KEF LS50 Meta Passive Bookshelf Speakers - Pair (Titanium Grey)

KEF LS50 Meta deliver exceptional clarity and precision. Paired with the UniFi amplifier, they excel with classical and spoken audio—sharp highs from the aluminum Uni-Q driver outperform soft-cone systems. Compact yet acoustically potent, they expose detail rather than compensate for weak sources. Passive design demands quality amplification. High-fidelity bookshelf speakers that elevate any properly built system.

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.

These are not party speakers, these are speakers for enjoying in small rooms at moderate levels. If you understand that, you will probably like them. It's obvious by the design, a 4" woofer with a concentric tweeter, that they are not meant to move a ton of air. Distortion rises quickly when you crank the volume. You can mitigate this somewhat by integrating subwoofers, but it's still a limitation. With that in mind, you don't need a huge amp or a subwoofer to enjoy the LS50 Meta. With basic components and at reasonable levels you will get neutral tonality, low distortion, wide dispersion, large soundstage, and clear imaging. Hard to beat, just don't expect to drive them with a 40wpc amp. If you want sub-bass extension, they will benefit from integrating a subwoofer. Just like every other bookshelf speaker. Now look at the waveguide. It's a work of art.

I finally found some speakers that sound fabulous at around 70 db. No need to blast these, they deliver the goods on clarity, detail, and imaging at comfortable volume levels. However, they don't sound good at low volumes. I have never had speakers that exhibited zero cabinet resonance like these. I wouldn't use these in a large room, but for smaller rooms they are incredible. These speakers deliver quick, powerful dynamics while listening to challenging classical music. The only downsides are they can't project a big sound wave into large room, and although the bass they deliver is super high quality, it isn't very deep.

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.

I see a lot of reviews here saying they sound bad. It's simply not true, because then I see what they are running, and its a very low tier amp. Your "200" watt Emotiva BasX or similar class amp simply does not have the torque that these speakers need. I know, I own several Emotiva amps. I'm an audiophile, and have lots of gear, it's the hobby. I'm running these off comparably priced equipment, all of my gear is in the price wheelhouse of the Ls50. My amps are Orchard Audio class D GaN monoblocks with GaN power supplies. I run a Gustard X26 Pro dac, dual mono dacs, dual mono power supplies, excellent clocks. This speaker goes down to 3 ohms. Your cheap amp is likely begging for mercy at this impedance regardless of "200 watts". You need high quality. Give these high quality components and this speaker is AMAZING. I have 7 sets of speakers. All different types, Magnepans, CSS Audio, bunch of stuff. These speakers are worth every penny! But bear in mind their performance sits right where the price range is. These are not $10000 speakers for 1600. You get what you pay for. That said, in the 2K range, they are probablyunbeatable, for overall performance. Another caveat though is I have a pair of subs, near field, 3 feet off the ground, perfectly tuned with these speakers. You need a setup like this for perfect full range sound. If you're an audiophile, I recommend starting with these, make sure you have nice, NICE components to back them up, and a pair of subs when you can do it. I'm running 2 RSL Speedwoofer 10s. If you just buy these, you don't own subs, and your equipment is like $200 dac, no preamp, $500 amp, low level stuff, you're going to wonder what all the fuss is about and return them. Do them right, you may never shop for speakers ever again.

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.

Beautiful and amazing sound clarity. I love them very much