In Berlin for review: KEF LSX II LT + Kube 8 MIE

2.1 ahoy! Earlier this week, KEF sent me a pair of its LSX II LT streaming standmount loudspeakers (€999/pair) plus a pair of the matching S1 stands (€349/pair) on which to sit them. Two screws attach the base plate to the stand’s central column. A third secures the speaker to the top plate. Plug the primary speaker into the mains, connect it to the secondary speaker using the supplied USB-C-terminated 3m C-Link cable and fire up the associated Connect app to put the system on your wireless network.

Even with an over-the-air update arriving at first startup, it took less than ten minutes for the LSX II LT to give me access to Google Chromecast, Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect with Qobuz, Amazon Music HD and Deezer accessible from within the Connect app. I won’t let the lack of Roon Readiness put me in a spin as the Chromecast input works as a decent stand-in.

Visual simplicity at its finest? Not quite.

Like many other active loudspeakers – even when set up as streaming-only – the LSX II LT still require the primary speaker’s mains cable and C-Link interlink to be tidied away. But with the latter already sagging as a large U between the speakers, it looks as though I’ll need KEF’s optional 8m C-Link cable (€59), especially if I am to route it through each stand’s central column whilst keeping them 2.5m apart.

Experience has taught me to proceed with caution here; to only route cables via a speaker stand once the speakers’ full functionality and final location have been established. I prefer to find each speaker’s audibly optimal position and confirm that each third-party add-on works as expected before tackling cable visibility. I hooked a Samsung Frame 2023 into the HDMI ARC socket, a Shanling ET3 CD transport into the TOSLINK socket and a subwoofer into the corresponding output, all of which sit on the back of the LSX II LT’s primary speaker.

Side note: I don’t dare imagine what the back of the primary loudspeaker would look like if I were staunch about Ethernet usage or if my turntable wasn’t forced to sit this one out due to the absence of an analogue input. (If you need that, you need the more expensive LSX II).

The HDMI ARC and TOSLINK sockets both worked as expected but there’s a twist in the subwoofer tail.

Arriving with the LSX II LT and their stands was KEF’s Kube 8 MIE: a front-firing 8″ bass maker. At €649, I see it as a price-appropriate match for the mini 2-way actives; and by hard-wiring the ~~finger-print magnet~~ subwoofer into the back of the LSX II LT – again, the primary speaker – I confirmed within minutes that the sub and speakers work together as intended. That means a low-passed subwoofer and high-passed mains with the KEF Connect app providing bespoke crossover and gain settings for the Kube 8 MIE. That’s one benefit of pairing a KEF-branded subwoofer with the KEF actives and, according to KEF, these bespoke settings give users a solid starting point from which to integrate the subwoofer with the speakers (and the room).

But I didn’t stop there. I moved the subwoofer connection from wired to wireless using KEF’s KW-1 wireless kit (€229). The KW-1’s transmitter converts the analogue subwoofer signal to digital before streaming it wirelessly ‘over the air’ to the receiver attached to the rear of the Kube 8 MIE. Clever.

However, the KW-1’s transmitter needs to see USB power. A toggle setting in the Connect app turns the USB-C output on the back of the primary LSX II LT from a PC/Mac input to a USB power output — but I think this arrangement only adds to the cable confusion. I’ll eventually tuck the KW-1 transmitter out of sight and power it from a different USB source. Once that’s done, I’ll be free to experiment with the subwoofer’s in-room placement where the only restriction is proximity to a mains socket.