Calling all (50 or less?) Falcon Kingswood Warren Edition LS3/5a owners...

@cbhifihobby
Got the T+A MP2000 arriving this weekend for demo. Don’t see a lot about it on the forums but looking forward to giving it a try.

I heard the Falcons right before Covid....was really impressed.   Not my type of speaker for the most part , but they sounded really good.  I could totally justify them for a small system.    Driven by a Roger's int amp they sounded pretty amazing.   

With the right pairing of amp,and some proper placement in your room, these LS3/5 type speaker are incredible.  Now,this is my preference,but class A amp plus tube pre plus ls3/5 equals gourmet meal for the ears! 

I had reported above that I added a KEF62 to the Falcon Kingswood Warrens. I meanwhile received my 2nd KEF62. I am driving the subs in Stereo now just parallel to the Falcons with the low pass to the subs set to 60Hz. The result blew me away. Adding a KEF62 is a great idea in the first place, but driving them in a stereo configuration makes 1 + 1 more than 2. I had hoped it would add even more ease to the whole set up, but I was not prepared for this. Forget about a debate whether stereo subs make sense, it transformed sth that was already a great upgrade into a system with even more ease. I hear no sub, just full blown instruments , pianos, contrabass, electronic bass, so much fun. It took even more strain from the Falcon sound, opening everything up even more. I am moved by the difference this made. Best 3000$ I ever spent on Hi-Fi. So let’s reflect what happens here: you have the superfast Falcons that punch and sing, jut not loud at all, but can’t deliver miracles below 60Hz. Now you add 2 dipoles (4 superstiff 5“ membranes), which fire evenly in the room, not against the floor, accelerated by 2x 1000W of amplification. And the perceptions of loudness, space and ease comes from the bass < 60Hz. It works fabulously and now they sound like fast, precise big speakers, without loosing the speed. Placement and messing with the crossover took me 5 min, it’s that easy. Conclusion: 1. The Falcon LS3/5a work fantastic with the KEF62 (one sub, placed in speaker axis in the middle between the speAkers). It is fast enough that it seamlessly integrates. 2. Adding a 2nd sub and driving them in stereo configuration makes a bigger incremental difference, than adding the first sub (which is already amazing). 3. the Falcons easy to place, so are these subs, I have them just next to the speakers. And they are so small that they don’t change the small speaker experience which many of us enjoy about the ls3/5as. 

I have Rogers LS3/5a’s and am currently running them with a ss integrated (Belles Aria) with about 70wpc.  The sound is to die for!  I’ll try some tube and class A amps when the weather cools some, but can’t imagine anything sounding better than the Belles.

Im an owner of a falcon ls3/5a gold edition.

am i good enough?😀

this is one of most satisfying speakers i ever have.
it just so relaxing and intoxicating, especially with
tubes.

jazz, vocals and acoustic music=Heaven.

