KEF LS50
 

I have been reading some rave reviews of the new Q100 drive units from KEF and in particular the LS50 Mini Monitor. (£800.00)
Has anyone listened to them?
The drive unit is very interesting but I do not think that it is available as a bare drive unit yet for DIY'ing, which is a shame.

I haven't seen KEF drivers for sale to the DIY'ers, maybe iirc, passive radiators but that's about it.
As for the LS50, it may be nice but i'm not interested in a 85db two-way 1"Al dome/5.25" Al/Mg midbass 8Ω loudspeaker with a min 3.2Ω dip for the type of power amps i like to use.

You're not impressed!?
You have not heard them, so......maybe reserve judgment until you have.
I am certainly looking forward to hearing them; the driver technology is impressive and the build quality is way to advanced for even highly skilled DIY ers. I have a smallish room and neighbours so high spl levels are not needed so they would suit my circumstances.
A 3.2 ohm dip is no big deal if you have a half decent amplifier! I have Linn Isobarik's running off a NAD 2100 amp and they dip way below 3.2 ohms and the amp never clips or misses a beat even when it's too load to think and the NAD is an average amp!!!

They are DIY available, but intermittently it seems.

Speaker Exchange | KEF Q100 Midrange/HF 6″ Dual Concentric Driver

AJ uses the drivers in his Soundfield offerings:

Gallery

Cheers,

Dave.

Yeah, you're right. Just one on offer, not a pair. Shame. I wonder how AJ is getting his? Direct from KEF I guess.

Looks like allot of OEM parts are available at Speaker Exc., i bookmarked the link.

jerryo, good luck with the LS50's.

He didn't say he's not impressed, he said he's not interested, given that they do not have sufficient efficiency for the type of amplifiers he runs -presumably low output (as in < 10w) SS and valve types, which is fair enough.

You might get some more replies in the multiway section of the forum.

jerryo, the #1 is just the quantity set by default, click on it, backspace the 1 out and type in 2, two drivers will appear in your shopping cart and at checkout.

Hi Scotmoose, you're right of course if mp9 is using low power valve amps, so, as you say
"fair enough"

Hi mp9, I'll take another look at the Speaker Exchange, but I do not think I am ready to start another project just yet. Is Scotmoose right about valve amps?

Cheers

Doesn't really make much difference in the sense to which I'm referring what the output device itself is, just the quantity of power available and output impedance. There are some extremely high quality low power amplifiers available of all types, but that does mean you need high efficiency speakers, preferably, although not invariably, with a modest load.