The brand new KEF LS60 Wireless is here! We take an in-depth look and share our thoughts having tested them out over the last week. One thing is for sure, these are conversation starters. Let us know in the comments what you think
Is a new era of hi-fi here well kef seem
to think so with the launch of their new
ls60 wireless but do you agree let’s
find out I’ve had the privilege of being able to
spend a good few days now with the new
KEF LS60 Wireless Review
kef ls60 wireless speakers launched in
celebration of kef’s 60th anniversary
and they’re a result of years of
research and development culminating in
what kef described as the most advanced
active loudspeaker system to leave their
assembly line while still working upon
the foundations set by their founder
Raymond cooked in 1961. now you are in for
a treat with this article as we’re going
to be going super in-depth on these
ls60s and I’m sure the main question on
your mind is how do they sound well I’ll
be telling you and showing you later in
the article as well as answering some of
your questions but first I want to kick
off with the backstory behind these
ls60s as never has a backstory been so
relevant in a kef product until now so
kef was founded in Maidstone in the UK
in 1961 by Raymond cook who’s an ex-BBC
electrical engineer who was keen to
experiment with new materials and
technologies to create products that
could reproduce recordings as natural as
the original performance
so by 1988 kef had designed and patented
the world’s first truly coincident
source speaker driver unique and that
enlarged the sweet spot so that means
that everyone could sit at different
spots in the room to experience the same
natural detailed sound
kef ls60s its 12th generation
unique became the building block of kef
signature sound and sits at the heart of
almost all of their speakers today
including the kef ls60s behind me that
unique is now in its 12th generation
having been redesigned especially for
the ls60s as the slimmest product that
kef have ever made interestingly
following on from our announcement article
of the kef ls60s, we had such a varied
response from you guys in the comments
some of you have found they’re going to
be perfect for you and apparently are
just going to be buying them straight
away and others have made it clear that
you’re going to be sticking with your
own hi-fi systems now the ls60s are
priced at 6 000 pounds and have been
announced for release in the summer of 2022
so if you want more details or you want
to purchase a pair I’ll flash a QR code
on the screen now and also leave a link
in the down below so key things to know
then so the kef ls60s are a brand new
product they’re not replacing anything
and they’ll be available alongside the
other models in kef’s wireless category
of speakers in a color choice of
titanium grey mineral whites which are
the ones we have here and royal blue i
think a big statement of intent from kef
is not offering the traditional black
these are also in fact kef’s first-ever
wireless stereo tower system which aims
to combine all of the technologies and.
You can actually achieve hi-fi quality
techniques they’ve learned over the last
60 years and the ls60s are a statement
set of speakers that are trying to
convince us that you can actually
achieve hi-fi quality without a separate
amplifier without speaker cable
and a fraction of the size and actually
I’m going to say cost as well and I say
cost because these retail for six
thousand pounds a pair but they actually
used a lot of similar technology found
in their kef blades of which the one
metals are worth thirty thousand pounds
so I am really pleased that kef have
been generous enough to trickle that
technology down into the ls60s the
unique driver houses the 19 millimeter
aluminum dome tweeter at the center and
You can actually achieve hi-fi quality
the 100-millimeter aluminum mid-range
cone each speaker comes with four or five
and quarter-inch unicore woofers taken
from their kc-62 subwoofer which are
found on the size of each speaker and
they’ve been arranged so that they’re
forced canceling to eliminate as much
vibration as possible now kef were
actually the pioneers of this technology
back in the 1970s, they moved away
from a bit but then came back to it with
their blades now this is topped off with
something called metamaterial absorption
technology m80 which kef claim
Purer more natural sound
Eliminates 99 unwanted noise from
the rear of the tweeter and the result that
you get is a purer more natural sound so
there is a lot of technology at work
here and a lot of heritage in these
speakers the driver layout also utilizes
what kef calls a single apparent source
where low mid and high frequencies all
radiate from one central point now all
of these drivers are powered by
a mixture of bespoke class a b and class d
amplification delivering a combined 1400
watts of power which are located at the
bottom of the speakers which have a
clever design to ventilate airflow now i
would love to get right into the sound
quality but first I want to take a quick
moment to appreciate the beauty of these
I have to say they look so much better
in the flesh, compared to online I think
these might even have a chance of
blending into your interior and keeping
everyone in the home is happy they’re
simplistic and understated and they’re
not too busy on the front now these
ls60s have also been completely slimmed
down in terms of width measuring less
then the width of your iphone so really
you shouldn’t be having any problems
trying to find a space even in a
relatively small room if you’re unsure
about whether these are going to fit in,
Speaker weighs 31 kilograms
your home or how they’re going to look i
think kef have ar on their page so you
can place them in your room and see what
they would look like so I’ll flash up a
QR code on the screen now if you want to
take a look at that now each speaker
weighs 31 kilograms and a lot of that
weight comes from a really quite heavy
base plate so they’re not going to be
going anywhere in the box you’re also
supplied with carpet spikes or rubber
feet depending on which type of floor
you have as well as a basic remote
control which looks like it was inspired
by the apple tv remote connections wise
there’s also quite a good choice here so
the HDMI e arc is great to see so that
you can have these on either side of your
tv and use them for your tv speaker
the system so more on that later you’ve also
got an optical in you’ve got digital
coax you’ve got analog RCA so yes feel
free to hook up a turntable cd player
whatever you want you’ve got two
Ethernet ports one for a hardwired
connection to your network and the other
for the optional wired speaker link and
there are also two subwoofer outputs one
on each speaker, just in case you want to
add up to two subwoofers.
