Martyn Miles
pfm Member
Excellent.
Indeed, the reason I moved my Amphion Argon1s on is they just didn't work with my Leak Stereo 20. They were superb with decent SS amps.Too far away for me sadly. I’d love to hear some of the modern LS3/5A alternatives and clones and also how other modern speakers e.g. the LS50 or equivalent ProAc compared. If I was organising it I’d certainly want to try both solid state and a really nice valve amp as to my mind the whole point of the original 15 Ohm LS3/5A in a modern context is it works so, so well with valves when so many modern small speakers just don’t. For me that is where the real magic lies and the reason I own a pair.
Your thoughts on which amps to use in a shootout pretty much align with my own. Maybe a vintage Leak or Radford valve amp & contemporary Naim or Rega SS amp? Amps maybe a fair few of us might have some prior experience of.
In the late 70s, I worked for a company that built prototypes for the BBC, so spent quite a lot of time on the phone to the BBC tech people, They were the people that had designed the LS3/5a (and all the rest) and it was their enthusiasm for the speaker that led me to buy a set in 1978. They were adamant that the speakers would only work if placed on a bookshelf, jammed between books, so as to emulate the placement in an outside broadcast van.
Heck.....a pending small box fest, and I can't get there.
Would love to learn how the ProAc and Celef models would hold up in an LS3/5A shootout?
In the late 70s, I worked for a company that built prototypes for the BBC, so spent quite a lot of time on the phone to the BBC tech people, They were adamant that the speakers would only work if placed on a bookshelf, jammed between books, so as to emulate the placement in an outside broadcast van.