Excellent side-by-side review. Enjoyed it very much.

I brought a number of LS3/5a made by various manufacturers for my store in Miami Florida USA back in the late 70’s. Between the Chartwell and the Spendor’s, I was most impressed by the Chartwell’s because of the craftsmanship of the cabinets and packaging. Our amplifiers were Esoteric Audio Research and Beard Audio using a solid state preamplifier by Van Alstine. The reason for using valve amplifiers was the 15 ohm load and the soundstage was wide and defined compared to using solid state amplifiers, which could not handle the 15 ohm load. To this day the LS3/5a is still one of the most musical loudspeaker made. One interesting note was the LS3/5a’s were sensitive to the impedance and connecting cables induction. We never had the 11 ohm Spendor’s to listen to. I have listened to the Chinese/Taiwanese knockoffs while decent they are missing depth and Imaging, but are decently made. There is something about the KEF drivers that can’t be duplicated. The most serious complaint is the 15 ohm load when playing them loudly with solid state amplifiers especially operating in Class D mode. The valve amps with their output transformers eases the load significantly. Current Class D amplifier chips just have great problems handling the load of the “little speakers” unless you keep them at a moderate level. Most of my friends with the LS3/5a’s use Class A or valve amplifiers with output transformers with great musical results. Enjoyed your program!

Ive gone back to see your videos many times. Aside from your experience and expertise, i find your hobbiest enthusiasm uplifting and fun.

Chartwell also use to make the LS3/5A. I remember coming across a few of them in my BBC days.

No Stirling Audio LS3/5a V3s ? Used LS3/5a all my life and the V3s are significantly better, especially with their AB-2 crossovers. My favourite pair before was some 11ohm Rogers which I moved into some thin-walled cabinets, driven by the Cicable premium external crossovers - which were significantly better than a stock version. The V3s are also in thin walled cabinets and the crossover is comparable to the Cicables, but the drivers are much more capable. The AB-2 have also had the Derek Hughes magic applied and are significant improvements over the AB-1 ( I lent Derek my AB-1s to investigate designing a new crossover but he gave up as the cabinet was a touch too small - hence the AB-2s are a little taller than the AB-1s).

You need one of those multiple speaker switcher things that Laskys used to use

Looking forward to this one. Where's Ken Kesler when you need him ? Excellent summary sir.

Excellent Kevin, very enjoyable comparison

The logistics of your testing remind me of the HIFI CHOICE multi-person review magazines from many years ago. Their speaker tests would involve testing about 25 pairs of speakers listened to behind an acoustically transparent curtain so that the listners couldn't identify them by sight (to avoid possible bias). They also did lab tests. I still have one from around 1985 that includes one manufacturer's version of the LS3/5A!

I thought the whole idea of LS3/5 was that they'd all sound identical. I know electrolutic capavitors can change value over time. Perhaps they should have been recapped to restore them as closely as possible to their original sound. Perhap the recordings to use were those where these speakers were the monitors being used. They seem to have found a niche market especially among British hobbyists.

Hi Kevin. Very nice review. I am looking forward too the clips. Gr André de vries.

Thanks Kev, that was a great and very interesting review. Looking forward to the sound clips. The most important thing was that you got to enjoy all those variations in one go to answer questions I know you would have had have had on each model. Full disclosure, I was rooting for the silver Rogers because that's what my old pair was. It didn't surprise me that they did so well, and I knew that the gold pair would be slightly ahead. I think every enthusiast should should at least one pair at some point. My Quad 57s more than make up for not having LA3/5As around any more, but there's something uniquely special about them and I would never rule out owning another pair at some point in the future. Thanks again.

Great video mate. I'm sure that was quite a hard task considering the idea was that being licensed to the BBC they should all sound the same. Impedance properties will change your amp characteristics as you note. Great job mate. Loved it

As regards speaker drift over time , my Rogers silver badge had resistors in crossover which had drifted badly . On replacing these it made a huge improvement. Imaging in particular, pin point once more . (NVA , quad , exposure or Nad amps )

Any plan for a Falcon gold badge vs new Rogers classic shootout?

Thank you Kevin.

Waiting for Grahams n Falcons...

