KEF LSX – Wireless Active Stereo Speakers with Bluetooth and Wifi Multiroom connectivity, Olive Gree
Play anything. Hear everything.
From streaming to gaming, from TV to multi-room music, LSX is designed for all your home entertainment needs. Play what you like, how you like, where you like and experience it all in glorious high-resolution stereo.
Contoured baffle. Hear the music, not the speaker.
Optimised using Finite Element Analysis, LSX’s contoured baffle improves sound dispersion, ensuring that sound waves travel outwards and are not reflected around the cabinet surface. The result? A purer sound, with less cabinet colouration.
Features:
- LF: 70W/HF: 30W Per Speaker
- Resolution up to 192kHz/24bit
- Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, TIDAL
- Bluetooth 4.2 with Qualcomm aptX
- Roon Tested
- Optical Input and Analog Inputs
- Subwoofer Output
- Range of matching accessories available
Give your music the space it deserves.
The convenience and connectivity of wireless. The emotion and detail of true high-resolution stereo. And all from a compact system designed to fit almost anywhere. LSX is the speaker system for the way we listen today. From streaming to gaming, from TV to multi-room music, LSX is designed for all your home entertainment needs.
True stereo speakers, for a three-dimensional musical soundstage!
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DSP. Small speakers, big sound.LSX uses KEF’s Music Integrity Engine – bespoke Digital Signal Processing that helps the speakers deliver transparent bass with great extension, while reducing distortion. So you can fill your room with rich, full-bodied sound. With two speakers positioned apart from each other, you’ll experience music as a 3D soundstage, with the pin-point imaging and sense of presence that one-box systems miss. It’s the difference between just hearing music, and really feeling it. | All the music on earth.With Spotify Connect and Tidal built in, all the music you love is at your fingertips. Stream from the cloud, or directly from a NAS drive or a computer through DLNA fully wirelessly at 48kHz/24bit resolution (or 96kHz/24bit using optional wired connection). Or simply use Bluetooth. LSX comes with Apple AirPlay 2 which, from a simple screen tap or request to Siri, unlocks the world of multi-room audio. Enjoy also the LSX app. | Design by Michael Young.Overseen by renowned product architect Michael Young, LSX’s design achieves a fine balance of form and function. Carefully considered details include port accent colours and a colour changing LED to subtly indicate which source is selected. The system comes with a choice of five colours, and is clad in an industrial fabric by Danish contemporary textile engineer, Kvadrat. | Uni-Q. The sweet spot just got a lot wider.LSX comes with KEF’s breakthrough Uni-Q driver array. By placing the tweeter at the centre of the midrange and bass cone, it radically improves stereo imaging. This not only makes music sound clear, detailed and lifelike, it does so across a wider listening area. Also, LSX’s contoured baffle improves sound dispersion, ensuring that sound waves travel outwards and are not reflected around the cabinet surface. |
KEF LSX Accessories
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| Available Colours | Black & Silver | Black & Silver | Black & Silver |
| Integrated cable management | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Secures to LSX integrated mounting system | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sold as a pair | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dimensions: | 18 x 15.5 x 24 cm; 9 Kilograms |
| Model: | SP3994JB |
| Batteries Included: | 1 Lithium Metal batteries required. (included) |
| Manufacture: | KEF |
I have set these up on my desk on some speaker stands (Kanto S2) and they look and sound great! It’s my first foray in to KEF; the sound is really well balanced, and the detail is very impressive. I have added a sub (Jamo S 808) as I felt they needed a bit more punch for some genres of music but can’t be faulted considering the small size. The sub is set to quite low in volume.
They took some tweaking but the setup app was easy enough to use. One point is that they really show the lack of clarity with MP3s and you really need to be streaming lossless to really help them shine. Currently I am using Apple Music. The KEF streaming app looks like it could do with a bit of work, although I never use it.
Overall the build quality of these speakers is very impressive; the remote could have been better but it’s easy enough to use.
Could not recommend these speakers more, and especially when they are sometimes discounted.
Now sometime in the near future I will look at replacing my home theatre setup with a set of KEF 350 5.1 🙂
I am using these as PC speakers in a near field setting and they are absolutely exceptional. I took pains to mount them to ear level and at a distance so they are equal distance apart from where I sit and the end result is amazing.
I have a full setup in the home, Amp, etc, yet in some ways these little KEF’s give me an experience the big system cannot. The sound is very central, in my case sounds like its coming from the screen which is exactly what I was hoping when sitting equal distance apart, about 70cm from ear to speaker. That said I can sit back 4m and the speakers have no issues filling the room. The sound is very detailed and clear but for me it tends more towards neutral which is fine. Even at the lower end these pack a solid punch, but there is a sub out so you can hook a sub up which will allow the whole package to dig deeper.