Future technologies of kef
so I think this is also a good place to cover
a few comments that we had on the
preview article regarding upgradeability
now of course if anything fails on these
speakers they can be easily repaired and
regards accommodating future
technologies kef have always done a good
job of pushing free over-the-air
software updates to keep your speakers
up to date now if a time does come when
these speakers can’t handle a specific
the technology you’ll always have your HDMI
optical and RCA connections are available
which aren’t of course going anywhere
soon now these are wireless speakers so
setup is completed simply by plugging
both speakers into mains power you don’t
need to create any speaker cable.
interlinks and then you just complete
the setup using the kef connect app and
by the way the kef connect app is one of
the most robust and detailed speaker
customization apps I’ve ever come across
for a wireless speaker, there is just one
kef app now rather than two and I must
say they have made some significant
improvements in this area it is just
much cleaner overall and it gives me
apple vibes honestly not sure why now
the eq settings are where it’s all
happening because there’s a wealth of
customization here I like that you can
save modes for all of your eq settings.
Customize the base extension
you’ve got wall mode to reduce
boominess if the speakers are close to a
the wall you can increase the treble you’ve
got phase correction and you can even
customize the base extension you’ve also
got things like balance control you can
tell kef how many subs you’re using and
even which sub you’re actually using
whether it’s a custom one or one of kef’s own
towards the bottom as well you have more
sub settings like sub gain polarity i
mean you can really customize to your
heart’s content and I’d highly recommend it.
just playing around with this because
your room is obviously going to have
quite a significant impact on what you
hear so it’s peace of mind that kef have
provided this many options now we’ve got
a whole host of streaming options
including Spotify connect airplay 2
Bluetooth 4.2 Chromecast tidal connect
plus its also room ready and you’ve got
more streaming options available through
kef’s own streaming app it will also do
high-res files so you can actually get
up to 24-bit 384 kilohertz with
connection over a cable but without
Get up to 24-bit 96 kilohertz Cable
The cable you can get up to 24-bit 96
kilohertz now I saw a few of you in the
announcement article picks up on the fact
that the ls60s only have Bluetooth 4.2
and people have gone as far as saying
it’s a deal-breaker for them now off the
back of your comments, we did reach out
to kef on this point and they’ve said
that while Bluetooth 5.0 and above can
handle more data and it’s faster but
currently, due to codec support, there is
no audio difference and to be honest i
think most of the kef’s audience will most
likely stream over wifi anyway because
of the benefits that it offers compared
to Bluetooth now on to the sound quality
then so where to start now I could just
describe the sound quality.
i’d rather show you guys now big big
disclaimer here first of all this will
not do the ls60s justice seeing as there
are six thousand pounds set of speakers
and also because they’re being recorded
by the binaural microphone and then
transmitted to the speakers on your
device but it will give you a flavor for
the sound profile we are also limited to
non-copyright tracks we can find so it’s
not ideal but we’ve got a range of
genres and listen out for the clarity of
the vocals the tightness of the bass and
the sweetness of the mid-range.
kef has absolutely nailed
now we tested the ls60s first with
Spotify connects then with airplay 2
Bluetooth and then tidal connect using
their mqa files and firstly I’ve got to
say kef has absolutely nailed it with
the stereo reproduction
the presence that you get feels like
you’re watching someone perform live on
stage and it cannot be understated how
well those unique drivers do a great job
of giving you that all-encompassing
sense of the sound they capture every
element of the track and I can
personally guarantee you will hear
things in your favorite tracks.
you’ve never heard before and that
happened to us when listening to a track
by bonobo which was cirrus and I never
even realized there are actually two
bells at the start, not one now I know
that kef have sometimes been criticized
in the past for the mid-range but the
12th generation unique in these ls60s
for us delivers in this department
London grammar’s big picture which we
streamed via tidal as a mqa file was
a prime example of that combined with the
clarity of her vocals it actually
invoked emotions and I guess that’s.