The LS35a is the audiofools choice of loudspeaker purely because of its background with the BBC as a monitor for outside broadcast with the spoken word, it was never designed to play music in our lounges. The reason why is that it has no real bandwidth to play music really well. And bandwidth in a loudspeaker is like BHP in an engine as you just want to crave for more of it! So the LS35a bandwidth is around 80 - 20,000 so not very exciting at all. If this loudspeaker was an engine it would be a 999c 50 BHP unit! But completely insane audiofools still continue to spend upwards of £1500 for a fifty year old pair of these things! They are fabulous for the spoken word and radio 4 plays, but simply hopeless for any kind of music. What drives music is bass energy and depth, the LS35a doesn't produce bass. I handmake open baffle loudspeakers which sound absolutely incredible!

I think most of the speakers that you have borrowed and got togheter, have been either repaired, or with components changed ( dried capacitors?) , ALL of the LS35A, if in perfect working condition, should ALL sound the same regardless of manufacturer, just as long as they are both the same impedance ) ! As they are all made to the same specs, and have not been left out of the factory before they are tweaked to perfection , if you put a Rogers 15 ohm , with a Goodmans 15 ohm , they should sound EXACTLY the same 😉 !

With Falcon's "Kingswood Warren" you don't search for the best LS3/5A ever made anymore.

Having just recapped my Wharfedale Diamond 3's, the tweeter caps were way out of spec. Replaced the caps and wow!!! amazing vocals are back in the room! I suspect the older LS3/5a crossovers are starting to suffer the same issues, there is also the issue with acoustic suspension on the drivers and the edge surrounds......these weaken with age. Great work and good review, I would love a pair of LS3/5a's but when you look at the total some of parts in true value, I have to question the value for money. I am being told the DENTON 85 will give any LS3/5a a run for its money at a fraction of the cost? (now that would be a great review!!!) To be fair the LS3/5a should all sound the same having been made under license within tight tolerance specs. As you say, there will be a difference in sensitivity between the 11 and 15 ohm type. Strange KEF got a license using MDF?

Thanks for good vid. I think you kind of ruled out differences in cabinets near the beginning, I guess if they were built to spec, they should all be the same anyway, also using the same drivers, aside from the 15ohm and Falcons. So are we talking about crossover,, cable differences, and aging of the drivers for the changes in quality? Can't remember if they all used the same felt surrounds which ive seen differences in. (Used to run Klassic audio and had various pairs and modern offshoots.). I was lucky enough to go to a BBC facilities store room in the late 80's/90's, I was quite young. They probably had about 50 pairs of LS3/5a's for sale, and SP10's as well as anything else studio related you could think of. They were probably going for about £50 a pair.. Sadly I didn't know then quite what they were, or what they would become..

It would be interesting to purchase say 5 different brands of China LS3/5As. Put different UK labels on all of them bar 1.And then let UK fans audition them.Bet they'd all say they liked the fake UK labelled ones the most

Hi great vid Just a quick question. What type of amplifier do you use with these speakers Thanks Gordon

What happens if I use 8Ω tube amplifier with rogers Ls3-5a 15ohm (1979 model).thanks

Love harbeth but not sure they are they truest to bbc ls35a spec. Love the harbeth p3esr and 30.2 anniversary editions. Even if not the truest to bbc they are my favorites.

👍👍👍👍👍👍

Hi, love your channel! Was just wondering if you've heard the Spendor 4/5, and what you think of it vs the LS3/5a. Thanks for your time and looking forward to more on videos these treasured thin-wall sealed speakers. Cheers!

Maybe I missed it, what amp did you use to drive these speakers?

You mentioned “Raymond Cooke” ls3/5a. I assume you mean KEF?

è vero che gli unici diffusori LS3/5a oggi realizzati nuovi con specifiche BBC autorizzate sono le FALCON Ls3/5a. Altre case costruttrici Inglesi, non hanno la stessa autorizzazzione.

Have you tried the Rogers Ls3/5as with the panzerholz baffles?

Nice review for only speaking. What about some sound demo.

Stirling broadcast v2/v3 would be interesting.

Didn't think mentioning you only listen near field was relevant ?

Falcons?