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KEF LS60

badger748

badger748

Former bacon enthusiast
Anyone heard these?

Was thinking of a set for our second living room / dining room, to replace some Q Acoustics Active 200. We stream only in this room, Tidal via Roon.

The LS60 has had good reviews, but very few people seem to be buying them! The £6k new price drops below £5k with a phone call and there’s demo/‘traded’ ones below £4k.

So they lose value like a falling stone. Is this because they are a bit sh*t? Anyone actually heard them?
 
Haven't heard them myself but the discounted prices on such a new model makes you wonder.

The little LSX are pretty good and certainly more than capable for background music or casual listening.
 
I'm going to listen to a pair at the Sound Organisation in York on Friday. I’ll keep you posted
I like the sound of the system I’ve got but it feels a trifle over complicated / silly. I’ve now got 7 black boxes. The thought of condensing everything down into 2 speakers and a Roon core is very appealing so I’m going to have a listen to the LS60s and then possibly to the Dynaudio Focus 30/50s in the New Year. Keith now stocks the LS60s so hopefully he’ll chip in at some stage. Losing the bass and / or the lovely integrated sound of my Revel F208s would be a deal breaker though.
 
Lots of dealers have them - and advertise them at £list. Which from what i've found with cursory research, is very wishful thinking.
 
Discounting shows nothing more than available margin on the product or that dealers have too much stock of something.

Only heard them at a show but they did a great job of providing room filling sound with no obvious flaws. Can't say more than that for a show demo really. We're I wanting simplicity and good sound I'd give them a punt.
 
I've also only heard them at a show (this year's North West show, IIRC). They filled a decent sized room pretty well - some people were surprised it wasn't the Blades playing (they had them both set up, next to each other). They weren't being used at high levels, and I suspect there'd have been no confusion between them and Blades if they had, but for a smaller space, where the Blades won't fit, I could see them finding favour if you like what the Blades do.

There's a lot of competition at that price and thereabouts, though. It seems to be a bit of a sweet spot for quality vs cost for some reason. I'd want to do some careful comparisons before buying.
 
sq225917 said:
Discounting shows nothing more than available margin on the product or that dealers have too much stock of something.

Only heard them at a show but they did a great job of providing room filling sound with no obvious flaws. Can't say more than that for a show demo really. We're I wanting simplicity and good sound I'd give them a punt.
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My feeling too Simon.
 
Listening to a pair now, they are uncoloured, superb pin point imaging, bass extension is pretty decent and they have provision within their amp to easily add sub/subs.
They are extremely convenient to use, download the Kef ‘connect’ app and away you go.
If you have a really large room and wish to play really loudly then probably not for you, they are tonally very similar to the Kii Three and they are adjustable for bass and treble output.
I hope KEF make an active version of their Blade.
Just to add the LS50/KC62 combination is cheaper offers the same functionality and might be worth considering .
Keith
 
I considered the LS60 & must confess that I did not get around to listening to them. What put me off, after a bit of research, was that the warranty on the electronics is just for 2 years which, to me, didn’t seem long enough. I would have felt much more comfortable with a 5 year warranty.

ATC provide a 6 year warranty with their actives (providing you register the product).
 
Given that the LS60 has 4 13cm woofers per speaker, mounted on the sides of the cabinet, is close proximity to sidewalls more problematic than for more traditional floorstanding designs?
 
I was really interested in these until I’d realised they don’t do any ‘real’ room correction. Sure, you can do some very basic things like adjust the bass, but I’d expect at least some parametric EQ on these for the price.

For me, speakers like this are the future. But this one just isn’t quite there. It’s all well and good having a speaker that goes that low with such a small footprint, but they missed a trick in not implementing DIRAC et al to make the most of it.

It would be a shame if these aren’t selling well, as I’d imagine it’ll put KEF off doing something similar but better in the future.
 
That is true no PEQ but in ‘expert’ mode you can adjust the bass output which allow for proximity to front wall there is also an adjustment for treble, you can also choose to extend the bass further and adjust for off-centre positioning as well as sub/subs integration, phase, gain high and low pass.
I use the PEQ in Roon.
Keith
 
My main point in these was the insane prices they are being sold for - which points to poor performance or poor sales. If the latter, resale value down the road (not to mention the stingy 2 year warranty on electronics)
 
I think Kefs problem is too many ranges. The LS60 look a bit 'lifestyle', but probably perform really well. The R series are cheaper (although passive of course) and probably sound really close, maybe even better with the R11. Then you go Blade and you hit the 'rich lifestyle' category, which probably sound great, but not in a VFM sense. So LS60 starts to look like a lifestyle product choice only and that leaves a lot of audiophiles cold. Give it time, let the owners opinions over time be known, then hopefully they survive because I think the market needs them, but in 2 years if Kef releases a 'meta' version or LS60II they could shoot themselves in the foot, because that screams 'commodity lifestyle' product.
 
Do people think like that, "oh they have too many products to choose from, I'm going to buy from someone who has less to choose from."
 
lAmBoY said:
I think Kefs problem is too many ranges. The LS60 look a bit 'lifestyle', but probably perform really well. The R series are cheaper (although passive of course) and probably sound really close, maybe even better with the R11. Then you go Blade and you hit the 'rich lifestyle' category, which probably sound great, but not in a VFM sense. So LS60 starts to look like a lifestyle product choice only and that leaves a lot of audiophiles cold. Give it time, let the owners opinions over time be known, then hopefully they survive because I think the market needs them, but in 2 years if Kef releases a 'meta' version or LS60II they could shoot themselves in the foot, because that screams 'commodity lifestyle' product.
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The LS60 will have much better bass control than the R series and the Blades due to the technology used. It's measurably and audibly better.
 
Next year or maybe the year after Kef may make them in different finishes as they did with the LS50’s, and special editions.
 
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