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KEF LS50 Wireless II with Amazon Music HD

KEF can come up with a quite significant innovation around the KEF LS50 Wireless II. The active speaker system from England is now able to play back content in hi-res audio via the Amazon Music HD service.

The KEF LS50 Wireless II is the latest generation of the compact, yet very powerful active loudspeaker system from the English loudspeaker specialist KEF, which offers a wide range of connections for a wide variety of sources, but is of course also equipped for streaming.

The equipment of this system is designed to be so flexible that one can clearly say that the KEF LS50 Wireless II is designed in such a way that you don’t really need anything else besides this active speaker system, and probably even more consistently than its predecessor, the KEF LS50 Wireless.

KEF Uni-Q drivers with MAT

Featuring KEF’s unique Metamaterial Absorption Technology, or KEF MAT, and 5.15-inch 12th generation KEF Uni-Q drivers, this two-way active system uses KEF’s Music Integrity Engine to deliver outstanding sound through a combination of 100-watt Class A/B amplifier modules and 280-watt Class D amplifier modules.

Numerous interfaces

In addition to the analogue input, which is a 3.5 mm stereo mini-jack, there are two S/PDIF interfaces – one optical TOS link, one coaxial S/PDIF – and one HDMI input, which is an eARC, or enhanced Audio Return Channel.

Bluetooth is also available, but the flexibility of the KEF LS50 Wireless II is mainly due to the new KEF Wireless Platform W2, which allows streaming via the network as a dlna-certified UPnP streaming client, as well as Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Chromecast.

  • Foto © KEF | KEF LS50 Wireless II mit Amazon Music HD
  • Foto © KEF | KEF LS50 Wireless II mit Amazon Music HD
  • Foto © KEF | KEF LS50 Wireless II mit Amazon Music HD
  • Foto © KEF | KEF LS50 Wireless II mit Amazon Music HD
  • Foto © KEF | KEF LS50 Wireless II mit Amazon Music HD

The system is designated as Roon-ready and you can access Internet Radio through Podcasts to TIDAL including TIDAL Connect, Spotify including Spotify Connect, Deezer, Qobuz and Apple Music also Amazon Music.

Now support for Amazon Music HD

The KEF LS50 Wireless II is now able to play back content in hi-res audio via the Amazon Music HD service.

The system supports not only content that Amazon describes as HD, but also that which is described as Ultra HD.

KEF LS50 Wireless II mit Amazon Music HD 10
Foto © KEF | KEF LS50 Wireless II mit Amazon Music HD

According to the provider, Amazon Music HD offers more than 70 million music titles in HD, i.e. ultimately lossless “CD quality” with 16 bit and 44.1 kHz, but also Ultra HD and thus true hi-res audio with up to 24 bit and 192 kHz.

Getting to the point

Once again, KEF improves the outstanding KEF LS50 Wireless II active speaker system, which now supports Amazon Music HD content. This opens up a catalogue of lossless encoded “CD quality” content for users, but most importantly, Hi-res audio content that can be accessed directly.

PRODUCTKEF LS50 WIRELESS II
PriceKEF LS50 Wireless II € 2.499,-
KEF S2 Floor Stand € 450,-
BrandKEF
ManufacturerKEF
DistributionGP Acoustics GmbH
More about this manufacturer at HiFi BLOG
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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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