I am also a proud owner of Falcon L3/5a Kingswood Warren loudspeakers, driving them with my original 30 year old (but CJ factory upgraded with Teflon caps, by the way worth every penny, but needed >100h break in), Conrad Johnson PV12 /Premier 11, with KT120 tubes and a T+A MP2000 front end, Kimber KCAG cables, 24” Sonus Faber stands. I enjoy pretty much every type of good music: I have my Bach days, my Electronic  days, my Laurel Canyon days, like to lunch with Keith and Mick, and  my Jazz and Neoclassical exploration days…and my bohemian and my medieval days… and superior sound is the vessel and the tool to dare and never stop the quest for new music, no matter how scary and complex…
I was out to buy much bigger speakers for much less, but my local Hifi dealer, musician and absolute Hi-Fi  savant in Cleveland, Don Better urged me to really listen and ignore perceptions what speakers should be or look like. Thank you Don, for life! A 70s retro speaker was NOT what I had in mind. But compared to everything he had there (very cool stuff, won’t mention what, but you’d be surprised) these Kingswood Warrens were just non nonsense better in every department (expect low bass of course). Don also showed me how they sound with a Wilson Benesh 13k$ subwoofer, which made clear that these can be full range class A speakers full range if need be. Immediately went in my bucket list. I got over the price sticker shock and jumped into the LS3/5a world without Pre warning, right to the end game…. The break in period both for the refurbished amp as well as for the Falcons was nerve recking and painful experience, testing the trust in my ears and mental sanity, frustration and doubts about the validity of the investment… but Falcon writes in the manual, that any serious listening is strictly forbidden in the first week, so did Jeff Fischel from CJ after re-capping my amps…but then it happened… in my modest 15 x 15ft room I achieved Audio Nirvana … I thought. I first could not get enough of the tonal accuracy which Don the musician,  music Professor and Audio doctor had pointed out to me. Once you heard the correctness of voices and sound of acoustic instruments through these speakers, you can’t unhear this anymore. I am sure that the drivers, the crossovers, the cabinets all play a roll. The closed construction and resulting speed is breathtaking. Once you live with these Kingswood Warrens, there is no way back. Occasionally hear other LS3s, it’s just never the same.  They are of course limited in bass below 60Hz, but never leave you “unsatisfied”, most people ask „where is the sub?“ , but that’s because of their funky frequency response… something about a 1000Hz peak, it’s a bit fake. Who cares? Enjoyment with hirez streaming from Quobuz and the incredible CD player also integrated in the T+A MP just got better and better, love with these speakers grows, just like with my CJs, will never trade any of it anymore.
But of course once in a while with Rock and Jazz, I’d like it a little louder once ina while, and never missed any bass, but you just wonder what it would be like if….. knowing that a 13k$ crossover/subwoofer from Wilson Benesh did. in Don’s fantastic listening room…and that make these little Kingswoods 22k$ speakers.. and then do they stack up against everything that’s out there? I think so… but I also still need investment room for my future vinyl front end….so… I didn’t bit yet. 
Then I read the article in stereophile from Mr. Reichert about his combination of the Falcon L3 Gold Badges with the KEF KC62 subwoofers. Would that be a solution that gets me close on a budget? Everybody talks about how difficult it is to pair LS3/5aa with subwoofers, because they are so damned fast and so accurate, and risk is to mash up more than one gains …but I heard the Wilson Beneshs and witnessed that it can be done, seamlessly, but $$$$$$$ 
so I thought why not give it a try. here is Yoda Reichert reporting out that he got a perfect match with a small, unobstrusive 1500$ box; internet is full of rave reports.. so curiosity could be not be tamed. I didn’t want to try anything else… because I just don’t have the band width and time to figure out what works and what doesn’t.. I looked into other subwoofers once with another local dealer, with other speakers, which was a bizarre  xperience, with the clear result that no speaker should  be combined with a subwoofer for music.. no comment, not a pleasant experience.  
I never thought I would opt for online business when it comes to high end, I hate it,  it is not fair, because I want to support my dealer. We need advice from people who do this for living and make auditions possible, and they should be able to live from it. But then again.. it’s not easy, neither for the dealer, not for us normal folk on a budget. So from KEF NA, the risk is a 5% restocking fee if it goes wrong.. price of a concert ticket, which we’re Covided out anyway til recently…. Not that easy though.. the little KEF cube was globally sold out … took 3 months of patience…but  .. patience paid off: it finally arrived. Oh-my-Lord…my first subwoofer experience, my first LS3 experience: friends of the audio-virus infected community: there is a God, and he loves music and seems to be on a budget too… Following Yoda‘s advice, I went straight to placement between the speakers, crossover to 60Hz, input via RCA, Level to 9 o‘clock.. and never moved out of my listening Position since, contemplating early retirement and listening through all my thousands of CDs and half of Qobuz. It took me exactly 2min to find a setting that I have never change since, even after trying others later. The Falcon Kingswood Warrens LS3/5as are little miracles in the first place, but with adding the KC92, the became big miracles.  It is surreal.. and exactly how you feel when you jump into the Dead Sea for a swim, you just can’t stop laughing, because you are floating so effortlessly, it feels so satisfyingly good weird. It’s crazy: you experience  a completely different speaker, after you would have bet your house that you can’t improve something so good already, or more: why would you?
you hear no subwoofer and no speaker, it blends in completely seamlessly. Just the soundstage opens up, there is now a completely tight bottom end, just satisfying like a bite into a piece of steak. Nothing is out of place, nothing booms. The LS3s now sound even more transparent and now they are not only fast, they don’t give you the occasional pleasant slap in the face, they now slap you on the back w/o exaggeration, like a clap from your giant friend on the back after you just scored a home run for his team…I have no good explanation what is really happening there and why, I can only tell it’s all true: a modern Sub works with LS3/5as!!! And I haven’t even bothered yet to experiment with the built in high pass and driving them via the LS  terminals; not sure I will, laziness by happiness! It works Perfectly! Certainly the KC62 does… I am in heaven. I didn’t really miss a sub, but now I can’t go without it. Apollo Fire -Sephardic Journey“ .. magic, Rock.. Jazz Kick Ass, simply satisfying. Everything about the LS3 s that’s good just got better. As good as Don‘s Wilson Benesh.. No, definitely not what I heard in Don‘s holy grail Room with 80k$ amps and source. …but that’s the thing with total happiness… who cares? And in this case the price / performance ratio is outstanding.  Well my craving has not completely stopped: after all, because it’s relatively affordable I want to go all the way: I ordered a second KC62. I want to know what happens if I make them stereo woofers… they Are again sold out, have to wait  another 3 months… 
All LS3/5 owners:start experimenting with small fast subs! It works. If you can afford it, the Falcon / Wilson Benesh combo that my friendly dealer showed me, may be the holy grail,  period; I really can’t imagine anything better. But it has its price. Turns out that I can achieve happiness with less. What changed is that there are these super fast, affordable sub woofers out now, with small pistons, low distortion, lots of power as you know you can drive your LS3/5s with small real world (tube) amps…so here you have it: you can put this LS3/5a combination with A matching sub against bigger speakers with monster amps. But the ls3 / sub combination works with small amps, which allows excellent choices for a smaller budget. There are such good affordable tube amps out there, they work great with LS3s.  All I can say: I have absolute satisfaction now… life is good, I have renewed the marriage with my speakers. I have never turned the sub off since. 

