So how good is the LS3/5a?

[Infinitely Baffled]

Ok, everybody, get your prejudices out and dust them off! Here is what I suspect is one of the all-time favourite chestnuts/discussion points/spite-inducing debates in our little world of hi-fi.

First, a confession: I have only heard LS3/5as once. It was about 30 years ago in a high-end hi-fi dealer in Cambridge Circus, London. I was in there to listen to (and subsequently buy) an Arcam CD player, but the salesman used the little monitors to demo it to me. After the inevitable "wow, they sound so big - but they are so little" moment, I ceased paying attention to them. It was not what I was there for after all. But the memory that stayed with me was a favourable one.

Fast forward 30 years and I know more about hi-fi than I did then. At least enough to be aware of the almost "holy" status these speakers have. That there are folks who revere them so deeply they will have nothing else. The prices asked for them, too, suggest unbounded respect (or should that be unbounded avarice?)
I still haven't heard them again, though, until ...

I am currently amusing myself by faffing around putting together a decent monaural radio-playing system for my garage/workshop, which is quite big. I have a Troughline mono tuner hooked up to a nice mono Dynatron valve amp, that Jez rebuilt for me. So I have been experimenting with odd and inexpensive speaker arrangements to see what would work to finish the system off. So far I have tried a home-made OB confection using a Goodmans full-range driver, Mordaunt Short Festival 2, Kef K2 Celeste and Rogers JR 149. It's my experiments with this last one that have prompted this thread. I was trying it out (just the one, of course) at the same time as my homebrew OB Goodmans job. Maybe that didn't help. The Goodmans was simply glorious - a bit shallow in the bass, maybe, but detailed, clear, rounded and musical. Just lovely. Switch to the JR149s, and what a shock! It was as if I had hit the secret "mufflebox" button on the amp. It was just as if someone was speaking to me from deep inside a box. Yes, the tones were rich and euphonious, there was a good even coverage of frequencies from bottom to top, but it was "heavy" sounding, and congested, as though the sound was having a struggle to escape and reach me. I was very surprised, knowing how adored these speakers are. Now, I know a JR149 is not an LS3/5a, but from everything I have read there is at least a strong family resemblance. So is this really what the famed BBC small monitor sounds like? Like someone "on the other side" is trying to make contact? Of course, you can't discount the possibility that my example was duff, but certainly, against the other odds and sods I tried, The Rogers would be my last choice.

For the sake of finishing this story off, I can say that the best sound undoubtedly came from the Goodmans OB (but it is huge and ugly), the little Festivals acquitted themselves extremely well - they are very likeable little speakers that I will have to find a use for somewhere. For 80 squid, a real bargain! The Kef Celestes were very interesting indeed. Not much bigger than an LS3/5a and immensely heavy for their size, they contain one of Kef's early "racetrack" shaped woofers and a tiny metal-dome tweeter. They are fabulously energetic and very solid in the bass - lots to like - but the tweeters just have too much "sting" to make them a comfortable listen. Very nice, though, I don't really want to part with them (certainly given the £1-17/6d I would get for them). I feel there is a very fine speaker in there somewhere trying to get out - if only I knew how to liberate it.

OK, chums, have at it! Have I got it wrong about LS3/5as or not?
IB

[Arkless Electronics]

I use Mordaunt-Short festival 2's in my workshop as well! Powered by a big Tandberg receiver.
The last time I heard JR149's I also found them awful but I've also heard them sound great in other settings and systems.... Not much help there was I...

[Cycleallday]

Used as designed they provide a sound I love.

They are near field speakers and not room speakers so put them on either side of your computer/office desk with a nice amplifier and I doubt you would ever want to change. I use the new Falcon speakers - built from a kit when they first produced the new drivers at the end of 2015. Now they only sell the final built (licensed) items mainly supplied via dealers for incredible prices. For an amp I use Meridian 500 series.

In a small room I use a pair of Spendor S3's which are their take on the LS3/5's. They will fill a room with sound and are another speaker I will never part with.

Just remember these are small speakers which provide superb mid band and nice clear treble but will never give earth shattering bass - what they do produce fits beautifully close up and when located near a rear wall.

Mel

[Infinitely Baffled]

In a small room I use a pair of Spendor S3's which are their take on the LS3/5's. They will fill a room with sound and are another speaker I will never part with.