Such richness and presence
how do you know the speaker is doing a good job
the bass was also extremely controlled
you can feel it get extremely low but it
was also just as impactful
there’s just zero distortion and you’d
expect this level of bass from a set of
twenty thousand pounds pair of speakers
I’d say and I’d also comment that the
vocals are outstanding if not the best
thing about the ls60s they add such a
richness and presence that it makes you
feel connected to the music
the utilization of kef’s single apparent
the source also adds to these speakers as
you have every frequency projected from
a smaller area which adds to the detail
and the imaging now.
I really would recommend investing in a high-res music
server subscription to get the most out
of these such as tidal hi-fi Deezer
elite amazon music ultra HD etc so you
can really squeeze every bit of detail
out of your tracks now as you’d be
spending 6 000 pounds on a set of
wireless speakers, I would predict a lot
of you out there might be thinking to
double these up as your tv speakers
especially as they come with that HDMI
er, connection.
Enjoying these speakers sometimes
now these are a stereo set of speakers
and they are primarily designed for
music listening because at the end of
the day the most you’re going to be able
to achieve is 2.2 and that’s if you
added two subwoofers to the system
there’s no dedicated center website and
while it won’t replace dedicated
multi-website systems having the option
is great and this 12th gen unique
drivers are probably the best driver to
have in a stereo pair setup if you are
going to use a tv setup without a center
speaker following on from our sound test
you can probably tell I am really
enjoying these speakers sometimes we can
get hung up on the specifications of this
and that but ultimately these connected
me to my music and they made me want to
listen to my collection over and over
again whichever way you look at it 6 000
pounds is an emotional purchase it’s not
a rational purchase but the emotion is
exactly where the ls60s deliver right
then so firstly for me
Best possible performance
i would just buy these speakers they’re
a fit for me but i understand that
they’re not going to be a fit for
everyone and that is okay
this is what innovation and new products
are good for just inviting a conversation
the interesting thing about the ls60s is
that the positives i give are going to be
some people’s negatives and vice versa
so here are some of the takeaway points
about the ls60s and you can decide if
they’re going to be a pro or a con for you.
so a big pro for some is that these
speakers have uniquely matched
components meaning every driver is
paired with a custom amplifier designed
to give the best possible performance
which takes away the worry that am i
choosing the right combination of
equipment to make the most of my system
and all of that comes in a neat
the aesthetic package is now on the flip side
this will be a negative for some as
taking the decision away of choosing a
specific amplifier with a certain set of
speakers and maybe a DAC you love is a
no-go and an integral part of
You would struggle to pair
The hi-fi journey and learning for you again
following on from that point as the
drivers and the amplifiers are perfectly
matched we truly believe that if these
were passive speakers at a lesser cost
you would struggle to pair these with a
suitable amp for under six thousand
pounds a great example of this is the
ls50 metals and the ls50 wireless two
again on the flip side part of the fun
and enjoyment of some people’s hifi
the journey is to try different components
on your system over time whatever your
thoughts the one thing i can guarantee
is if you sit down and listen to a pair
of these speakers
you’ll forget about everything and just
be immersed in the audio which is
probably the biggest compliment you can
pay any speaker so that’s really our
thoughts guys and we have to remember
this is kind of a new and emerging
market, where hi-fi meets wi-fi kef, are
inviting a new conversation that other
manufacturers maybe don’t want to start
which is actually yes you can get a
similar-sounding hi-fi setup that’s on
wi-fi and it doesn’t conform to that
traditional hi-fi aesthetic so we want
to invite a conversation with
what are your thoughts
you guys in the comments what are your thoughts
whatever you think about the kef ls6s i
hope you enjoyed the review anyway a bit
of a long one but I have thoroughly
enjoyed having these here and I’m gonna
be very sad to see them go actually
I’ll leave the comments section open to
Share your thoughts but do keep it
friendly that’s all from me so catch you
in the next article.
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