KEF LS60 Wireless Active floorstanding loudspeaker streaming system

What’s better than a wireless all-in-one audio system? A wireless all-in-two audio system, that’s what – because true stereo sound is a joy forever. And while it might not have got in on the ground floor where wireless all-in-two audio systems are concerned, KEF didn’t have to sprint up too many flights of stairs to get into the elevator – ever since 2017’s LS50 Wireless, the company has been there-or-thereabouts whenever the conversation turns to ‘wireless convenience without sacrificing authentic hi-fi quality sound’. 

On a pound-for-pound basis, the performance of the current KEF wireless streaming system line-up is hard to lay a glove on. It doesn’t do any harm that every model in the line-up is, to a lesser or greater extent, visually quite individual and interesting, too. But the company has taken things to the next level with the LS60 Wireless – the company bills it as ‘wireless hi-fi speakers’, but we all know the truth. This is a wireless all-in-two streaming system – just on a larger scale than we’ve become used to from KEF.

Lifestyle appeal

Of course, it’s the vexed notion of ‘lifestyle’ that’s a big part of the appeal of the whole all-in-two wireless streaming system market – or, at least, the lack of disruption thereof. Any number of music lovers struggle to accommodate a full-on, full-size audio system – too expensive, too ugly, too big, too jarring when introduced into otherwise carefully considered interior design vocabulary. KEF gives every indication of understanding this entirely – and so before any discussion of how the LS60 Wireless performs, it’s perfectly valid to consider the way it looks.

These are extraordinarily slender loudspeakers – ignore their stabilising plinths and they’re just 13cm wide. Name a narrower floorstanding speaker. Not easy, is it? Even when you take the plinths into account, they’re just 21cm across – and so they’re hardly about to stick their oar too assertively into your interior decor choices. And the selection of matte finishes – ‘carbon’ black, ‘mineral’ white, ‘titanium’ grey and ‘royal’ blue, with ‘Lotus Edition’ British racing green as a cost option – does no harm whatsoever when it comes to delivering a harmonious look. Add in the drama of the driver array in each skinny tower and you’ve a striking and, arguably, elegant pair of loudspeakers here.

Ah yes, the driver array. Each tower features the 12th and latest version of KEF’s Uni-Q driver; at 100mm, the smallest Uni-Q drive unit since the 75mm model in the KHT1005. Here it features a 19mm vented aluminium dome tweeter in the throat of a 10cm vented aluminium cone that covers the midrange frequencies, and incorporates a tweeter damper gap and new ‘Z-Flex’ driver surround to minimise distortion and create as even a dispersion as possible. 

The tweeter is also packing KEF’s acclaimed ‘Metamaterial Absorption Technology’ (or ‘MAT’, to use its rather underwhelming acronym). MAT is designed to absorb those soundwaves that radiate from the back of a drive unit and disrupt its forward output – it’s the tweeter dome that’s getting the MAT treatment in this instance. A plastic disc printed with a maze-like pattern sits behind the tweeter, and each of its ‘routes’ is the ideal length to absorb a specific range of frequencies. KEF reckons the MAT method is so effective that it can absorb 99 percent of these unwanted soundwaves.  

Uni-Core

For low frequencies, KEF has deployed its Uni-Core driver technology that’s recently taken a good share of the praise lavished on its KC62 subwoofer. The intention is to liberate a whole lot of bass presence from unpromisingly small enclosures (by subwoofer standards, the KC62 is very small indeed) by combining force cancellation (which requires drivers to be positioned back-to-back), concentrically arranged voice coils and one shared motor per pair of drivers.

For the LS60 Wireless, two pairs of 14cm Uni-Core drivers are used in each speaker, positioned equidistantly around the forward-facing Uni-Q array in an arrangement KEF calls ‘Single Apparent Source’. This layout debuted in 2011’s witheringly expensive Blade loudspeaker, and is designed to give the impression of information from all parts of the frequency range originating from a single point – with precise stereo imaging over an uncommonly large area the ultimate goal.  

