KEF LS60: First listens, First Tweaks.

With all of the hype surrounding the new KEF LS60 Wireless speakers, my anticipation and expectations were high for this loudspeaker. Like everything that comes in to my Studio, I planned on putting them through their paces with stock cords, etc. and becoming familiar with their sound. Once that was achieved, I would then start making some changes in an attempt to improve the performance. Some of the plans for the LS60's were as follows:

• Upgrading power cables
• Adding a KF62 subwoofer to the mix
• Using IsoAcoustics Gaia footers
• Using an outboard streamer and sending the digital signal directly to the LS60, bypassing the speaker's internal streamer.
• Experimenting with additional tweaks that may help to get more from the KEFs.

Delivery and Setup

My LS60 shipment arrived via freight. The pair were in separate boxes, strapped together, and then to a pallet. One box marked PRIMARY, one marked SECONDARY. Unboxing was very straightforward with the directions clearly printed on both boxes. KEF has done a great job with packaging, and making unboxing simple. I had them unboxed and in place in about 10 minutes. I had to move my power conditioner to a closer location for both speakers so that the roughly 2 meter power cords supplied could reach, and doing this would also allow me to try other cords.

Initial Impressions

I unplugged the ethernet cable running from my Innuos Statement in my reference system, and plugged directly into the primary LS60 speaker. The streaming signal path was now as follows:

• Netgear Nighthawk Router (plugged into a balanced power supply, and running a linear power supply)
• Innuos PhoenixNET switch
• KEF LS60

I used the KEF Connect app to then set up the speakers for my room. I set them down in the "magic zone" that I calculated using New Record Day's LOTS speaker placement system. (you can find it on YouTube). As far as fine tuning goes, the app allows for many settings. I didn't need to trim the treble, I left the bass extension mode at Standard.  It took some time for the speakers to open up, as they sounded a bit congested in the midrange at first. I left them to play for a couple of days while they went through some break in. 

Right off the bat however, the imaging was spectacular. I mean, SPECTACULAR. This was probably due to the Uni-Q Meta driver being coaxial and phase corrected, and the extremely narrow front baffle.

After a couple of days of continuous play, I sat down to make some more adjustments and have a listen. The imaging was still spectacular, and off axis listening was fantastic, but the midrange and highs seemed a bit veiled in comparison to my reference. The bass performance was not super deep, going down to a useable 35-40  hz range, but it was extremely accurate and detailed. I was hearing low frequency details that I had not picked up in my reference speakers with the servo subs. The sound was surprisingly large for such a slender speaker, producing a wrap around soundstage that was quite holographic. Vocals were impressive as well, no boominess or overly chesty voices unless it was in the recording. Still, I was missing some low level resolution. I was detecting just a little less decay, as was the sense of depth, air and space when compared to my reference system (valued at about $70,000). So for one tenth of the price, this system was very impressive. 

I listened to bass heavy rock and electronica, and the LS60's took it in stride, and played pretty darn loud. Bass was impressive, as was the speakers ability to scale. They sounded big.

Chilling out a bit to some more audiophile appropriate selections, namely the "WowII" playlist on Qobuz (created by none other than David Solomon)

• Elvis Presley's "Fever" presented a fantastic string bass, and a huge soundstage. 

Changing Power Cables

I decided to change out the power cords powering the LS60's. The cords are critical in this situation, as they power the amps, DAC, and internal streamer of the LS60. I didn't want to get crazy, plus I needed some longer cords. I started with the Audience Forte F5 PowerChords that had been treated with their proprietary "M" treatment. This produced a significant and powerful result. Bass depth improved, the midrange and high frequencies improved with far more resolution and clarity. They were getting very close to my reference Aurai Z215's with their open baffle servo subs. I would say the Aurai had the advantage with low frequency extension and sheer output dB, but in terms of dynamics, tone, soundstage, clarity, and listenability it was very close. The KEFs had a wider sweet spot than the Aurai, and better low end resolution, even though it wasn't as deep. 

Adding a KF62 Sub

Adding the KEF KF62 sub was straightforward. I didn't have the KEF wireless module just yet so I used a long pair of interconnects, one from each speaker, to the inputs of the KF62 which I ended up placing about two feet behind my listening chair. The KEF Connect App has settings that allow you to tell the speakers you have a subwoofer, whether it is one, or two, the high pass frequency for the main speakers, the low pass frequency for the sub, gain, and polarity. Quite a bit of control from the listening position. I ended up lowering the output and the crossover point of the subwoofer due to the close proximity. A higher output and/or crossover point made the localization of the subwoofer too obvious. Being able to use the app and in real time make adjustments made the job of fine tuning the sound so much easier allowed me to get the desired visceral impact from a subwoofer in close proximity without being able to locate it sonically.

The KF62 lowered the floor of the system bandwidth nicely into the low 30's/High 20's, and it matched the bass drivers on the LS60's perfectly. Bass was super accurate, articulate and brought a greater sense of depth to the music. 

IsoAcoustics Gaia II Feet

These were a surprisingly significant upgrade as well. The footers cleaned up the lowest frequencies through the midrange. Cabinet resonances can smear music in the time domain. The IsoAcoustics use proven technology to reduce these cabinet borne vibrations that usually are reflected back into the enclosure. There was significantly more clarity in the midrange, and bass definition. 

Impressions (So Far)

After only a few days with the LS 60's, I can proclaim with confidence that this is the model that many other manufacturers will be scrambling to imitate over the coming years. It is an instant classic. KEF has hit is out of the park in terms of sound and user friendliness. They have the jump on competitors with their prodigious research, development, manufacturing and engineering. There will be many imitators, but make no mistake, this is the speaker to beat in the Active Wireless Streaming (AWS) category.

They simply sound fantastic, are engaging, super easy to use, and for 95% of the audiophile population (and 100% of non audiophiles with $7000  to spend) this is an end game speaker in terms of the listening experience they can creat. They are easy to set up, easy to fine tune, there are tons of upgrade paths for those inclined to get more out of the speaker. It's not super fussy about placement, and the app is quite good.

What Next?

In my next blog, I will be connecting an external streamer to the LS60, and feeding the digital output from that to the digital input on the LS60. Will that improve the sound further? Will it be worth the price of admission? Let's find out.