New KEF LS50 Meta

it's launched for less than 2 months here in Singapore and I have already seen 2 used pairs up for sale

 

John Darko liked them:

https://darko.audio/2020/12/a-short-film-about-the-kef-ls50-meta/

 

Same guy who gave Mytek Stereo192-DSD a DAR-KO award. Not saying the LS50 Meta are bad, but his reviews (along with Steve Gutterbug) mean nothing to me.

 

FOTM. I see that all the time with products that have big hype and tons of marketing - 1-2 months later (sometimes sooner) you see a small rash of them start to pop up in the used market.

Yeah I tend to agree. He liked the original LS50 as well, but I did not. But he did give some hints about their sound (esp compared to the OG), and that along with some other reviews have me pretty skeptical that I would like these much better than the OG. Seems like they’re a bit better technically with more transparency, but the FR and general flavour, I have my doubts they’re any better (maybe even worse). That said, my biggest complaint about the OG was the metallic etch in the upper mids - even if all they did was eliminate that, I might be into them. That didn’t seem to bother a lot other people though, so they may not even notice or mention it.

I’m contemplating nearfields right now, and these are a potential consideration if I could find them used (so I could flip them if they suck), but their power requirements could be an issue as well for that kind of setup (and I really don’t want to go class D).

 

Sounds like it has the same problem I observed with my KEF Q100s. Something about 3-5khz that was just a bit too much.

As for reviews, I must say we really have to put some big filters on them. Anyone on youtube or with affiliate links to purchase the product means money, more views, more money. They will never categorically give a bad review about a product. I am guilty as well. I will review less than stellar products and point out the flaws, but draw the line at ones that cross my threshold of "are you kidding me?". I just do not review it. There have been a number of products that I bought or have been loaned that were way not worthy. Sometimes I just had to go back to the vendor and say, no, I cannot review it.

Keep us in the loop on what makes your short list @rlow.

Guilty products came from Mytek, Fiio, Topping, MicroMega, Elac, AKG, NAD, Pioneer, JBL and more just for some examples.

 

It's more than flavour-of-the-month. The LS50 family has achieved what I call "flavour reference" status. It doesn't matter if you like them or not, they are so commonplace now that everyone has heard one at some point, or someone will buy one just for the sake of trying it out and having the same comparison point as everyone else. Maybe someone will like it and move to a higher tier KEF. Maybe it becomes a simple blind recommendation because they're so common and finding them on the used market is easy. From a marketing/product awareness standpoint, that's a win.

edit: oh wait, this thread is talking about meta materials? I thought it was the KEF meta-game of the market... oh well.

edit2: wtf, this is a serious misuse of the term meta materials... they could have gone with something like "broadband polyphonic resonators" or some other bull pizzle because that's what it really is.

 

“KEF LS50 Broadband Polyphonic Resonator”.

You’re right, that’s catchy!

 

For nearfield you wouldn't need much power anyway, so I wouldn't be scared to match them with some transistor 20W class A or something of the sort.

 

Sweet, then I get a space heater for my desk as well!

Anything you would recommend?

 

I dont care if it’s BS I want to try meta material resonators implemented in closed back planar magnetic headphones where the back wave is much more critical to deal with than with electrodynamic tech.

 

It narrows down to how much you'd like to spend

 

Aren’t meta materials generally like that? Optical meta materials get their properties by tuning EM resonances.

 

They could have gone with Dark Materials, except that's already taken. OK: Our Dark Materials.

Heard a pair of LS50s aeons ago. Connected to a vintage tube setup. Liked it. But family? Turn your back on them for a year or so, and some other kind of LS50 is on the market. What next, GPS?

 

Basically. Maybe it's just the cognitive dissonance for me because stuff in the EM range is too small to see, but they can also pack all the frequency ranges they need into a handle-able space. I don't believe they can do that for the audible range. Maybe I'm wrong on that, I dunno. A "meta" material to suck out one or two bad resonance points in the speaker? sure I'd believe that. But something that sucks out all unwanted frequencies? eh, I'm skeptical.

 

How about Aegir? FWIW, Stereophile liked it with LS50.

 

I really don't think Aegir would have enough power with the LS50 even near-field, I think Stereophile missed the mark on that one. If it is anything like my LS3/5A experience, vocals will sound great, but everything else will sound anemic.

A buddy of mine just built the 4ohm version of the Akitika GT-102 for his LS50 and is really enjoying it so far.

 

What is the impedance of your LS3/5a @Inoculator? Are they 11ohms? I’m almost wondering if Aegir would favour a lower impedance load. However, being that Herb did miss the mark in your opinion, I tend feel like you’re probably right. The LS50s typically love gobs of power or class D grip.

 

Yeah 11ohm, which could certainly make a difference for the Aegir. DNA of LS50 and LS3/5A is the same, but that is about where the similarities end. I just know when I first fired up the Aegir with mine with some singer-songwriter, acoustic sort of stuff I was BLOWN AWAY and thought I had a great pairing. Then I listened to some more varied stuff and was left completely underwhelmed. Sure enough, going to a more powerful amp got the speakers up and going in a way the Aegir didn't.

 

I think he's into promoting the speaker strengths rather than playing around its weaknesses.
I usually do the same when matching gear. Others will opt for the latter and it's okay, there is no right or wrong here I guess : ).

 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/kef-ls50-meta-loudspeaker. J. Atkinson's review. More "neutral" attitudes compared to the one from Steve Guttenberg.

Here are the differences I noted, based on several published reviews.
1. Sound stage is still very good, maybe a bit wider. The disappearing effect of the speakers is a bit better than the original.
2. More high frequency energy than the original (people are debating if this is "brighter" or "clearer". Several people was saying it bright not harsh).
3. More details, a little bit "clearer" or more transparent highs and mids. Almost no change or maybe less bass than the original.
4. One pound heavier. shape of the rear port is slightly different (square versus oval). The LS50 meta can be bolted on the stands, the original can not.
5. Harder to drive (40-100W amps, versus 25-100W for the original); Minimum impedance: 3.5 ohms vs 3.2 ohms (original).
6. Cross over at 2.1k Hz instead of 2.2k. still a second-order 2nd-order HF + 3rd-order LF crossover design. In the end, the 2-3k dip still there.

When I looked at the white paper on the official KEF site, one thing caught my attention was it mentioned this: "The LF filter is similar to that in the original LS50, but includes an extra low-Q parallel resonance branch (C3- R3-L4) to compensate for the higher sensitivity in the driver’s upper midrange due to its lower inductance" (on page 9). It is kind of saying that the new woofer is not linear and need compensation. I am a little suspicious about it. This is really a complicated crossover circuit. (weblink: https://www.shop.us.kef.com/pub/media/wysiwyg/ls50/20-KEF-LS50-Collection-WhitePapers.pdf)

I am thinking to get one pair eventually (when street price become lower), as I feel the new design did more good than harm and at this price range, compromises have to be made here or there. But definitely I am not as eager as I was 2 months ago.

Edit: it is actually a third-order Low Frequency cross-over. Thanks @Priidik pointing this out.