All our speakers are designed to bring you as close to the original performance as possible. But no matter how particular we are, one thing we can’t control that has the ability to alter the sound of a speaker, is the room it’s placed in.
Our LS Wireless Collection of products (LS60 Wireless, LS50 Wireless II and LSX II) all feature on-board Digital Signal Processors (DSP) that are especially designed for each product. The goal with this is to provide the listener with magical experiences that articulate pristine musical reproduction, regardless of their listening environment. With our DSP, we help listeners get as much out of their LS Wireless products as possible. Our engineers have spent thousands of hours testing and adjusting the output of our speakers to get them to a point where listeners are hearing music just as the artist intended.
Every room is different, and every setup presents its own unique challenges to the loudspeaker’s performance. With the power of our DSP, speakers can be adjusted for certain room variances that would otherwise ruin the listening experience, or make it sound just like any other music system.
Desk and Wall Modes
With ported speakers like those in our LS Wireless Collection, the distance between the back of the speaker and the wall behind it affects performance at certain frequencies. This is most noticeable from around 200 Hz and below. Behind the speaker, bass energy tends to “pile up”. This gives you a little bit of extra bass energy, but at the cost of generally muddying the bass, which results in a loss of punch and articulation.
In Basic Mode, the KEF Connect app will ask you for the distance from the rear of your speaker to your wall, and in Expert Mode, it allows you to adjust for this distance in dB. With a little bit of experimentation, you’ll be able to dial in a setting that best suits your needs. We suggest starting with the highest attenuation (-6 dB), and then lessening it in increments from there until you find a setting that works best for you. Desk and Wall modes can be combined for an ultra-detailed Room EQ setting that best matches your space and taste.
Treble Trim
It’s important to remember that the size, shape and contents of a room have a strong impact on a speaker’s performance, especially in the mid-range and upper-mids.
Below are some quick definitions for Basic Mode adjustment:
Damped is a setting best for a room that has a low ceiling and lots of fabric, either on the walls or on the furniture, or even carpets on the floor. This kind of room will lessen the impact of the upper mid-frequencies significantly, and will make music sound dull, because the reflections that one’s ears interpret as “lively” will be nullified by the room.
Moderate is the best setting for a room that’s acoustically neutral, meaning there will be some liveliness and bounce, but the reverb will be menial, and most reflections will be absorbed fairly quickly.
Lively is best for rooms with high ceilings, hardwood floors, furniture without a lot of fabric, and lots of glass, whether it be mirrors or windows with minimal treatments. In lively rooms, the reflections are not dampened and tend to bounce around long after the signal has faded away. This could cause a bit of confusion in your ears and an overall sense of inarticulation in whatever you’re listening to.
Decide which of these settings is best suited to your space, and then experiment with the slider to find the setting that works best for you.
Play Around
Be sure to take the time to play around and experiment with each setting. Eventually, you’ll find a setting that’s more to your liking than any other. And you can always start over again by selecting the Default setting.
By making the time to dial into the Desk, Wall and Room EQ settings, you’ll be able to get your LS Wireless Collection speakers sounding exactly as you want them to, recreating the artist’s intended sound within your space.
