddy/blurry)? That'll require more experimenting. Bass can sound fantastic with many songs, though.

I'd love suggestions on ways to tweak the system (sub, firstwatt f5 turbo, a preamp, etc.) or a different desktop speaker to go for (philharmonitor, sierra 2, osmt, etc). Thanks in advance for any help, guys.

 

Interesting. LS50's shouldn't be able to playback sub-bass, I'd say that they're most comfortable doing things above 60-80Hz.

Out of curiosity - how does your measurement curve look like?

 

I'm a bit speaker-dumb, I suppose. It's not that it's actually outputting sub-bass - more that I was thinking maybe it was trying or that lots of information down around it's lower limit was hampering its performance. No more listening time today, so further tests will have to wait.

I've attached the current curve I have. I used a Dayton EMM 6 mic for the measurements - I plan to redo them once I get the Sonarworks mic in (and probably toe the speakers in more - practically no toe-in right now).

 

The bass distortion ramps up pretty quickly with the LS50s in the lower frequencies below 100Hz. I'd play around with a low pass crossover to see if it cleans up the sound for you. You will see that once unburdened by low frequencies they clear up in the mids nicely as well. I had a lot of success with subwoofer management on the LS50s, but for desktop use that is not always ideal.

 

It looks like your mic might be rolling off in bass too early, thus the software might be overcompensating. Mine measured like this -



Treble roll-off in your case looks like to be occurring from the lack off toe in. See if you can play with speaker placement, best would be setting them up on stands. I remember mine really went from decent to stellar after I picked them up from the table.

 

Thanks guys. I've thought about subwoofer, but I'm not sure how well it will integrate nearfield.

My new mic looks like it will be in on Wednesday. I'll remeasure then (with some toe-in).

I'm attaching a pic of the setup. I could raise the speakers another 5 inches are so...think that would help? WAF will probably take a big hit, though ;D

 

A bit of a waste of good speakers on table like that. Table reflection really messes up the sound. That's why I threw my table completely away and work now from sofa 2 meters away + 50" screen. Treated all the reflection points to under -25dB, it's a joy now..

 

Haha, that sounds great. I don't think I'd be able to swing that, unfortunately. Maybe worth it to throw something on the desktop to help with reflections? I'm a speaker n00b (more or less), so any help on room treatments is appreciated.

I shelved the bass a bit, and it's definitely helped out. I've gotta run out to a client now, but it's a promising start.

 

Pretty hard to do, unless you want to cover your table with 5cm of fluffy acoustic panel or mat. It can't have a hard surface or it bounces things anyway. Been there done that. Had to change my floor rug from Ikea Hemnes to Gåser (30mm vs 70mm fluff) to have effect there, that's pretty describing..

 

Near field actually is the least treatment intensive way to listen to speakers. Usually you need to deal with desk bounce and back surface loading. In my case the 100-200Hz humperino is there due to back surface loading - one channel has a wall behind it and other has more of a corner loading, which is evident due to different magnitudes of room gain. I plugged the ports to reduce it but couldn't really kill it for good. Most of the time it was audible during bass parts. You'd need either EQ and/or bass trapping to snuff it out.

To battle table bounce, i'd lift the speaker up on stands. Don't pad the desktop, it can't be effective and practical at the same time. As for subs, it's doable, but opens a whole 'nother world of hurt.

Here's how the setup I measured looked like.

 

Thanks again for the help.

I got my new mic in today and just ran a calibration. The curve is very similar to the one I posted before, so the bass roll off is my room or the position of the listening position (which is pretty close). I also raised the speakers up off the desk another 5 inches and toed them in more. All that added up to the extremes around 150hz and in the treble being much less, but they're still there.

Setting max low freq in Sonarworks to reduced helps clean things up. I'll need to do more testing to see if the bass is rolling off too fast subjectively.

 

can you measure the kef ls50 in another position with the mics about 1m away from the speaker. just to make sure your soundcard is not rolling off the bass...