Are they that bad? Right now they are very bright, mid-range kinda hollow. I use them to watch movies or play back ground music sitting away from them. Sound stage are good though. Human voices from KEF LS50 are still better.
I had them for over a year. They will break in, but should only take 50-100 hours max, and most should happen before that. But I’m surprised you’re calling them bright, what are you coming from? And how do you have them setup?
I think @pedalhead has them too. He mentioned some brightness as well which he got around with less toe-in iirc. He hasn’t been around for a while though, hope he’s ok.
I had B&W N805 then Nautilus 803 for a while. Once I got the KEF LS50s, I understand what people say about the B&W's kavlar mig-range. Pleasant appealing but unnatual tonality. I am not bothered by the hint of "metallic" sound of the LS50.
Recently moved to a living room a lot larger 20 x 15 x 8.5'. No bass from LS50 thus looked for bigger bookshelves. Chose S40 over C1 as people says that the S40s are easier on amps. I know some of the "brightness" is my new room, because the LS50 become "lean" in the new place too, but still more "balanced" than S40s.
Honestly in a room that size i’d look at floorstanders or add a sub(or two). You can also try shoving them closer to the wall to boost the bass a little.
@Riotvan totally agree. S40 are a lot more finicky about placement than the LS50. Briefly moved them back, the beautiful sound stage and pin-point positioning were gone - still learning. I may move again in a year or two. Thus chose bookshelves.
Agree with @Riotvan, if you want some more advice, throw it in that thread, and provide more details about your overall room setup. I will say that I don’t really think the S40s go much deeper than the LS50s, but perhaps a bit more midbass. Likely a step up to the Contour 20s would bring you more bass depth and weight, but of course more $$$.
Anyway I'd suggest two rules of thumb: (1) we all need time for brainwashing (2) wary of 100+ burnin hours talks (3-4 days would be long enough to decide whether to return/resell or not unless rigs have cricial problems)
Only other thing I will point out is that LS50 design for the coaxial tweeter mean they have some level of a waveguide to narrow the directivity and reduce sidewall and floor/ceiling reflections. The S40 would almost definitely be a wider dispersion, so depending on how you set them up and how far away you are, you’re likely getting more reflections from the frequencies covered by tweeter on the S40.
I had a brand new pair at home demo just a couple days ago. Got pretty mixed feelings about them - silky/delicate sounding treble, but midrange is just off somehow. Bass was excellent - taut and snappy. (Amp: AVM C9)
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