KEF’s authentic LSX was certainly one of our favorite wireless speaker systems, and the brand new LSX II improves on all the things we favored concerning the authentic.
These glossy bookshelf audio system ship implausible, room-filling sound from a small footprint, and setting them up with all the things from a TV to your Spotify account could not be simpler. It’s not simple for a corporation to prime its personal biggest hits, however KEF has managed to drag it off once more.
Tasteful Design
The LSX II shares so much in widespread with its predecessor, and among the best issues it stored is similar fashionable design. Each speaker is a single rounded block, with gentle cloth wrapped across the edges. They are available in black, white, crimson, blue, or “Soundwave”—a champagne gold with a wave sample on the material and a placing blue middle that got here on my overview unit.
The complete design hits a candy spot the place it could actually both disappear into your decor or be a visible point of interest of an leisure system, relying on the way you prepare your residing area. The colour choices are a reasonable enchancment over the previous generation, which had been rather less delicate, although the dearth of a inexperienced choice could be a disappointment for individuals who desire a nature vibe.
The backside of every speaker has a ¼-inch mount, which makes it simple to position them on a speaker stand. If you try this, you may must be aware of the facility cable that runs to every speaker—and presumably an Ethernet cable, for causes we’ll clarify beneath. But aside from that, it is potential to mount the speaker nearly anyplace with minimal cable mess.
Myriad Inputs
Photograph: KEF
The fantastic thing about a wi-fi sound system is how simple it’s to attach your audio, and on that entrance the LSX II haven’t any scarcity of choices. Once arrange, you’ll be able to solid music over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, however additionally they include a variety of different, wired inputs for no matter you propose to make use of them for.
There are typical choices like optical and three.5-mm auxiliary inputs, however new to the LSX II are USB-C and HDMI ARC inputs. HDMI ARC is especially notable as a result of it makes it a lot easier to regulate a big selection of A/V gear. While testing it, I used it to run recreation consoles and streaming sticks into my TV, and related the TV to the LSX II. There was just about no lag, and as soon as arrange I used to be capable of hold utilizing the identical quantity controls and remotes I’d been utilizing your complete time.
It’s value noting that whereas connecting a PS5 utilizing HDMI ARC, I used to be unable to get sound from the LSX II. This was the one machine I had this concern with, and I consider this can be a bug with the PS5 software program, not the LSX II, however it’s value mentioning in case you plan to make use of this with a PS5, as I did.
