LS3/5a buys LS3/5a's

I completely agree with this except the "free" part of it...if you live in Hong Kong there won't be a more expensive upgrade...my apartment is big for hk standards...total area 350 sqf...back in Europe any reasonably decent pair of speakers sounded good as long as you took some time to find the right positioning and listening spot. Setting up a hifi system in a micro apartment is a completely different thing and that's why LS3/5a and other sealed box designs are so popular. No matter where you place them, they almost always sound very good

 

The guy from Zero Fidelity just posted a shootout between different new LS3/5a’s. I find his reviews entertaining but I take his opinions with a grain of salt—there is just too much “audiophile b.s.” regurgitated in them—although he is nowhere near as bad in this respect as New Record Day. But anyway, both of them seem like good people and they are doing a great job drawing younger people into the audiophile world.

 

hello,
I have a question.
would the decware zen triode thats 2.3w into stereo work with the falcon ls3/5a?

 

Depends on how loudly you wish to listen. LS3/5A's are supposed to be tube-friendly loads, but I don't know about the 2.3 watt Zen amp. If you are happy playing music at conversational level, it might be!

 

thank you for the response! I was worried since the manual says clipping can happen with underpowered amps. I dont listen to music too loud and my room is small. we will see since I already ordered the thing.
I'll let everyone know how it goes in about 20 weeks when its ready. haha

 

Ah, so you already have LS3/5A's?

 

Yes. the falcons are truly a work of art. The soundstage and detail are just unbelievable. Do you own a pair of LS3/5A's?

I found this on the Decware forums

"A few weeks ago friends brought over a pair of Falcon ls3/5a. At 83 db/wm we all figured the little Decware would bottom out but it drove the speakers very well with more than enough grunt. The volume control was over at 3:00 rather then 8-9 like normal, but they felt this was the best the Falcon's had ever sounded. On paper it doesn't work but in real life things don't always go the way you expect! Such a great little amp!"

this gives me hope, we will see.

thanks, have a good one.

 

Hey, ya'll. Help me decide what to do. I am demoing a pair of original 15ohm Rogers LS3/5a in rare rosewood finish. My dealer got them from an older audiophile and he only changed the binding posts. Everything else is original. He's charging $1,500. Decent but not a great deal.

The good news: they sound incredible! At the dealer, paired with a Rega Brio, I was first struck by the depth and height of the soundstage. I have never heard a pair of speakers have such a 3D soundstage. At home, with lower ceilings, the height is not as great but still huge overall. They really do disappear. I was playing the MoFi Pet Sounds SACD--to appreciate how well they do harmonies--and my dog was looking behind the couch and cocking his head, trying to determine where the sounds were coming from. Playing well recorded music (Diana Krall, Patricia Barber, Steely Dan) is like having God whisper in your ears. Stunning. Absolutely stunning. That's all I can say.

The bad news: these may not be the best all-rounder speakers for me. I totally get what people are saying: they are very transparent, perhaps to a fault, and poorly recorded music sounds just that, poor, so much do I could see myself never wanting to play some kinds of music and records. Furthermore, paired with my Musical Fidelity M2si, I find them a tad bright and in my face even at moderate volumes (80db).

So my question is this: based on my reading of this thread, do owners of LS3/5a and their counterparts run these speakers as their main daily drivers without swapping other speakers in and out of their system? As you can see from the picture, I am currently running Tekton Mini-Lores. They would have to go, since my better half would never allow two sets of speakers in this room. Also, based on my needs, if you think there is a speaker at or below this price point, please recommend me one.

 

They're a great 'second speaker' for when you want a change of pace.

They are loads of fun to listen to but sooner or later you'll want something with more bass that plays louder.

 

If you could find a gently used pair of Harbeth P3’s you could get much of what you love about the Rogers without the misgivings.

 

Get rid of your better half and have as many speakers as you want. Problem solved

 

Proac's too, they mate with a subwoofer way better than LS3/5a's.

 

Thanks for the opinions. Well, truth be told, I have two systems in the house, and the room not pictured in my post is not a good place for the Rogers because it's a high traffic area and they would have to sit between the hearth and close to the back wall. So that's why I framed the question in terms of whether the Rogers are a satisfying daily driver for most people, because the room pictured is where I would like to listen to music. And as may not be clear from my picture, the room serves as our home theater too, so the Rogers would have to function also as my front mains. I do listen to surround sound music (I could care less about movies) and have to say after playing a few 5.1 discs, the Rogers don't integrate very well.

