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How good are LS3/5a for music?

The above emphasises what I have always found with speakers.
For rock you don’t necessarily require accurate speakers, but ones that sounds impressive.
If I was playing a diet of heavy rock music I may well have preferred the Linn Kan.

As it is, for what I listen to ( light orchestral, acoustic music & female voices ) the ‘3/5a
works for me.
The range of music listened to by PFM members is very wide, as is their choice of speakers.

‘Each to his own.’
 
My first experience of LS3/5As was with a little Naim 42/140 combo in the library (old Victorian house). My second was when I installed them in a lady's living room powered by a Quad 405. I've forgotten which make they were but I think they were made by the original company and before Rogers.

Just looked up the history and mine were made by RAM; I've never come across another by this company.

No good at all. Send them to me and I'll take them to the tip for you, honest;):D

If that was for my benefit, Jez, you're a bit out of date (see above).:D RAM were, I believe, one of the first three companies chosen by the BBC to manufacture them. Rogers was another but effectively folded before making any (taken over by Swisstone). Don't think I've ever come across anything else made by RAM; most odd!
 
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However, on electronica/rock/metal, etc, the LS3/5a can sound pretty unimpressive and this is where the Kan truly excels.

FWIW, and I can only vouch for the Falcons (and my rebuilt JR149s), but they are very good on electronica IMO. It is a genre I play a lot and within the obvious volume envelope of a small nearfield monitor they are great; funky, agile, surprisingly dynamic and easily able to separate out complex layering and the spacial cues that are such a large part of well crafted electronic music. I’ve even thrown some Sonic Youth through them and they are fine with that too, as they are with reggae (I’m working my way through the Marley box set). I’ve close to zero interest in classic hard-rock (AC/DC, Led Zep etc) so I’ve no idea how that holds up, but they are just a really good little speaker to my ears. For me they are a great counterpoint for the huge full-range Tannoy monitors downstairs, but I could very happily live with them as my main speakers in the right room.

The LS3/5A certainly fulfil my core requirement of allowing discovery of new music without bias, i.e. they don’t pick the material and can play anything from electronica & rap to a string quartet. If they couldn’t they’d be of no use to me. Again I’d liken them to Quad ESL, which are a superb speaker for electronica. Neither will bludgeon your eardrums into premature deafness like the Ministry Of Sound PA (yes, been there), but they’ll expose whole new layers of subtlety and craft in well produced material.
 
If that was for my benefit, Jez, you're a bit out of date (see above).:D RAM were, I believe, one of the first three companies chosen by the BBC to manufacture them. Rogers was another but effectively folded before making any (taken over by Swisstone). Don't think I've ever come across anything else made by RAM; most odd!

Eh?:confused::confused:
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Being a schoolboy I bought a DIY-kit of Rogers LS3/5. They really sounded superb, high quality stands are necessary. For big orchestral music I gave them support by a transmission line subwoofer (TDL oval chassis)-then reaching 28 Hz. Awfully sad about my selling them about 7 years later and replacing by Infinity kappa 80. But LS3/5 is worth using a really good amp...
 
Being a schoolboy I bought a DIY-kit of Rogers LS3/5. They really sounded superb, high quality stands are necessary. For big orchestral music I gave them support by a transmission line subwoofer (TDL oval chassis)-then reaching 28 Hz. Awfully sad about my selling them about 7 years later and replacing by Infinity kappa 80. But LS3/5 is worth using a really good amp...

Chartwell kit?
 
Rogers made a couple of "subwoofers" designed to sit under them and create a full range system.

It's the AB1, I tried them with my setup and bass was definitely deeper but to my ears, what made the LS3/5a so special was somehow lost.
In those years many suggested keeping the speakers on their dedicated stands, and placing the subs next to them - experimenting with their position if necessary. I tried both systems and moved the AB1s around, and I preferred the solution with speakers on dedicated stands + subs around, but ultimately preferred the bare speakers without any sub.
Some were very happy of the AB1s though, maybe it's a matter of personal taste and/or room acoustics.
 
I have avoided the AB1 and its like as, to my ears, the 'combined' bass doesn't quite work.
The '3/5a bass, especially the Stirling V3, has a quality all of its own.
 
The AB1 is crap. This type of speaker needs something of the quality of a KC62, then the performance can be even better due to the reduction in distortion resulting from reduced driver excursion.
 
The AB1 is crap. This type of speaker needs something of the quality of a KC62, then the performance can be even better due to the reduction in distortion resulting from reduced driver excursion.

Kef's KC62 sub does look interesting. Pricey but super discreet and powerful judging by initial accounts.
 
Kef's KC62 sub does look interesting. Pricey but super discreet and powerful judging by initial accounts.
Yep couple of good reviews out already and sounds like it has the potential to pair with ls3/5a. I like the size and having the option to either use LPF or a HPF to get the best match.
 
The AB1 is crap. This type of speaker needs something of the quality of a KC62, then the performance can be even better due to the reduction in distortion resulting from reduced driver excursion.

I ended up in the same way about the AB1. In the pursuit of the “ideal” system based on the Rogers, I experimented with some other brands and models of subs. All of them were quite cheap though, and never liked how they blended with the Rogers. Maybe I quitted too early, I should have tried some good sub and set it up properly.

Now I have SBLs in my main system, and started to feel a bass itch again. I have a BK Electronics sub in order, I never heard it but I read good reviews especially when partnered with SBLs. If I like how it blends in my system, I may reconsider the Rogers once again - and make other experiments with some good sub. Not for the main system, but a sweet spot for these shoeboxes can easily be found somewhere in the house :)
 
Kef's KC62 sub does look interesting. Pricey but super discreet and powerful judging by initial accounts.

I heard it very briefly with a pair of JR149s using the DSP crossover built into the KC62.
There are very few subs I would give house room to, the KC62 is one (or two might be even better).

KEF don't make a big song and dance about it, but the key to the performance IMO is the transient response (at LF).
The great thing about LS3/5A and similar is the lack of bass overhang, very few subs can be integrated with them and not mess this up.
 
When I was a foetus, I was at Studio 99 in West Hampstead (remember them?) and the owner did a very interesting dem where he put a Kan 1 (which had just been released) on one channel and a LS3/5A on the other, and switched between the two using the balance control (can’t remember the amp). Night and day. The Kan sounded fabulous. Not an evidence-based dem at all, I know now, but very impressionable in my tender years.

I left that day with a used bolt-down Nap 160 under my arm. That was the start of decades of black boxes and Linn gear. And yes, I did get a pair of Kans some years later and they sang on the end of a 250 etc. Never did get the LS3/5As in the house.
 


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