In terms of look, I have the white ones, and they look stunning to be honest. I have gone for a white setup so to be honest they fit in well, the small hint of copper on the UNI-Q driver looks nice and the detail even on the back is a nice touch. They do feel cheap when you touch them though, but aside from that look quality. The white one is difference in that it does not have cloth but rather a gloss white housing and the front is matt white, which I think looks stunning. The wall mounts are extremely overpriced, but I cannot deny work well as the speakers look like they are floating.
Now app wise its a mixed bag. The connection is garbage to be honest. Set up and config do read the steps, for me it was a pain initially, kept loosing connection so often with wifi and this is with having some know how, splitting the bands, best channel etc. Was very frustrating and as you can likely see from reviews am not the only one. The app has so many nice options like tweaking the EQ settings, but even then its a pain. It takes about 5-6 times of opening and closing the App. In my case the speakers could annoyingly only pick up my 2.4Ghz connection while most devices are on 5Ghz so I have to swap to 2.4Ghz to get speakers to show. In my case its not the biggest deal breaker as the speakers are connected to my PC via optical which works flawlessly thankfully and media played that way.
In a nutshell, these are amazing speakers and for my use case as near field they work very well. The sound is sublime and they work well. The App is crap, but fortunately for my use case it does not cause massive issues.
I do, so this had to be the desktop setup for my study for me it seemed – on paper (and in smartass reviews) at least…..
Want to know how good they sound? Try them with a modern compressed classic like Dia Lupa Pretty Please – vocals are crystal, the accompanying bass accurate and precise; or try something a bit more mature, Baby Plays Around by Annie Sofie Van Otter and Elvis Costello – sublime. But, but, but, those don’t need much bass, they’re mid range dependent and that’s where these speakers shine. Try Marilyn Manson, Killing Strangers or the Beastie Boys, Intergalactic, you may be left scratching your head as to what all the fuss is about.
Despite the promises of great bass, as other reviews might lead you to believe, whilst punchy bass extension is there to a fair degree for the dimunitive package, it’s just not possible to be truly ‘thumped’ by little speakers like this; no matter how clever the DSP jiggery pokery in the box is, you are going to need need a sub, particulary if you are using them for lower volume near field listening which is where these are likely to sit for most people.
First impressions, its hard to understand why you need to bring an armoured car full of cash. Purported (by clever marketing people), to be scaled down versions of the LS50 wireles series perhaps? Spoiler alert, they’re not, except they look a bit similar – but then again so do most KEF speakers these days.
Hella Good they may be in the midrange soundwise they are essentially clever plastic boxes of Class D electronics and a Uni-Q driver. So the hefty price tag is not for the electronics and materials that’s for sure, its for the cleverness and R&D – and dare I say it , a whacking chunk of marketing hype – that’s gone into the the overall package.
The app is OK in my user experience, but its also a bit ‘meh’ on the whole, and it is a bit flakey – adjusting settings on the fly has a tendency to make whatever you’re listening to stop playing, often accompanied by an error message. Also the speakers have an odd tendency to emit a random electronic beep now and again, not sure what that’s about….? (Help me Obi Wan, you’re my only hope…..)?
It’s obvious that they would enable them as a Spotify end point, curious that they’ve only enabled Tidal for in app playback – no Qobuz, no Amazon, no internet radio(!) so you’re reliant on bluetooth for streaming those, and its Aptx low latency not HD – so you end up scratching your head over the source limtations this inevitably imposes – nevertheless the bluetooth connection and in speaker DSP upgrading does impress on the whole.
If this package was 4-500, maybe even at 600, I’d absolutley rave about it. But for my money, in the end they’re just a bit too expensive and I even say that against an open box deal price that got me 25% off.
But of course I’m keeping them because they’re KEF and I’m largely irrational…..ho hum…
In summary then, for me great, great, KEF sound, but, however you look at them, even through dreamy half closed eyes that are just a little bit in love, really, too, too much money.
Easy to set up . Quality of sound is amazing . Not the cheapest speakers but value for money given quality
I had a baby trying to set these up – basically because the TIDAL connection doesn’t work well where I tried to establish it (Africa) – but as soon as I used a VPN to get a Spotify Premium account everything worked perfectly.
This is my first attempt to get myself a decent system since I was a kid thirty five years ago or so.
What persuaded me to act now is the following:
– getting properly bored of desktop computer standard music reproduction (enhanced PC sound system etc.)