Mel

That would be the S3/5, would it? That's a loudspeaker I have heard very good things about.

I have never owned a speaker from the classic British BBC lineage (unless you count the solitary, slightly scruffy JR149), and it makes me curious. I have owned and used examples of several of the other classic British loudspeaker families, Lowther, Quad, Leak, Tannoy and enjoyed them all in their own way. But given the prices asked for anything with BBC associations - and given the experience related in this thread - that's one group I may opt to miss out on.
IB

[Martyn Miles]

Used as designed they provide a sound I love.

They are near field speakers and not room speakers so put them on either side of your computer/office desk with a nice amplifier and I doubt you would ever want to change. I use the new Falcon speakers - built from a kit when they first produced the new drivers at the end of 2015. Now they only sell the final built (licensed) items mainly supplied via dealers for incredible prices. For an amp I use Meridian 500 series.

In a small room I use a pair of Spendor S3's which are their take on the LS3/5's. They will fill a room with sound and are another speaker I will never part with.

Just remember these are small speakers which provide superb mid band and nice clear treble but will never give earth shattering bass - what they do produce fits beautifully close up and when located near a rear wall.

Mel

I built up a pair of Falcon Acoustics LS3/5as from the kit that used to be available.
They are with a friend and he loves them.
He has a pair of Spendor 11 ohm '3/5as and prefers the Falcons.
LS3/5as are excellent, and I have had a few..
Now I use Harbeth P3-ESRs and prefer them, but the '3/5a still give me that musical
satisfaction.
I am a 'BBC sound' fan, as I also use Spendor BC1s.

[Wakefield Turntables]

JR149's when accompanied with a decent amp that give them enough welly sound just the same, if not better in some respects to the extremely over priced LS3/5A. I have a very early with a serial number below 2500 which means they have the XO PCB without a fuse and slight modifications of the type II XO. Some '149 fans claim that the type ones are better than type two's, some claim that the refurbishment kit for the '149 from Falcon Accoustics improves things. I've tried a type 1/type 2, and a Falcon modded XO. I prefer the type 1 and would say that it sounds closest to the LS3/5A. I hope this helps.

[danilo]

Amazed by the continuing love for Ls35's .
Back in the Day (early 70's) A few were brought into the Canadian Broadcasting Corp for evalution... cleverly enough.. for those who would be using them.
Pretty well universal reaction was: Thanks but No Thanks.
Things simply weren't very good.. period.

CBC bought 3000 pairs of 12" monitor golds instead.
Developed a box and crossover for them.. sent it to California to a respected Audio firm for
independent evaluations. Public employee and clearly insecure Engineers needed reassurance.. as a guess.
Whereupon that firm patented it as their own design.
Big seller too.. maybe even still?

[ReggieB]

OK - so not a pure LS3/5a, but I loved my Spendor S3/5R² from the very first note I heard from them. The music is so natural and sweet. I have a REL subwoofer too - when I need some bass umpf - but most of the time I leave it off. I really don't think I could have bought a set of new speakers for the price of the Spendors, that would sound anywhere near as good.

For those wanting to hear the first notes - It was the intro to Hollow Talk by the Choir of Young Believers. This music being used as the theme music for the scandi thriller - The Bridge.

[Sherwood]

I think the answer is pretty good for a speaker getting on for a pension. I have owned a pair of Rogers LS3/5a speakers for close to 40 years. At the time they were (just) affordable at £150 and suited my living arrangements (university student in small room). I bought then because they sounded closest to my aspirational speaker of the time: Quad ESL57s. Unfortunately I could neither afford nor accommodate the Quads, so the LS3/5a was a good second best.

I still have my Rogers pair which are in excellent condition and with no obvious signs of aging. However, I do not play them much anymore and would not choose to buy a new pair of the design at the current asking price. Technology has moved on and there are better ways of spending £1300 today. In the Roger's defence, it takes something like a Kef LS50 to better it at £800. If the current price of the LS3/5a were around £650 I could see it being a viable contender in today's market, though my preferences have changed and it would not be my choice today, even at that price.

Geoff

[Infinitely Baffled]

That's an interesting story, Geoff. But the notion of a student with LS3/5as startles me! You are right, they were not the crazy money then that they are now (thanks, Japan!), but still very much a quality speaker.

Did you ever got your ESL57s?
IB