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KEF LS50 Wireless II supports TIDAL Connect

KEF is one of the partners listed by TIDAL at the presentation of TIDAL Connect. Of course, it’s now the KEF LS50 Wireless II, just presented by KEF, which now directly supports the new interface, also known as Hi-Fi casting technology.


With the new TIDAL Connect function, the online streaming service TIDAL wants to offer a particularly elegant form of music playback of its offering, directly from its own app to various streaming devices. The newly introduced TIDAL Connect is designed to accomplish this task.

Already at the presentation of TIDAL Connect, TIDAL listed a number of partners that directly support this function. Among them is the English loudspeaker manufacturer KEF, which is now specifying which solutions will support TIDAL Connect. Unsurprisingly, the recently launched KEF LS50 Wireless II is the first hi-fi casting technology available with TIDAL Connect, and refers to the ability to transmit content not only in “CD quality” but also in hi-fi audio, using TIDAL HiFi and the Master Quality Authenticated, or MQA, technology.

This is a key feature from KEF’s point of view, as the English see themselves as pioneers and industry leaders at the forefront of changing audio technologies. The ability to enjoy music in the highest quality in the simplest possible way is therefore a top priority in the development of such solutions as the KEF LS50 Wireless II. TIDAL Connect now allows the unique, lossless audio quality of the TIDAL streaming platform to be experienced in a striking and harmonious way, in conjunction with the unaltered KEF sound signature, the company stated in a broadcast.

KEF has the highest standards of audio quality, and has invested three years of intensive research into the technology behind the new KEF LS50 Wireless II and its underlying new KEF W2 wireless platform. The goal was to raise the bar for sound quality and ease of use, and a solution like TIDAL and TIDAL Connect fits the bill perfectly, as well as providing intuitive, direct access to music, especially in a system that doesn’t use cables.

The KEF LS50 Wireless II is housed in an extremely elegant, compact enclosure and, as mentioned above, is designed to be a cable-free solution. Music streaming is therefore the focus, with TIDAL via TIDAL Connect only one option. UPnP is also supported as an industry standard, as well as Google Chromecast and Apple AirPlay 2. Access to numerous other services such as Spotify including Spotify Connect, Qobuz, Deezer, Amazon Music and Podcasts is also possible, and the active speaker system is designated as Roon Ready. Bluetooth and conventional interfaces are also available, from HDMI to an optical and coaxial S/PDIF interface to an analogue input, everything is available to serve as a flexible audio system. The outstanding KEF Uni-Q chassis is driven by powerful amplifiers, with a total output of 380 watts. These are distributed over 100 watts by a Class A/B amplifier for the tweeter and 280 watts by a Class D amplifier for the mid-bass drivers. The signal processing is handled by the so-called KEF Music Integrity Engine.

The KEF LS50 Wireless II system is available in Carbon Black, Titanium Grey, Mineral White and Crimson Red Special Edition. It is currently available at a suggested retail price of €2,499.

TIDAL Connect requires a subscription to the streaming service. Then TIDAL Connect is available directly via the TIDAL App for Apple iOS and Google Android using the new device selection, which can be found directly on the playback screen in the lower left corner.

Getting to the point

Already at the presentation of TIDAL Connect, TIDAL listed a number of partners that directly support this function. Among them is the English loudspeaker manufacturer KEF, which is now specifying which solutions will support TIDAL Connect. Unsurprisingly, the recently launched KEF LS50 Wireless II is the first hi-fi casting technology available with TIDAL Connect, and refers to the ability to transmit content not only in “CD quality” but also in hi-fi audio, using TIDAL HiFi and the Master Quality Authenticated, or MQA, technology.

Manufacturer:KEF
Distribution:GP Acoustics GmbH
Price:€ 2.499,-
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Michael Holzinger

Michael Holzinger, founder and editor-in-chief of HiFi BLOG and sempre-audio.at, has been working for years as a journalist in the fields of IT, photography, telecommunications and consumer electronics.

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