– needing something for a smallish room with a desk in it (my room)
– getting bored of buying CDs and ripping them and playing them on music players
– bored of piles of CDs and CD storage issues (that makes me feel so old)
– discovering that I could give up trying to get a good ‘music collection’ (on whatever format) and rely instead on the catalogue of a streaming service
because
– the streaming service has more of what I want music wise than I could ever get my ears on a different way
– the streaming service can get relatively high resolution music to me (Tidal was what first alerted me to this)
I think that’s all the major considerations in play. Well – if they’re in play (and you can’t spend twice as much etc. etc.) then this kit is the bananas for you.
They sit on my desk and I sit behind or in front of it (with appropriate turning of the speakers) – and the room is full of three dimensionally arranged instruments playing groovy music.
That’s what you pay for – what it makes sense to pay for. suddenly the music isn’t coming from a small space on the desk – its coming from a far bigger heard-space which goes well behind and well to the sides of the speakers. And suddenly the guitar’s in front of the drums and to the side of the organ. It is genuinely remarkable how little the apparent origin of the music has – apparently – to do with its actual origin in the two speakers.
But anyway its worth paying for that heard-space – to make the music three dimensional and to give the drums their space and the sax its etc. etc.
So I got that really wonderful musical sound – and I got access to Spotify’s jazz catalogue – and I didn’t get a big ‘hifi system’ – just these two groovy, carpeted, curved things.
It seems to me it was the right time to put some money down and get a hifi system.
These speakers live up to the hype, almost. If you’re on a budget you’ll have to factor in the cost of a sub woofer. They are rather thin in the bass department probably due to the smallish size. Luckily, or a admission by KEF, there is an out socket for a sub woofer already on the reverse of the speaker that drives the system. The main disappointment is the app from which you can allegedly control sound etc. Don’t bother with it, it’s useless. Also, peripherals work fine but the inbuilt Bluetooth sound isn’t very good. However, once again it’s easily cured with a dongle or a Apple Airport Express, which has been discontinued but you can pick one up second hand for under 20.
KEF have a mark 2 on the market which has supposedly better sound; but unless you have super refined hearing and over 2k to spare these are just as good, and the same drawbacks on this model apply to the later model.
Please do not judge these speakers out of the box. Initially I was underwhelmed at the sound quality and had buyers regret, however give them over 50 hours to burn in and you will not be disappointed. The bass was lacking at the beginning but gradually started to show itself over time. Stunning sound quality but make sure you position them so you can listen in their sweet spot it really does make a huge difference. Excellent build quality and look fabulous in red. My only gripe is the KEF app steaming Tidal which is terrible and I can’t get through a full album without losing connection. I have also connected my echo to the speakers via a jack cable and that sounds excellent too. Overall quite pricey (although I did get a pair for 800.00 as new condition) but we’ll worth it imo. Also using with my TV connected via optical so all my audio runs through slthese speakers making it very convenient. Highly recommended.
Great speakers in a neat package. . Quite fiddly to connect to WiFi from the app. Sound quality very impressive for such small speakers. EQ controls on the app seem comprehensive but don’t seem to make much difference.
I have replaced my soundbar with them and everything you throw at them sound immense (films, games, music, last of the summer wine). I have been an AV enthusiast for decades and the KEF LSX is easily the best grand I have spent on audio equipment.
Forget your separates, forget your soundbar/soundbase, high end active speakers are the future of hi fi and KEF is where it’s at….
Product is outstanding , just disappointed that Keff offer free gift speaker of id ordered it from Keff themselves even though they supplied it here
Some Initial connection issues: Setting them up is a pain in the bum and they are prone to losing WiFi connectivity which does in turn mean Airplay does occasionally not work. This did lead to a lot of frustration and can still can do occasionally. This would have normally lead me to knock off a star and I can see why this may lead to some people being very frustrated with these speakers.
I have not had a lot of HiFi experience especially in this price range so when I first managed to actually listen to a variety of audio sources it was hit and miss.
The optical input seems like it offers rather poor quality when listening to sources such as films from a TV etc. It was ok for films.
The Airplay audio quality is good but wasn’t great at first but to me the best quality on these speakers is through the Bluetooth! I have heard that some speakers need to be broken in over a period of time and the sound seems to be getting progressively better.
Now, especially over the Bluetooth, the audio is absolutely mesmerising!! In fact I am so overwhelmed by how good they have begun to sound from a variety of sources it has made me completely forget all the initial frustrations and I am completely in love with them!
The sound has become so beautiful and I have never experienced my music in such a way; I don’t know how they get these small, rather subtle boxes to create such a variety of audio textures. The perfect balance of amazing details and power… absolutely breathtaking!!!
So despite the finicky annoyances and initially quite underwhelming sound they now produce a sound that I love so much that I can not do anything else but gladly give them 5 stars. I am completely addicted!
PS. so if you have bought these recently and are feeling ripped off I would suggest persistence… oh and try Bluetooth if you want more audio power as apposed to the seemingly weaker Airplay.