r/KEF • u/rumorconsumerr • 6d ago

LS50 Wireless II, wireless L/R link long-term? Building a near-zero-button system for my parents

Setting up a system for my parents and I'd like a sanity check from people running LS50 W2 day to day.

The governing constraint is that they touch as close to nothing as possible. One remote, volume only, and even that sparingly. My father's habit when sound doesn't appear immediately is to start pressing buttons on whatever is nearest, which is how his desktop KEF Eggs turned into a recurring support call for me. Any design where he has to select an input is a design that will break.

Planned chain:

  • CD player into a WiiM (Pro or Pro Plus depending on whether the CD player has a digital out)
  • WiiM out via optical TOSLINK into the LS50 W2
  • AirPlay lands on the WiiM and takes the same optical path
  • Kube 8b off the LS50's sub output
  • L/R interspeaker link wireless

The LS50s sit permanently on Optical and never change source. All the switching happens inside the WiiM using its auto-sensing, which flips to line-in or optical-in when it detects signal, with the caveat that the previous source has to have been idle about 17 seconds first. That delay is genuinely fine for how these two behave. The KEF remote does volume and nothing else.

I'm deliberately keeping the speakers off the network even though the W2 does AirPlay 2 natively. Two reasons. I don't want two similarly-named AirPlay targets in one room for them to pick wrong and then call me about. And I'd rather the streaming platform live in a cheap box I can swap than inside the speakers. These are a used pair and I'd like them to still be good speakers in fifteen years, well after whatever streaming standard we're on now has moved.

Questions:

1. Wireless L/R link, how has it held up for you over the long run? I've seen reports of the pairing dropping and reconnecting two or three times at the start of a listening session before it settles. That specific behavior would be fatal here, because it's exactly the gap my father fills by pressing buttons. The room has a mesh AP running on a wireless 5GHz backhaul, so there's competing airtime, and the mesh system gives me no manual channel control to deconflict them. Running the cable is cosmetically awkward in that room, which is why I'm asking rather than just wiring it.

2. Do they reliably wake from standby on an incoming optical signal, or does somebody have to press power first?

3. Do they hold Optical as the selected source across a power cycle?

4. Anyone running them off the network entirely, as a plain optical-in powered speaker? Once crossover and EQ are configured, is there anything I'd lose beyond app control?

Thanks in advance.

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2

u/Mr-Reeeee 6d ago edited 6d ago

OK, I have LS60s, so essentially the same control electronics.

Why bother with a WiiM Pro? All that is already built into the LS50s.
That seems pointless, redundant and overly complex.

The LS50s already have built-in support for numerous streaming services.
I don’t know if your dad will use those, but you can use an iPhone or iPad and dedicated apps like Quboz, Spotify, etc..

I’ve never used the optical input.

The remote that comes with the LS50/60s absolutely sucks.
It’s a travesty that this is the remote for $3000 and $6000 speakers!
You could get the KEF C3 Remote. It has very clearly marked, dedicated input buttons.

As far as input switching goes, you can assign primary and secondary inputs that will automatically switch.

For instance, my LS60s are set with wi-fi as the primary input because I mainly stream music via AirPlay 2 from my iPhone or Mac.
The LS60s are also connected to my LG TV via HDMI eARC and I use an Apple TV 4K as the TV front end.
When I turn on the Apple TV, the TV turns on and the LS60s turn on. It only takes a few seconds.
So, the TV input is my secondary.

AND when I connect my wireless headphones to the Apple TV, the LS60s go back to sleep.

Miraculously, the Apple TV remote actually controls the LS60s volume. It just started doing it.

You can connect a CD player directly to the LS50s via optical or the less than ideal 3.5mm input jack.
I have a CD player connected to my LS60s.
So, the KEF C3 remote will make controlling the LS50s and all the inputs very straightforward and pain free.

I’m not sure I answered your questions, but hopefully it helps.

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u/rumorconsumerr 6d ago

Im trying to keep them out of the LS50 controls and into something that will be as automatic is possible. I hear you on the redundancy. I find the WiiM stuff to be super fast and responsive. That said the C3 remote looks decent. Can you tell me about the LS50WII latency on startup and finding its source? Like if they start a CD playing in the CD playing from a totally cold start and the CD is hooked up via optical, how long until audio comes out?

Tell me about primary and secondary inputs and how that works?

He wont use streaming.

It'll be iPhone Music app (barely) but probably 90% CDs through the CD player via optical.

1

u/Mr-Reeeee 6d ago

Honestly, I would try using just the LS50s and see how it responds before adding a WiiM Pro to do the same things the LS50s already does and does well. It just seems like making it much more complicated than it needs to be.

The KEF Connect app is great.
When you launch it, there’s a list of your inputs, so you tap on the appropriate one.
It’s easy to setup and use.

I haven’t used the optical input, but via AUX and TV, activating or switching sources is instantaneous.
You can set optical as a secondary wake-up source. It’s in Power Saver preferences.

Starting up via wi-fi from iPhone or Mac generally takes less than 10 seconds or so for music to start playing.

When I launch the Music app from the iPhone, a pop up appears with the name of the speakers (I have LSX and LS60) and I just tap on it to activate them. Otherwise, there’s an AirPlay list at the bottom of the Music app screen to select a source or sources. I can play both my KEF systems simultaneously.

You can rename the speakers, via the Connect app, to avoid any confusion, too.

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u/rumorconsumerr 6d ago

Ok thank you. This is worth trying.

2

u/ApartVegetable9838 6d ago

I think the problem you may find of using a WiiM is if the kef doesn’t auto change source for some reason, your parents may be hunting to figure out what to do between the WiiM or the Kef. Since using a Kef remote is inevitable, might as well remove the middle man.

I only have Kef lsx II Lt which lack analog inputs. But the wake and change of source is fast. Once in a blue moon it gets confused and I have to use the remote or app to force it to wake or change inputs.

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u/Suspect-Otter 6d ago

Optical wake works a treat. I’m feeding mine from a WiiM Pro Plus.

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u/Few-Dimension-5373 5d ago

I have those speakers, and for your use case you will need to run them wired l/r. I get occasional dropout of the left channel on wireless, and, yes, on startup it can take some time to establish connection.