KEF has specified Class A/B amplification for the tweeter – 100 watts of it per speaker. The midrange cone gets 100 watts of power per side too, but this time it’s of the Class D variety. Class D is also used to drive each of the eight (count ‘em!) UniCore bass drivers – there’s a total of 1000 watts available, which my rudimentary back-of-envelope calculations reveal to be 125 watts per driver. All the amplification is boxed off in the lower half of each tower, where it can’t disturb the drive units – heatsinks that vent at the rear of each speaker keep operating temperatures acceptable. 

As is usually the case with an all-in-two speaker system, the LS60 Wireless features a ‘primary’ and a ‘secondary’ speaker. Both speakers require mains power, of course, but other than this the secondary speaker features just a pre-out for a subwoofer, a USB-A slot for servicing and an RJ45 socket for a hard-wired connection to the primary speaker. It’s worth noting that the two speakers are perfectly happy to maintain a wireless connection, but this arrangement results in all sources being resampled to 24bit/96kHz PCM resolution – wire them together using the generous length of cable KEF provides and 24bit/192kHZ PCM resampling is the result. 

Story eARC 

The primary speaker, too, has connections for mains power, a pre-out for a subwoofer, a USB-A slot for servicing and an RJ45 to connect to its partnering speaker. In addition, it features an HDMI eARC socket, digital optical and digital coaxial inputs, a pair of stereo RCA analogue connections and an RJ45 socket for ethernet connection. Wireless connectivity runs to dual-band wi-fi and Bluetooth 5.0 with SBC and AAC codec compatibility – a wired or wireless connection to a network brings Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Chromecast into play. And the LS60 Wireless is also Roon Ready and UPnP-compatible. If this array of options where sources of sound are concerned seems a little tentative, the KEF Connect control app allows you to integrate Amazon Music, Deezer, Qobuz, Spotify and TIDAL music streaming services as well as to access internet radio.

The app itself has evolved to the point where it’s now a perfectly usable, stable and logical interface – a big advance on those bad old days when a KEF all-in-two demanded the use of two apps to exploit all of its functions. These days KEF Connect allows access to all playback functions, room configuration and EQ adjustment, phase correction, a bass extension limiter and plenty more besides. 

The company also provides a little remote control handset, more (it seems to me) for the sake of box-ticking than for any compelling necessity. If your smartphone is temporarily unavailable, the remote control will let you select input, adjust volume and access basic playback controls too. 

Expert time

It’s certainly worth investigating the ‘expert’ set-up menu in the control app, as it’s possible to exert quite an influence over the eventual performance of the LS60 Wireless. Certainly if your room is towards an extreme of one kind or another – lots of glazing, unusual shape, generously stocked with soft furnishing or what-have-you – you can mitigate it to a fair degree.

And once that’s done, of course, it’s just a question of playing some favourite music from a favourite source or two. During the course of this review I listened to internet radio and TIDAL via the KEF Connect app, a Rega Apollo CD player into the digital coaxial input, a Panasonic DP-UB820 UHD Blu-ray player using the HDMI eARC socket, and a Clearaudio Concept turntable via a Chord Huei phono stage into the stereo RCA inputs. And it’s fair to say there’s merit to each of these methods – and plenty of it. 

No matter where you start, it’s the integration of all those drive units that’s most immediately impressive. Obviously there are qualitative differences between a 160kbps stream of France’s FIP internet radio station presenting Sous les Jupes de FIP and a 180g vinyl reissue of Heaven or Las Vegas by Cocteau Twins [4AD], but where stereo focus and coherence is concerned the LS60 Wireless never wavers. The soundstage it creates is wide and tall, with plenty of elbow-room available on it, but it’s simultaneously tightly unified and orderly. The notion of a ‘single apparent source’ of sound is delivered on from the get-go. 

Low-frequency information is deep and textured, controlled at the onset of each note or hit with something approaching fanaticism, and absolutely loaded with detail both broad and fine. The KEF can summon prodigious levels or straightforward punch, but within that it’s a subtle and insightful performer. The authority over the bottom end means it’s able to express the Frafra rhythm of Florence Adooni’s Kinne [Philophon] with absolute assurance as well as no little enthusiasm. Edges are straight and true, and the decay of bass information is observed just as carefully as the attack.  