 

I have Chartwell LS3/5a and Proac Tablette 10. i can use hte LS3/5a as my only pair os speakers but indeed they aren't that good for rock music...Nirvana needs something different. Proac T10s offer much of the LS3/5a, are easier to drive and way more versatile, much better to listen all kinds of music, but you lose a little the magic midrange and i feel they don't image as well. Normally, high end speakers are terrible for poor recordings.

 

The Proac's are also way better when you put them against a wall. I'm in my office now and my Signature 10's are on bookcases against the wall and sound great. I've tried my LS3/5a's in that position....not so good.

 

So the Rogers went back to the dealer, and I got to say I feel like I am making a huge mistake. The deal killer was the one you all pointed out: awesome speakers, incredible really, but I would need to hang on to the Tektons for playing hard rock and dynamic orchestrated music at high volumes. So I figured the Rogers would have to go in the closet and come out when I have the house to myself, which is almost never these says. That just didn't sit right with me: spending $1500 on a toy I don't get to play with. So I will keep my eyes open for the Proac T10 and Harbeth P3. But I'll be reminiscing about this past weekend for a long time.

 

The Tablette 10 goes loud too.

 

I have not heard the Rogers, but I have a pair of Stirling ls3/5a V3 through which I play hard rock and dynamic orchestrated music at high volumes. Amazing speakers....not at all shy.

 

So almost a full year later, I finally bought the Rodgers LS3/5a from the dealer who gave me the original audition (mentioned a few posts up)! I had been following the sold auctions all year, and the prices kept going up, to the point that the $1500 price tag seemed like an awesome deal. To fund the purchase I sold the Tektons and some Parasound gear. I'll never look back. Everything I wrote about my experience holds true to this day. But I can now agree with @Soundsense that these speakers are not shy at all with rock music and other dynamic music. I am playing King Crimson at the moment and don't feel like anything is missing. And the real shocker: I am using a Sony HT Subwoofer to fill out the bottom octaves and it somehow works. I have gone back and forth and feel like the magic midrange is not drastically altered at all when the sub is on. After the fact, I promise you, I came across this blog post that discusses the optimal placement for the LS3/5a, which I had almost stumbled upon after just a few days of playing around: 1 meter from the back of the long wall in my 24x15 room with 7 degree toe in.

In every rectangular room with the speaker positioned at the long wall we will have an energy maxima (room mode) at 40hz around 1 – 1,5m in front of the long walls. This might be a nightmare for an American floorstander like a Wilson Audio Whatt / Puppy system 7 – but it is the chance to do a miracle on a full range sound of a little mini monitor speaker system. The LS3/5a has a frequency response which reaches out to nearly 70hz – than there is a smooth roll off towards the deepest octaves. As the British queen is constructed with a sealed enclosure, the little speaker does not behave like a ported construction, which cuts off its sound pressure level at the resonance frequency of the ports. The LS3/5a will reproduce frequencies till nearly 30hz – but it will do that with no serious sound pressure level anymore – because we have a too little membrane surface and an enclosure with much too restricted volume. But if we can place the LS3a in front of the long wall in our listening room a couple of miracles will happen. First the 40hz mode in our room will be triggered by the speaker – so that we get a frequency response at the listening position, which shows nearly no drop in energy till around 45hz – and – which is even more spectacular – at the position were we have an energy peak around 40hz in our room, we will have a decrease in sound pressure level at around 130hz – and there the LS3/5a has its characteristic bass bump – which is cool for near field listening – but not so much appreciated if we listen to some classic music at mid field distances. So we gain two very important aspects – only with the fact that we choose the long wall of our room – we get bass reinforcement and we get rid of the 130hz bump.
The LS3/5a – a midrange to die for Part I ​

So my theory is that one of the reasons why people don't like the LS3/5a with subwoofers is that, depending on the position of the crossover, there is too much bass reinforcement in 130hz range. I will upgrade to a sealed subwoofer soon regardless. But for now, I am over the moon with the setup.

However, I should note that I have been listening near field as well with the subwoofer off, especially for well recorded mono music from the 50 and 60s. The Rogers are able to convey the scale and depth to these recordings I've never heard before with any speaker. It's quite amazing.

 

Congratulations! I love my LS3/5a’s!

 

Thanks! I know you love 'em because I have been following your thread:

Graham Chartwell LS3/5a