![]() Although KEF sells matching S2 stands, I set up the LS50 Metas on my usual 24" Celestion stands, which had their single pillars filled with a mixture of dry sand and lead shot. "Designed and Engineered in the UK, Made in China" was written on the serial number panels on the speakers' bases. My samples of the LS50 Meta had serial numbers LS50201763M29N1G and '1765M29N1G. ![]() The resulting structure is said to absorb 99% of the unwanted sound radiating from the rear of the driver at 620Hz and above (footnote 2). Polyester wadding in front of the absorber fine-tunes the absorption. The back wave from the tweeter's diaphragm is coupled to the MAT disc with a conical waveguide behind the vented pole-piece. As applied by KEF and optimized with Finite Element Analysis, this disc contains 30 tubular channels, each acting as a narrow-band Helmholtz resonator. This disc is made from a synthetic substance incorporating Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT) developed by research organization Acoustic Materials Group for automotive and airplane use. The cross-bracing inside the enclosure has been improved, but the main internal change is the incorporation behind the drive-unit of an absorptive, dual-layer disc, 3" in diameter and 0.43" thick. ![]() The coaxial Uni-Q drive-unit, now in its 12th iteration, includes a new cone-neck decoupler and a symmetrical motor system, these intended to optimize the speaker's dispersion. Visually, the only differences are an elegant matte finish compared with the original gloss and the fact that the chamfered rear panel now stands proud by one-tenth of an inch rather than being set flush. The Meta is priced the same: a penny less than $1500/pair. Now, eight years after its first appearance on the high-end audio stage, the LS50 has a successor, the LS50 Meta. Since then, I have used my LS50s as the primary reference for my reviews of standmounted loudspeakers. I bought a pair of the non-anniversary LS50s after Stephen's follow-up review, and I compared them with the equally superb-sounding but differently balanced and different-measuring Revel M106 in January 2015. Definition was superb, ranking with the very best speakers at any price." Stephen Mejias was equally impressed, concluding in June 2014 that with the regular LS50 in his system, "there's just so much more to enjoy—more body, more beauty, more control, more music." (The regular LS50 lacks the words "50th Anniversary Model" below the coaxial Uni-Q drive-unit but is otherwise identical.) Sam Tellig agreed with me, commenting in May 2014 that he found the LS50's tonality "spot-on, more neutral than sweet. I reviewed the Anniversary Edition LS50 in December 2012 (footnote 1), writing that it was rare to find a loudspeaker that offers this combination of clarity and neutrality and concluding that within its limits of dynamic range and bass extension, the KEF LS50 "will provide Class A sound for those with small rooms." ![]() Usually, anniversary models are large, floorstanding "statement" designs with a price to match, but the LS50 was a minimonitor, priced at $1500/pair. KEF's LS50 loudspeaker was introduced in 2012 to celebrate the English manufacturer's 50th anniversary. ![]()
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