My little Rogers LS3/5A BBC monitors surprised me again today..

The LS50s sound really, really good and do one of the best disappearing acts I've heard.

 

I'm definitely going to check them out. They're getting quite a lot of attention.

 

Absolutely worth a listen. I posted elsewhere on this, but I'll reiterate; my father bought them after hearing the Spendors against them head-to-head. YMMV!

 

No kidding!

 

I used to lust after those things when they first came out. I heard them set up nicely at the old Harvey Sound Store. I thought they would be perfect in my tiny Manhattan island apartment, but I was a broek student. I still love the sound.

 

You mean like this ?!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BBC-Rogers-...23?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item3a87d7c8ff

 

Cool post Steve.

When one of the forum members came over with his dinky Rogers to hook up to my system I didn't know what to expect. First record we played was David Crosby's solo LP. Next up was a dinky little UK Deram mono 45: Moody Blues / Days Of Future Passed. Within the first minute....WOW. Great big 'natural' sound, like the room just had music floating in it. Amazing mid-range, superb clarity. It was almost like the speakers disappeared - there was no distinct sense of sound coming from boxes. I got to keep 'em a week. Going back to the big 3-way Infinity set was a bummer. That experience led me to the little Harbeth's. I found these little BBC monitor based speakers sound best at mid to moderately loud levels. At low and high/loud levels their bookshelf size starts to reveal itself - but everything in between is amazing.

 

What kind of crossovers are in these?

 

Complicated and expensive.

 

I heard a pair of the 15 ohm version not too long ago. The sound was shockingly good -- natural, warm and fleshed out sound (quite different from the currently popular sound which is thin and brighter sounding). The speakers were in a large room and powered by a low wattage tube amp, but that did not appear to be a limitation even though the speaker is supposedly very inefficient (goes to show that an "easy" load is more important than efficiency when it comes to matching with tube gear).

 

What makes an easy load? Also, interesting that there is a 15 ohm version of these.

 

The impedance across the frequency range will dictate if it is an easy or difficult load.

The lower the dips, the more difficult the load, a speaker might be 8 ohms nominal, but drop to 5.6 ohms at some point, so a speaker that is nominal 8 ohms but doesn't drop below 7 ohms will be an easier load than the one that dips more.

Think of impedance as resistance.

 

Thanks for the explanation. I had assumed this was the same as efficiency, but I guess not.

 

I had speakers that High up one time you think it would sound terrible but was actually pretty cool for a change. I got used to the reflections off the ceiling.

 

Looking at a review of the Rodger's (one form) they are mentioning a couple of dips, one at 7.2 and 9 then It's all above 10 ohms, so very tube amp friendly.

 

All of the UK BBC type Stirling, Rogers, Harbeth bookshelf speakers benefit by not being used on a bookshelf.. My LS3/5A sit on the shelf but that's because that's the only place they fit in our large living room. I run a Creek 50W integrated with them, and they are plenty loud.

When I was single I would place them on stands far out from the wall and sit on the floor. I still do that on occasion.

 

I've got Stirling's LS35A reissues from 2001.... They use the same KEF drivers as the Rogers... I feed them with either my Dynaco MK III's or my C-J MV-60...
in one of the bedrooms upstairs...

They are truly delicious and holographic....

Unfortunately I can't listen to them as much as I used to since our baby boy is in the room next to it... However, Steve, you've given me an idea... Our bonus room has the Advents with long speaker wire fished from the listening room with the Dynaco's and CJ, etc..

It's a 15X20 foot room, perhaps even bigger.. Maybe I'll see what the LS3's sound like on top of the Advents.... That would be an interesting experiment...

 

Does it not sound controversial? Try explaining that to someone who is novice in this hobby. Good luck at that...

 

One of the chief engineers at Technicolor used to work for the BBC, and he was a huge fan of the LS3-5A's. I agree they're good, but man, they're old. Can you even get new drivers for this stuff today, or is this design gone?

 

http://www.falconacoustics.co.uk/ls3-5a.html

I am not sure they are exactly the same though.

 

A small side note on the Rogers is that they were sold in a small department store in my hometown. I thought it was the 'house' brand. You could get them at Roger's Department Stores.

 

The impedance on all models is high enough not to bother any hi-fi amplifier worth the name.
However, thanks to the very complex crossover used to EQ the drivers and get good bass from a tiny sealed box, the voltage sensitivity is down around 79dbw - very low.
So these need volts not current. This low sensitivity doesn't matter too much since the 3/5 is best at low-moderate spls.

They are balanced not to require boundary reinforcement so still sound quite full bodied in free space, plus the crossover integration is good, reasons why Steve's high up positioning works well.

 

Yup - despite the 'bookshelf' designation putting them too close to walls or corner boxes them in and 'flattens' or diminishes the image. They really open up at the 'right' position in a room, which of course will vary with the room. My Harbeths are on 3 foot stands about 3 feet out from the back wall, with nothing boxey or large behind them.