Audiophilepure

I loved my time with the LSX IIs. The best pieces of equipment get slotted into my listening room and basically disappear if I’m not actively taking listening notes and comparing them to other gear. They become the medium through which I’m enjoying music and nothing else. The LSX IIs vanished almost the second they were set up, and I got over the brief learning curve and really dove into what they can do. After a day, their novelty wore off, and I found myself listening to music for the fun of it, and that’s really the biggest takeaway from this entire review. I was delighted by their sound, their ease-of-use, and all the important improvements KEF worked into the LSX IIs. If anyone’s looking for a pair of wireless speakers that can do just about anything at a genuinely reasonable price, these should be at the top of the list.

 It is not as easy to achieve the wall of sound experience with dynamic speakers having fewer woofers. Some listeners enjoy the perceived fullness that the additional woofers create despite the slightly additive effect of the multiple wavelaunches. Having switched dozens of times from speakers with a minimal number of drivers to those having multiples, I have never experienced a line source type speaker that does not have slightly less precision in the bass due to the multiplication of bass drivers. However, I also have never heard a speaker with minimal drivers create that wall of sound with the fullness that multiple drivers afford. It is a design principle that one either enjoys and accepts or does not enjoy and rejects. I appreciate the virtues of both and so regularly hear both types of designs. I feel they are both legitimate expressions that capture different aspects of sound reproduction.

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/1176-kharma-elegance-db7-s-loudspeaker

Finally, on Amber Rubarth’s “Hold On,” my Reference 3s produced a more relaxed rendition of the California-born singer-songwriter’s vocal performance. Both the opening cello and violin lacked the alluring sheen and brilliance that the Kharmas were able to conjure, though the KEFs did do a similarly nice job of recreating the instruments in space. I felt as if I were peering through each Reference 3 and could see the respective instruments in my mind’s eye. But at what cost? They just didn’t sound as dynamic. And while my KEFs’ stereo image of Rubarth’s vocal was the full equal of the Kharmas’, I missed the latter’s zest and greater sense of dimensionality.

 I normally measure distortion using an 85dB signal across the bandwidth at my listening position, which would be about 94dB at one meter from the speaker. For the Line Array Majors, a 95dB signal at the listening position was used – a full 10dB above the normal test. This was loud enough that I wore earbuds for protection while taking the measurements. This is a slow sine wave, and not an enjoyable listen. It’s also a very difficult test for a speaker.

Let’s look at some distortion data from 80Hz and up. The black line is the frequency sweep, and the blue line is the THD+N. Any point with a 40 dB or greater spread between the lines is 1% THD or less. At 80-160Hz, we saw nothing higher than 1.47% THD. Above 160Hz, the THD was below 0.5%, hitting a low of 0.14% at 1,000Hz. This is an astonishing performance and dovetails perfectly with the listening results