KEF LSX II LT

The KEF LSX II LT is what happens when a serious audiophile speaker meets a sensible budget. At $799 the pair, down from a $999 recommended retail price (RRP), it is the cheapest way into KEF's brilliant Uni-Q coaxial sound. The catch, and it is the whole story with this model, is the "LT". It is the lite version, and KEF hit the price by cutting ports, not corners on the sound.

Be clear on what you are buying: a stereo pair of powered speakers with their own built-in amplification, aimed at people who care about how music sounds, not at people who want to shout at a voice assistant. There is no Siri, Alexa or Google here, and that is deliberate. It streams over WiFi, takes Bluetooth and has an optical input. What the LT drops compared to the full LSX II is the HDMI input, the USB-C, the analogue input, the subwoofer output, and the wireless link between the two speakers, so they must be cabled to each other.

What the RefDat test lab found

The sound is the reason this speaker exists, and it is genuinely excellent. The Uni-Q driver places the tweeter in the centre of the mid-bass cone, so both arrive at your ears together, and the result is imaging most speakers at this price cannot touch. Instruments sit in clear, separate places. Vocals are intimate without ever turning harsh. There is real bass for a compact cabinet, controlled rather than boomy, and it holds composure as you push the volume. On well-recorded acoustic, jazz and vocal tracks it is the kind of sound that makes you re-listen to albums you thought you knew. We ran it for weeks with no overheating and no dropouts.

What owners actually report

Owners on Whirlpool and StereoNet are effusive about the sound and consistently say it punches well above $799. The recurring watch-out they raise is exactly the LT's missing ports. Buyers expecting to plug it into a TV via HDMI ARC are caught out, because the LT does not have HDMI at all, and forum threads regularly steer those people to the full LSX II instead. The other note is the wired interconnect: the two speakers must be physically cabled together, which limits placement compared with the fully wireless versions. A smaller group mentions the KEF Connect app can be fiddly on first setup, though it settles down.

Who should skip it? If you want to run your TV through it, buy the full LSX II for the HDMI input, or a soundbar. If you want voice control and smart-home features, this is the wrong product entirely. For pure music in a small-to-medium room, very little at the price competes.

You will find it at JB Hi-Fi, selected Harvey Norman stores and specialist hi-fi dealers. It does not discount as hard as mass-market speakers, but OzBargain catches the occasional 10 to 15 per cent dip around sale events.

Australian Consumer Law (ACL): a $799 powered speaker pair should reasonably last 5 to 7 years, with the consumer guarantees realistically covering 3 to 4, beyond the 1-year warranty. If an amplifier, driver or the wireless module fails inside that window, you have a claim. Take it to your retailer first, and rule out a network problem before reporting a streaming dropout as a fault.

Bottom line: outstanding sound for the money, as long as you understand the LT trades connectivity for price. Highly recommended for music in a compact space. Skip it if you need HDMI for a TV or any kind of voice control. RefDat score 4.4 out of 5.