KEF LS60 Wireless Tower Speakers
Powered speakers aren’t very common, but KEF has been selling them for a while. One common refrain we hear from people is that they want better sound, but they don’t want an AV receiver. The answer? Powered speakers (no, not a soundbar). But what if you have a large room? What if you want better bass but no room for a subwoofer? Don’t you wish you could get powered TOWER speakers? Wish no longer! KEF has released the LS60 Wireless tower speakers! How can they be wireless and powered? They can’t! But we’ll get to that!
Powered Floorstanding Speakers?!?
Yep! You read that right. The KEF LS60 Wireless tower speakers are self-powered. Between the three dedicated amplifier channels for the highs, mids, and bass, they are rocking 1400 watts of power. They are 43″ x 5.1″ x 12.6″ and weigh 70lbs per speaker. The LS60 Wireless tower speakers come in three colors; White, Blue, and Grey (called Titanium Grey, Mineral White, and Royal Blue by KEF).
They share much of the heritage of the Blade and Meta speakers we’ve seen released recently. The concentric mid/tweeter driver (KEF’s 12th Generation Uni-Q driver array), as well as MAT (Metamaterial Absorption Technology), are both present in the new LS60 Wireless. They also have the side-firing bass drivers that we’ve come to expect from KEF. This allows them to limit the width of their cabinet without compromising the bass output.
But…They’re Wireless, Right?
Of course they are, but they still need power. The KEF LS60 Wireless tower speakers sport just about every wireless connection available. You can stream content to them via Wi-Fi, Apple AirPlay 2, Google Chromecast, and Bluetooth. You can stream Amazon Music, Qobuz, and Deezer or tune in to Internet radio and podcasts via the KEF Connect app. Users can control the LS60 Wireless within native apps to stream directly from Spotify Connect, Tidal, and QPlay. The LS60 Wireless are also Roon Ready.
Most importantly, you can connect the two speakers to each other wirelessly. KEF offers a low-latency intelligent wireless interspeaker connection for cable-free listening with up to 24bit/96kHz resolution.
What if You Like Wires?
Or, more importantly, what if you need to connect to the KEF LS60 Wireless tower speakers directly? It isn’t like you can stream from your TV or your turntable, right? Well, KEF has you covered there as well. There are plenty of ports on the back of one of the speakers for additional connections.
While both need power, one can accept an HDMI connection (supporting eARC), optical, coax, and RCA. Both speakers have a subwoofer output to integrate two subwoofers if you wish. There is also an option for wiring the two speakers together with what looks like a standard Ethernet cable. This allows for even higher resolution between the two speakers (up to 24bit/192kHz).
Decoding
Internal decoding is paramount with high-end powered speakers like the KEF LS60 Wireless towers. The system supports PCM files up to 24bit/384kHz, as well as DSD and MQA decoding. KEF’s Music Integrity
Engine provides a suite of custom Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms, including low-frequency
phase correction for correcting the timing between all of LS60 Wireless’ drive units.
Pricing
The Blade and META speakers these are based on are not cheap. That’s why it came as such a surprise to us that KEF priced the LS60 Wireless tower speakers at just $7000 a pair. While that still isn’t exactly pocket change (at least, not for us), you certainly are getting a lot for your money. Much of the technology in the higher-priced offerings plus they are self-powered! Not bad!
Take Away
We have no way of really knowing how these will sound by what has been released so far. But KEF’s heritage is long and very consistent. They simply make good speakers. At $7000 a pair, you are getting a lot of the top end of what KEF offers plus internal amplification, integrated streaming, and all the latest (stereo) decoding. For those that want high-end sound in a package that doesn’t require a stack of processors, amplifiers, and other streaming boxes, the KEF LS50 Wireless tower speakers are a perfect solution.
For more information, check out KEF.com.
