Advice on Sterling LS3/6

The Stirling LS3/6 can serve as an “end game” speaker for many listeners. The biggest caveat is that in moderate to large rooms, the bass rolls off steeply below ≈45Hz. Wall reinforcement can somewhat lower that cutoff but the speakers need a decent amount of space to produce the clearest midrange, largely due to their thin-panel design.

The good news is their woofers can be upgraded to the 8” Seas Curv cone (as I’ve done in my Stirling SB-88s) without any requisite crossover mods. This woofer will give a little more extension and considerably greater bass dynamics and punch. Other than some soldering, the upgrade is “plug n’ play.” The Curv cone also has superior bandwidth and better suited to being crossed over above 3kHz. 

The lower tweeter can also be upgraded to the Seas Prestige H0881. 

It has a rear chamber that the original lacks, which might account for the improved performance, albeit the improvement is smaller than that of the woofer upgrade. Again, this driver is essentially “plug n’ play.” 

<$4K is a steal for the LS3/6 IMO, especially for those who already own good subwoofers. Some do indeed seem to prefer the SHL5+. However, IME, the Stirlings (even the smaller SB-88s) can handle a lot more power and play much louder before straining than can any of the 8” woofer Harbeths. The Harbeths have a higher sensitivity though, so for those who prefer low power amps, they are perhaps the better choice (price differential ignored). 
 

Last I knew, Doug Stirling was still the owner of Stirling Broadcast. If he sold the company to Derek Hughes (who was only contracted to design the speakers AFAIK), that’s news to me. 
 

Sorry, my confusion.  It's Doug Sterling who is retiring and shutting down Stirling Broadcasting, not Derek Hughes.  Thanks for the correction.

Hi,

I've just joined the forum as I spotted this thread.

I'm the guy that visited Doug Stirling earlier in the year to find that he has health issues and needs to retire, but had a fair amount of stock left. So I took on the challenge...

I updated his web site and the attractive prices for the LS3/6s, and SB-88s, are down to me - I looked at his competitors products and how they were perceived/reviewed in the market and repriced his speakers, which had got priced quite high, to more realistic levels.

In the case of the LS3/6 I took into consideration REG's review that put the LS8/1 and LS3/6 on a level playing field if you added a sub to the LS3/6, so the price difference should go a long way towards that.

For the SB-88 I therefore did a similar price reduction, comparing to the latest Harbeth C7 version.

And then cut the prices by 30+ percent as we were selling direct, so Doug still gets a decent amount whilst they present a bargain for the buyer. There is actually another 7% taken off the prices shown on the website for direct (non-eBay) sales, which helps with the shipping price.

Once the stock has gone I will be taking control of all the spare drive units, as we have quite a few, but I shall also make a note of those drive unit substitution recommendations above (after clearing them with Derek when I next talk to him).

Derek Hughes is still consulting for Graham Audio and is quite busy, but he has designed and is building, along with his daughter, high grade crossovers for our LS3/5as so I can upgrade them from V2 to V3.2 in order to sell them more easily. Consequently I have become a dab hand at making tygan grills, although it still takes me 50+ minutes per pair :-(

For anyone after LS3/6s we have 6 pairs (I thought it was 4 or 5, will have to check) of cherry left, plus another four pairs I could build up but they don't have grills - I might look to make some though.

And we have quite a few pairs of SB-88s left, in different veneers.

And limited numbers of v3.2 LS3/5as as I convert them. I've been an LS3/5a fan all my life (nearly 61 and own ls35a.com) and these are the best I've heard, baring my ones with external crossovers.

I've no financial interest in Stirling, other than receiving a few speakers and other bits for compensation for time and petrol and other expenses (over 3k miles now going there and back to work).

If you email sales@stirlingbroadcast.com it will be me answering.

Andrew

And referring to the driver changes, the OEM drivers in the LS3/6 and SB-88 are actually SEAS units anyway - the bass driver has some custom doping applied by SEAS to Derek Hughes specification.

Same with the original bass drivers used in the LS3/5a V2 and V3, they are SEAS units with custom doping applied by SEAS.

SEAS have changed their business model though, and will not now supply those drive units unless in very large quantities.

This was one incentive to get involved with the sales, to secure those drive units so they don't get 'lost' when the company shuts down.

My 11ohm LS3/5as that use the Cicable external crossovers requires the SP1228 B110 variant, and those drivers are available anymore, so I wanted to delay the time that that is the same situation for Stirling speakers.

I also wanted to secure the stock of the Scanspeak tweeters used in the early V2s, as these are also not now available and the replacement uses different mounting points. My Xtracable external crossover require this tweeter. This tweeter does seem to fail often though, so I might eventually have to start recommending the Hiquphon OWI-92 tweeter as the only option.

The situation with the LS3/5as is somewhat relieved by later V2s using a Swisstone driver, which is a Volt produced driver with more Derk Hughes specified doping applied.

As we have around 60 pairs of these, and I can source more if I need for servicing, when I do the conversions of V2s to V3.2s I am replacing any SEAS bass drivers I find with these Swisstone units, so increasing the stock of spare SEAS LS3/5a bass drivers. Derek has designed the v3.2 crossovers to use either bass drive unit, according to some jumpers on the PCB.

So anybody who buys a v3.2 with the SEAS bass units in is able to switch to the Swisstone units if needed later in their life. There will be some V2s out their wth the Swisstone units, but all other V2s and V3s will be SEAS and so may require the SEAS spares. 

We have quite a lot of the SEAS tweeters used in the LS3/5a and the topmost tweeter in the LS3/6, but these have also proved to be pretty robust.

The Stirling LS3/6 is such an amazing speaker.

I own a pair and I recently purchased the Harbeth 40.3 XD a few months ago and let me tell you, the LS3/6 is not embarrassed by the big Harbeths. 
The Harbeths work better for me because of my large room but I did not sell the Stirling because I felt in love with their sound many years ago when I first purchased them and I am still in love with them.

Their sound is natural, their midrange is addictive, they match nicely with a variety of tube amps, they are beautifully crafted, they are transparent to the source, man, I should stop cause I can go on and on forever.