KEF has just added this long-awaited feature to its Award-winning Dolby Atmos soundbar

A living room featuring a couple watching TV. They are listening to the KEF XIO soundbar at the front with the rear surrounds on a bookshelf at the back — (Image credit: KEF)

After over a year of waiting, British hi-fi brand KEF has announced you can transform compatible speakers into rear surrounds when paired with the Award-winning KEF XIO soundbar.

That is thanks to an update to the KEF KW2 RX receiver, which the brand says is “designed to expand your audio set-up without the need for long speaker wires spanning the room”.

The KW2 RX links the primary speaker to the XIO to deliver a “truly immersive yet minimal surround sound set-up”.

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You can hook up speakers such as the LSX II, LSX II LT, and Coda W to use as dedicated surrounds. The last of those is particularly enticing, as we just gave the standmount speakers a What Hi-Fi? Award for its dynamic and controlled sound.

KEF says that it will be expanding this feature to even more speakers with a future firmware update, including the LS50 Wireless II in December this year, and the LS Luxe and LS60 Wireless in 2027.

KEF KW2 RX receiver on a white background — (Image credit: KEF)

You can connect a range of subwoofers to the XIO for “optical bass placement”, including the KC62, KC92 and KUBE models, but this has been possible since the soundbar released.

Set-up is done via the KEF Connect app, letting you pair the compatible speakers and configure them as dedicated rear channels.

When we had the KEF XIO in our test room, we were hugely impressed by its tuneful, engaging and detailed sound performance. In fact, we called the Dolby Atmos soundbar “one of the best soundbars we have heard” in our review. Hopefully the addition of rear speakers will make for an even more immersive experience, although we will have to wait until we have listened in our test room to confirm.

The KW2 RX will set you back £149, on top of the XIO's rather steep cost of £1999. That's not including the cost of the compatible speakers and subwoofers, either.

It’s exciting to see KEF add support for rear speakers with the KW2 RX receiver, but we are still waiting with some trepidation for the bespoke wireless satellite speakers promised at the XIO’s launch.

We have contacted KEF about whether these are still on the cards, and will keep you updated.

MORE:

Read the full KEF XIO review

Check out the best bookshelf speakers

And these are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

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Robyn Quick is a Staff Writer for What Hi Fi?. After graduating from Cardiff University with a postgraduate degree in magazine journalism, they have worked for a variety of film and culture publications. In their spare time, Robyn can be found playing board games too competitively, going on cinema trips and learning muay thai.