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LS3/5a -inspired monitors that you have owned, ranked by preference

Small speakers I have owned in order of preference:

Harbeth P3ESR - Accurate, accurate, accurate. One of the best speakers I've owned. Also one of the speakers that's most agnostic as to positioning I've ever owned.
Linn Kans (1986 vintage) - had them in the perfect room on Kan II stands and they were absolutely fantastic. In the next room they were thinner than a thin thing. Serous disco boxes when working at their best. Far from accurate but very, very listenable.
Royd Sorceror - Better bass and treble extension than the Harbeth, but that makes them an impressive speaker rather than one you can forget about when listening to music. Also finicky about positioning.
Royd Eden - Much like the Kan, but a bit more tuneful without that attractive synthetic holography thing that well set up Kans will do. Very difficult to site to get decent bass, though. And a bit bright
Royd Sintra II - Like the Eden with More bass but less magic
Royd Sintra - same as the Eden but with better bass and treble that could strip the enamel off your teeth.​
Linn Kans (1979 Vintage) - these may well be great speakers, but sounded like weedy little things in my room on wall mounted stands. I've heard other pairs of these, but never producing the bass my '86 pair could chuck out in my house in Whitechapel.

I'd like to try the small Spendors in my office on the end of my Quad QSP at some point.

I've had a bunch of other standmounts, Royd Sceptres and Sabres, Triangle Titus, Q Audio Concept 20, Linn Katan, MA GR10 (massive ones, these), but left them out of this rundown as they didn't fit the criteria.
 
Hello everyone listening to a Spendor ls3 / 5a for the first time, I immediately fell in love with its natural, musical sound, I decided that I would have one, and after a few years I was able to own a couple. Harbeth Ls3 / 5a 11 omh, I currently keep them, in addition to them I have increased my humble "collection"; with another couple of models, direct descendants of the BBC monitor, Stirling Ls3 / 5a V2 Celef Ls8 each one has its own sonic personality, and they all give me satisfaction Greetings
 
I have owned a pair of Richard Allen LS3/5a for 16 years and I love them. I bought them direct from the factory in Huddersfield. I don't know how many pairs were made but I've never seen another pair for sale.
 
Well, LS3/5a lovers will hate this:

1 - KEF R100's
nothing
nothing...
7 - 1978 Chartwell LS3/5a's

I'm sorry, but todays best speakers are much better than yesterdays. In every respect. Probably won't keep their value as well...
 
dynadavid said:
I have owned a pair of Richard Allen LS3/5a for 16 years and I love them. I bought them direct from the factory in Huddersfield. I don't know how many pairs were made but I've never seen another pair for sale.
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There were never many pairs of the Richard Allen LS3/5as.
I know something of the history of these, but cannot divulge anything as another PFM member
was directly involved.
And not in a positive way.
 
My ls3ish history not so much ranked but you get a feel for how much I liked them..

Stirling MS88 Great with voices. Found out on here it was identical to Rogers 60th anniversary. Went excellently with Armstrong 621.

Stirling Ls35a V2 Same as MS88 but subjectively more detail more open etc. Traded for Shahinian for boxswapping sake.

Quad (Spendor) 10l esl63 clone long time back but very pleasant, boxswapping again meant it stayed only a short time

Spendor s3/5r2 loved this with quad 33 303. Sound really free of speakers. Played the trick better than any other Ive owned.

Falcon kit version ls3/5a Great sound, out of speakers, open, preferred the vocals of Stirlings so it went on its merry way..

Spendor S3/5R Polite probably needed more than quad 303 to excite, but excellent timbral accuracy with classical and jazz. not so out of box sound, but so lovely I could forgive. Stayed quite a while.

Wharefedale Denton 80th Don't think i gave these enough time. Smooth and polite with Quads. Seemed to be missing details. May need a powerful amp to wake them up. Lot of speaker for little money.

Graham Audio Swisstone LS3. Lower price point LS3/5a. Lovely jubbly. LS3 with boogie. Voices were nearly as good as Stirling V2(same designer), they rocked a bit better though. Don't let the basic finish and bland looking drivers put you off. Could easily have lived with.

And now...have another Stirling V2. Has been my reference for so much music that being without seems wrong.
 
I'm breaking the rules here because I've only owned the LS50s. I have had the others at home for days/weeks though.
Also, any listening in the last 8 or so years is with the "3/5a" used above ~100Hz and crossed over to stereo bass extenders. This allows much greater dynamics and of course frequency range, it also seems to make the intrinsic characteristics of the speaker more apparent.

Roughly in order of preference:
JR149 - bloody amazing for the age. I don't hear the "quack" of the B110 with these. Superb tonal balance, works seamlessly with the bass extenders.
Spendor LS3/5a - Nice but not as good as JR149. Used on their own (no bass extenders), the slight presence region lift becomes a bit tiring - or is this Bextrene quack?
Stirling V2 - preferred Spendor LS3/5a in a direct comparison. Yes, they have more hifi attributes, but they are less "musical" than the Spendors.
Harbeth P3ESR - over-damped sound that makes them appear detailed. Not an involving listen IMO.
LS50 (port blocked) - almost great, needs a -3dB notch around 2.5Khz. Something not quite right about these.
 
