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Similarly Kal, miniDSP offers hardware capable of implementing Dirac Live's filters to analog and digital sources. I'm considering the DDRC-24 which is very reasonable considering you get a full Dirac Live license with it. Just sent my REW measurements off to @mitchco to get his thoughts as my small 12x10x9 room suffers from room modes which I've attempted to alleviate through a combination of a near field setup and DIY acoustic treatments. This article has me very interested in getting as much of the room out of my sound as possible to hear that level of detail I experience with my headphone setup. Bill P.S. Very sorry to hear about Art. His voice will be missed in this pursuit of ours.

Mitch, I’ll have to try and attach some charts but I was thinking back to some the Hartman white papers I’ve read and if Dirac is trying to fill some of the dips in the bass and those dips are due to room modes isn’t any boost it applies going to make that dip worse? Shouldn’t it instead focus on bringing down the peaks? What charts would help and what smoothing/windows would you want to see them in? Would you want FR using REW’s sweep or using pink noise? What time window would you want to see on a waterfall plot?

Mitch, Thanks for the response! In order to get all of my sources to benefit from Dirac would a hardware solution like the miniDSP DDRC-24: https://www.minidsp.com/products/dirac-series/ddrc-24 be better? Signal path would be: Sources->miniDSP & Dirac->KEF LS50W As an aside I made a first attempt at measuring using a UMIK-1/REW to come up with filters for Roon to use and it seemed to take away bass. Is it safe to assume those are just room modes I've become accustomed to? My room is small 12L x 10W x 9H so it's an acoustical challenge to say the least. Bill

Great article Mitch! I’d love to jump down this rabbit hole but I can’t wrap my head around how to implement it in my system: Sources: Mac running iTunes/Roon Cambridge Audio CXC Technics SL-1200GR All run into a pair of KEF LS50W. I’m not sure if an additional piece of hardware like something from miniDSP is the way to go or if I just need to look at other options. Bill

All is well - KEF fixed them well out of warranty and all I paid was return shipping to them.

Chris, The new space looks great, glad to hear that it's sounding great as well. Addressing the room was a real ear-opener for me. I'm going to attempt to add the icing (DSP) to the cake while I have some time off over the next couple of weeks using REW, UMIK-1 and Roon. Bill P.S. Jealous of those Ikea chairs...by the time I went to scoop up a pair they were gone!

I'd reach out to KEF - they took care of my pair well out of warranty and I was only out shipping costs to them.

So I got an update yesterday. Both “main boards” had to be replaced. They should ship Monday and I’ll have them back Tuesday/Wednesday. As far as I know they replaced them free (except for shipping to them) and they’re 2 years out of warranty which I think is the right thing for them to do so, we’ll done KEF. There does seem to be an unforeseen issue with early batches that hopefully has been fixed as they began to see problems. Still wish they would have done something similar to what Subaru did with the CVT on our Forester and simply sent a letter to owners stating they’d extended the warranty on them rather than leaving uncertainty out there. Can’t wait to get them back!

Been away for a while - enjoying music and not worrying about gear! Ran into an issue with my nearly 3yr old LS50Ws this past Monday. Posted about it a couple of other places but figured I'd add it here as well: First the stats: Manufactured 11/2016 Running latest firmware. Approx. 150 - 200 hours on them. Was listening to albums for about 3 hours on Sunday and everything was perfectly fine. Went to listen to an album Monday night and about half a side in it sounded like the left (slave) speaker’s woofer stopped working. Played through the rest of the side (was needledropping) and then switched to the Optical input to rule out the Turntable and Phono Preamp as the fault. Used a mono CD and confirmed it was an issue with the speaker. Checked the firmware version, it was up to date. Disconnected and reconnected all source connection and the speaker-to-speaker cable. Performed a Reset which did not work. Unplugged both speaker’s power cords for a minute and reconnected. Everything was working fine again…for about a minute. Unplugged just the slave speaker’s power cord - did not work. Unplugged just the master speaker’s power cord - sound came back as normal…for about a minute. Contacted KEF USA and they requested I send the speakers back which I’m doing today. I’m obviously well out of the curiously short 1 year warranty at this point which is my reason for updating this post - to see how they deal with out-of-warranty repairs. I agree with the earlier poster that suggested KEF should have simply extended the warranty on all LS50Ws within a given production batch to at least 5 years (the standard warranty on the much-less complex passive speakers). They could have saved a lot of the bad feeling that have resulted as well as the hesitation prospective buyers feel when they come across the issues that are being reported. As a big KEF fan I’m hoping they’re able to fix my pair at no extra charge other than shipping. I love the LS50W as it seems to me to be the fully-realized version of what they intended the LS50 to be (I lived with the passives for close to 4 years). I really don’t want to have to start a new search at this point, even though there are more options now than there were 3 years ago. I’ll report back in about a month (they quote a 3 week turnaround time to diagnose and repair).

Hopefully it will still allow ripping of CDs and importing of needledrops for syncing and streaming with/to devices. My concern comes from the fact that I don't believe Catalina will run on any Macs that contain optical drives.

Clearly intended for the desktop and to potentially replace the X300A. Wondering when we'll see a floorstanding active from KEF? While I like the new finish ideas I still think KEF's missing out on some sort of custom option with the LS50.

Looks like the Hair soundtrack ruled the charts from April through July...

I'm not experiencing any issues so I'm going to hold off on the updates. Still amazed at these speakers each time I listen.

I think the AKGs sound very similar in the mids and highs to the KEFs - natural, open and airy is how I'd describe both. The bass is difficult to compare, simply because speakers give you that visceral impact that headphones can't.

Sorry for the delayed response! Yes, I did start with them firing straight out, and slightly closer together. I found that I like this version a little further apart but still prefer them on-axis.