The Bowers & Wilkins 706 S2 vs 705 S2, KEF’s LS50 Meta, and Ref 3

That’s a lot of letters and numbers, lol.

We were asked to compare the 4 speakers in a youtube comment, so Let me start by saying that all these speakers are great. In my opinion, I haven’t one negative word to say about them. I encourage everyone to take the time if you have the opportunity to listen to all of them individually and form their own personal opinion.

Qobuz has a list of great playlists and they introduce me to new music every day. Today, listening to a remastered Curtis Mayfield “(Don’t Worry) If There’s a Hell Below We’re All Going to Go” and Miles Davis’ “Freddie Freeloader” we’ll be talking about the sound stage all these speakers present.

The speakers behave in pairs, the characteristics of each speaker depend firstly on the brand. With B&W bringing more of a precise sound in the higher frequencies allowing them to travel above the midrange and distinguish them greatly. KEF on the other hand focuses more on the entire sound image and widens the stage for you with a more warming reverberation. I turned on an electronic record from the Qobuz “New in Electronic” playlist called “Parallel 8 by Four tet” and both speakers hit around the same while the KEF’s specifications on paper claimed to be around 38HZ.

I am looking to purchase either an LS50 Meta for my own home, but that’s mainly due to budgeting reasons. again, I encourage you to take a listen for yourself given the opportunity.