Yes I’d like to understand this quack better. Tony, can you point to a place where you can hear it clearly on the 149s - preferably on a recording I can get on Spotify?
 
mandryka said:
Yes I’d like to understand this quack better. Tony, can you point to a place where you can hear it clearly on the 149s - preferably on a recording I can get on Spotify?
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As I understand it the B110 has a pretty noticeable out of band resonance, so unless it is rolled off fairly sharply it can manifest as a harshness, shout or ‘quack’. I think it is around 3-4kHz or thereabouts. It is likely too subtle on the 149 to notice unless you are an ex-Kan owner (especially MkI!), as these have a very simple crossover. It doesn’t really show itself on the 149 so I’d not waste time looking for it. Hard to bring specific examples to mind as really it is nothing more than a very, very slight forwardness compared to say the Spendor S3/5R.
 
mandryka said:
Yes I’d like to understand this quack better. Tony, can you point to a place where you can hear it clearly on the 149s - preferably on a recording I can get on Spotify?
Click to expand...
Don't go hunting for something that isn't currently bothering you as you may come to regret it, either by hyper-sensitising yourself to its current existence or by convincing yourself it exists when it doesn't! ;)
 
A german diy speaker magazine, Hobby Hifi, recently tested/measured used KEF B110 and T27 drive units and compared them to the drive units used in a german LS3/5A replica (hifisound.de).
Both KEF drivers are very good compared with modern units, very low mechanical resistance values (low values suggest that the drive units will work very well at low listening levels) on a par with modern Scan Speak etc. designs. Distortion figures are higher than modern drivers but this is only relevant if you are using them at 90dB sound levels, at normal 80dB listening levels there will not be a problem.

The B110 unit tested had mild resonances at 4.5 and 5.5kHz (quack?) before the level drops off very quickly above 6kHz (the effect of Bextrene damping ?).

The B110 1.2kHz issue was also visible in the measurements, however the article explained that the LS3/5A crossover has a band stop filter to lower the level at this frequency.

If anyone is interested PM me and I can send you a copy of the measurements.
 
Interesting thread, fun to read who has owned/listened to the variants, and differing opinions of what was heard.
 
My 2 cts fwiw:

Spendor S3/5R - bought new from Lintone when they first came out, fed by a Bryston B60 bought used from Catcando on here many years ago. Listening nearfield, I could live with them forever. Lovely with chamber, folk, jazz, etc. Listening to Thelonius Monk Genius of Modern Music Vol One at the mo.

Harbeth P3ESR - these were Nagraboy's. I couldn't get on with these nearfield with the Bryston. Teeny weeny bit harsh/forward with certain recordings. Been using with Quad 306/34 in living room for a few years now. Sound a bit recessed unless you turn the wick up, but overall very enjoyable balanced sound with small-scale acoustic music.

Do Epos ES11s and 12s fit this group? Great speakers, both, but trickier to place than the two above. Used to fill the large living room of my old place. Had a jaw-dropping moment the first time I tried them nearfield in my more modest current abode. Worked brilliantly, and wasn't expecting that at all.

Would like to try some flavour of ATCs one day.
 
Nice to see some love for the Spendor S3/5R, the more time I spend with mine in a non-critical scenario (they are on the little Ikea tip-back stands folk use with Shahinian Elfs either side of the TV) the more I like these speakers. They are remarkably neutral and articulate and never draw attention to themselves. I’m really surprised they work in this low down and tilted context, but they sound great! I’ll eventually drag them back upstairs for a proper shootout with the Falcon LS3/5As and JR149s, but they are certainly a speaker I could live with in any context long term. A refreshingly un-hyped speaker in a often brash and attention-seeking marketplace. A future classic IMO and certainly a great buy in the £500 range they tend to go for. No idea how they compare with prior or later variants, mine are just the ‘R’ and that is the extent of my knowledge.
 
Matt's Celef LS8s made their way to the States and resided in my system for a while, at the same time I had a current production pair of Falcon LS3/5as. Pervious to that I owned 15 ohm Rogers LS3/5a circa '85, early '90s 11 ohm Spendor LS3/5as, Harbeth P3ESR and Spendor S3/5r.

Honestly they were all great, why else would I bother :) If you were to twist my arm I'd choose the Falcon barring that it would be a tie between the Rogers and Harbies. As of today I don't own any of these or the Falcons. My last pair went to a friend that was without a good pair of mini monitors. I do have my eye set on the limited ed. Mofi Falcons made just for the US market, its on my to-do list for 2021.
 
puroagave said:
I do have my eye set on the limited ed. Mofi Falcons made just for the US market, its on my to-do list for 2021.
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As I understand it they are exactly the same as my pair of Falcons, which I’m really enjoying, but only available in a black ash finish (mine are a beautiful walnut). The current ‘gold label’ Falcons have a new uprated crossover lifted from their very expensive ‘Kingswood Warren’ limited editions which were based on a unreleased BBC prototype. It is easy to swap the crossovers over should one wish, though they are not cheap at best part of £400. I must admit I’m a bit uneasy about this to be honest as it sounds like a tweak/mod/deviation from the LS3/5A spec, whereas the pair I have (and the MoFis) are 100% BBC production spec LS3/5As just like a vintage 15 Ohm Rogers, Chartwell, Audiomaster, Spendor or whatever. I’m not sure I’d want to change that. Meant to be a bit tighter/deeper in the bass and clearer, more dynamic, though how the hell you’d make these things any clearer is beyond me!

PS I’m absolutely loving them as-is. On the end of the Leak Stereo 20 they are seriously good little speakers that pull that trick of being beautifully natural, open, informative and engaging but without any hype, artifice or otherwise drawing attention to themselves. Just really, really good mini-monitors.
 
Tryant said:
Do you remember how much postage cost sending those to the States and did you get hit with any customs or import duties?
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egads, it was around a c-note plus a few bucks. whatever it was it was reasonable and I don't recall paying import duties.
 
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