I finally got to hear a pair of
KEF LS50 coaxial speakers over the weekend. They sounded very good. I haven't heard many coaxials, but these had no readily apparent flaws that I have heard in others in the past.
Their bass is clean and had no over emphasis.
The 5¼" magnesium/aluminum alloy woofer is said to be crossed over to the coaxially mounted 1" titanium dome tweeter at 2.2 kHz. I heard no high frequency noise or resonance from the metal woofers.
The cabinets are very sturdy and heavy. They’re probably very well built inside. I heard no noticeable cabinet resonance from them.
The front baffle is curved in 2 dimensions, a section of a sphere. This is probably expensive to make and minimizes cabinet diffraction.
They imaged very nicely, and I enjoyed listening to them.
Stereophile has reviewed these speakers. Their measurements are here:
KEF LS50 Anniversary Model loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com.
I was able to directly compare them to my diy CAOW1s, and I thought they sounded close. These are small 2-way speakers with a Seas 5¼" paper woofer and a ¾" fabric dome tweeter. (Note: the CAOW1 is essentially the same as
Salk SongSurround I speakers.) The KEFs seemed to be less sensitive than the CAOW1s, but their bass seems to go somewhat lower than the CAOW1s.
I would have liked to compare them to the
Philharmonitors. Based on my memory of their sound, I'd guess the Philharmonitors might outperform the KEFs because of their more potent bass, and their ribbon tweeters. Perhaps, and this is a guess, the only thing the KEFs might lack is the subtle but superior qualities of a good ribbon tweeter.
The KEFs are available only in black and cost $1500 a pair. In contrast the Salks ($895 a pair) come in various veneer finishes, and the Philharmonitor ($850 a pair) comes in a dark walnut veneer.