Thank you so much for the offer! If I'm ever in your neck of the woods,I will definitely reach out,and take you up on the audition. 

I don't know where you're located, but I'm in Columbus, Ohio, and if you're ever in the area you're more than welcome to come for a listen (or make a special trip).  I could have had a chance to hear the standard Falcons but I was running very behind schedule already, and they were set up for nearfield listening in an entire other room, so I didn't bother.  They are supposed to sound fantastic too, the dealer told me, but he said you could hear improvements in the special editions, and he owns a pair himself (he personally owns both).

Of note, I have been to Ed's house (of Hornshoppe) and heard the Great Horned Heils there...cool speaker.  Very nice guy...he built me a great little pre-amp that I still own somewhere.  I have open baffles in my main rig now.  We clearly have some common sonic interests!

The difference I hear between the two amps is the FW seems to have a slight bit more presence in the mid bass. At least to my 56 year old ears.

  I also have three other speakers I rotate in my system,Nola Boxer 2's,Hornshoppe Great Horned Heils,and The Betsy(open baffles)
 Since I purchased the Chartwells,the others have been a little neglected! I hope that at some point I'll be able to sample the Falcons. So many great things have been written about them! Congratulations on your purchase. Have you been able to compare the standard Falcons to your limited edition Falcons??

Those are two awesome amp options from my reading, thank you!  Do the two have a noticeably different sound signature from one to the other?  I had a First Watt SIT 2 for a couple of years and didn't really realize that brand had some slightly higher WPC models...interesting, ty.

I am quite certain you have a phenomenal sounding pair of speakers as do I, so congratulations on securing a pair and I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying them as much as I am mine.

Hi parsons,
     I (unfortunately) have not had the opportunity to put my ears on the Falcons. I do however own a pair of Graham Chartwell LS3/5's.  Right now I am driving them with a pair of Monarchy Audio SM70mkII's,with great results. I also pair them a First Watt F5. Again,great results. I have a very tough time pulling myself out of my listening room!