Analysis vs entertainment

A similar balance between ‘analysis’ and ‘entertainment’ is struck through the rest of the frequency range. There’s considerable bite and shine to the top of the frequency range, a real impression of attack when the music demands it, but at the same time the LS60 Wireless shapes treble information deftly and never loses the run of its high-frequency reproduction even at significant volume. And the midrange acuity that’s apparent during a listen to a CD copy of The World’s Biggest Paving Slab by English Teacher [Island] leaves you in absolutely no doubt that you’re getting the complete and unexpurgated picture. There’s an immediacy to the way the KEF all-in-two handles a vocalist, as well as profoundly impressive insight into their character, their attitude and their technique, that is endlessly engaging. 

Hans Zimmer’s blaring, droning soundtrack to Dune: Part 2 [WaterTower Music] gives the system the opportunity to demonstrate its dynamic potency – and it’s safe to say it doesn’t disappoint. The KEF can shift from ‘tense, urgent whisper’ to ‘all-out firefight’ in an instant, and the distance it can put between these two positions (in terms of intensity as well as sheer volume) is extreme. There’s a gratifying amount of texture given to the sonic abstractions Zimmer indulges in here, and a real sense of outright scale. If you want your new all-in-two system to double up for movie night, the LS60 Wireless has the midrange fidelity, the scale and the completely confident soundstaging ability to make even the most accomplished soundbar sound confined and passive.

Overall tonality is carefully neutral, and the KEF seems perfectly willing to get out of the way of recordings in order to allow them to express their particular flavour without hindrance. The sensation of unity and singularity is extremely strong, even when playing a scissors-and-glue collage like Music Makes Me High by The Avalanches [Modular] – despite the sheer number of drivers involved in the system, the LS60 Wireless integrates the frequency range with the same sort of confidence it demonstrates when describing a soundstage. 

Struggling to ‘yes, but…’

It’s customary at this point to muster a “yes, but…” or two in order to demonstrate that I’m difficult to please and a man of some discernment – but in all honesty, I’m struggling. Yes, a wireless system is never actually wireless if you want to introduce sources that aren’t apps on smartphones – but that’s hardly an issue that’s unique to this KEF system. And it’s true that the KEF Connect app did forget what it was doing on a couple of occasions during my time with the LS60 Wireless (on both occasions it was supposed to be continuing with a TIDAL playlist) – but other than this, I have nothing.

So if you’re interested in some extremely impressive engineering clothed in some notably attractive and fairly unusual loudspeakers, in a big serving of hi-fi audio credibility balanced against convenience that’s easily described as ‘painless’, KEF – not for the first time – has the all-in-two for you.

Technical Specifications

Type: Floorstanding loudspeaker system with integrated amplification, DSP, and wireless connectivity

Driver complement: Uni-Q 19mm vented aluminium dome tweeter within 100mm vented aluminium midrange cone array; 4 x 135mm Uni-Core force-cancelling bass driver

Amplification power (w)/type (per speaker): 100/Class A/B (tweeter); 100/Class D (midrange); 500/Class D (bass) 

Frequency response: 31Hz – 24kHz

Crossover frequencies: 350Hz; 2.8kHz

Inputs: HDMI eARC; digital optical; digital coaxial; stereo analogue RCA; RJ45 ethernet; USB-A (service only); RJ45 interspeaker connection

Wireless inputs: dual-band wi-fi; Bluetooth 5.0; Apple AirPlay 2; Google Chromecast; Roon Ready; Spotify Connect; TIDAL Connect; internet radio

Outputs: subwoofer

Digital audio sample rates: up to 24bit/384kHz

File types: AAC; AIFF; ALAC; DSD; FLAC; LPCM; MP3; MP4; OGG; WAV; WMA; MQA

Dimensions (hwd, cm) (per speaker): 109 x 21 x 39 

Weight (kg) (per speaker): 31.2

Finishes: carbon black; titanium grey; royal blue; mineral white; british racing green (cost option)

Price: £4,499, $4,999, €4,999 per pair (£5,499, $5,999, €5,999 British Racing Green ‘Lotus Edition’)

Manufacturer

KEF

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