A beginner's guide to the KEF LS50 Wireless II

Camera: Olaf von Voss | Editor: John Darko | Motion GFX: John Darko | Ad segment: Jana Dagdagan

PATREON for music playlists:

KEF LS50 Wireless II (£2250/€2499/US$2499 per pair):

KEF S2 floor stands (£400/pair):

KEF LS50 Meta and LS50 Wireless II intro:

Podcast: Jack Oclee-Brown talks MAT, LS50 Meta & LS50 Wireless II:

Acoustic panels by GIK:

Back to Basics Part 1 - Music streaming:

Holy Trinity of streaming:

Hip-hop for your Hi-Fi:

Why are comments turned OFF?

#kefls50wirelessii #sonos #streaming

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[stevenbarall]

I love it when a company listens to their customers and makes real improvements to the new products. Not having to play the amplifier lottery seems like a really huge deal. Thanks Darko.

[Dawg]

How far we come...20 years ago I was mixing and matching.amps, preamps, DACs, transports, cables...now just LS50 Wireless II.

[mhf]

John, we just opened our new KEF LS50 WII speakers! It's the most expensive music purchase we have ever made and we don't regret it. With your guidance, we made a sound purchase that is filling our home with warmth, tranquillity and beauty (We're currently listening to Tripping with Nils Frahm). Thanks to you & your team for all your hard work. It's forever changed the listening experience in our home.

[DarkoAudio]

Please ensure your comment is 1) on topic, 2) advances the conversation, 3) free of URLs and 4) devoid of conspiracy theories, hubris, racism and misogyny. Kindly keep it civil.

[johnzealand]

It takes forever to get through one of your videos because I keep having to pause to check out the artists you are talking about. Found some good ones through you. Thanks!

[LoLassasinspeet]

kef genuinely taking the piss not making the app backwards compatible. customers paid 3 thousand dollars, kef should take care of them.

[TheFunkyGlasses]

I think it’s criminal that the new app is not available for the first versions of the LS50 or LSX.

App’s should not be built per product. The last update on the original KEF app was Oct19 (4.1). My fear that they will never update this, with the speakers becoming obsolete to new OS updates seems very likely.

This type of planned obsolescence is outrageous particularly for the audiofile/enthusiast segment and the cost.

I’ve reached out multiple times to KEF support and directly to employees (over LinkedIn) on this and got no answers.

John, could you please be a voice for us and bring this up with the team? It seems such a shame for such great products and loyal customers.

[zaphyrwalker]

I think I was never that excited to watch a new youtube video pfff. Really well made review, thank you

[rocpoals]

A new app for the wireless 2 but not the first gen. Thats a big shame. this I part of the reason I went back to passive speakers R3 . There is no garranteed support for any period of time with these all in ones.

[Unpreeeedictable]

As an LS50W Gen I owner, anyone tempted to pick up a pair on the cheap: DO NOT. Spend the bucks to buy the Gen IIs. The Gen I apps are awful. I could not get the speakers to connect to my plain vanilla mesh network and had to buy a Bluesound Node 2i to do the job instead, bypassing the KEF’s DAC and streamer. KEF seems to have fixed all of the problems. My bad luck is your good fortune.

[brianperez]

John I really appreciate these reviews on the “Sonos generation” products. The fact is most of the music people will listen to is on a digital streaming platform and there’s not enough HI-Fi reviews on these products. I’m especially interested in the Naim mu so, Martin Logan crescendo B&W wedge. All HI-Fi products that get left out of the conversation for casual listening which 80% of what people do.

[togabito]

There are many hifi audio product reviewers out there, but few, if any, comes close to the production value and presentation of what John does.
Keep it up. Love your presentation. Your work is in no small part why I own some of the stuff that I bought. And roon too come to think of it lol(which was also partially motivated by you lol)

[richardfaulkner]

I guess you will review "The Fives" from Klipsch at some point. It will be interesting to see and hear the differences between a £2500 high end speaker set, and an £850 lower end speaker set.

[lazarosnikolaidis]

Great video. I was dissapointed to see they omitted the USB input on new version (as they did with coaxial on v.1 - they put it back and killed USB??? Are they nuts???)

[on_wheels_]

The fact that the new KEF Connect doesn't support the (read: my own) original LS50W absolutely confirms my suspicion, that whole concept has a pretty big miff of planned obsolescence to it.

[HPMIKE]

Great job John & what sounds better for movies Buchardt Audio's A500 or KEF LS50 Wireless II?

[christopherfox]

Absolutely superb review. Really informative and well structured. An easy to follow review that non audiophiles can understand. Job well done!

[bladeswelove]

That is a great version of DM's Enjoy the Silence. Glad you mentioned it!

[michaelcheshareck]

Well, looks like after only 2 years my Kef LS50W will be making way for the LS50W2. The app upgrade, along with full MQA support and HDMI eARC have me wanting it. The fact that the driver has a major upgrade along with far more headroom on the already strong amps is a bonus.

[Carrera-gpod]

I e ordered a pair of these, I’ve been waiting 2 months for them to show up !
I laughed when you were discussing the wireless aspect of them, my Mrs said they’re not really wireless if there is a mains cable 😂😂