Rogers LS35A - Stradivarius? Or Sentimental Hype?


I remember these from my audiophile youth and thought that they sounded quite good, if a bit thin.

In any case, I always thought they would make a nice monitor for a smaller room or bedroom, but then I am always shocked at the resale prices, especially for very good ones.

As I write, there is a pair on ebay which is already bid up to GBP 1,000 which I am pretty sure is a lot more than they cost new?!

So my question - what is so special about this monitor in its original configuration?

Do the best mini monitors today give these a good run for their money -- especially in the area of midrange magic?

If they really are so wonderful, why doesnt someone knock them off in China for a fraction of the price?

Are these really a big deal, or are collectors just being irrational?
cwlondon
I used LS3/5a speakers from 1976 - 2001 continuously, in either primary or secondary systems. They certainly stand as one of the landmark speakers of post-war audio history with longevity and relevance matched by few others. How do they stand up against current monitors? It depends on your frame of reference.

Like Quad ESL-57s and Apogees, the LS3/5a won its reputation on vocal fidelity and in this respect it was and remains exceptional with respect to human tone, its communication of expression and its general sweetness. Also, the original 15ohm impedance was beneficial to the sound of most solid state amplifiers. So while a tube amp really was needed to make them sing, the LS3/5a was a speaker that could make most solid state amps sound much more expressive than their performance and design otherwise led you to expect. They were one of the first speakers to demonstrate the imaging that could be achieved by a near-point-source speaker, and they made the case for very stiff cabinets.

The tonal excellence of the LS3/5a is compromised by its dynamic compression and some people found the euphonic bass bump that was engineered into the speaker to improve the listener's perception of full-range performance to be annoying. The LS3/5a was a fully engineered system with every aspect of its manufacture considered in the intended outcome. Drivers were KEF B110 with bextrene cones, advanced for 1971, and KEF T27 soft dome tweeters. There is a 15 element crossover playing traffic cop on the routing of signal to the drivers. The cabinets were specific density birch ply, if I recall correctly, and even the grill and the felt strips isolating the tweeter were critical to the sound. One thing often neglected in the equation were stands. For most of this speaker's life, stands were not very well conceived or made. I got a nice surprise around 1998 when I got a pair of Osiris stands for them, filled with shot and sand. I found a distinctly elevated level of performance compared to any stand I'd been able to find in the prior 22 years of using this speaker.

There are modern speakers that will outperform the LS3/5a in nearly every respect, and yet matching its midrange vocal expression is elusive even for those contenders. The Spendor S3/5 and S3/5se are both generally superior but not equally magical. Certainly their bass has more definition and discipline, and their dynamic performance is better. The larger Silverline SR16 sounds more like the LS3/5a midrange, and goes deeper, is more efficient and dynamic, but in its larger size gives up some of the uncanny imagining of the tiny Brit.

The big difference between what is possible now vs. when the LS3/5a was designed is primarily realized when you compare it with a newer breakthrough, which is the Zu full range driver. This allows you to hear a tonally rich and accurate speaker with excellent vocal expression, without the amp forcing the signal through a crossover, let alone a 15 element passive circuit. Prior full range drivers could not deliver any semblance of the BBC's midrange accuracy without annoying shout. The Zu driver can. So, at adimittedly more cost and larger size, a pair of $1700 Zu Tones will make the LS3/5a sound dated, and the presence of its dynamic constriction will suddenly seem unacceptably annoying and distracting.

However, if all you ever compare an LS3/5a to is other midget two-ways with complex crossovers, then it will remain competitive, though clearly more colored than, say, the Spendor update or, tellingly, the MUCH more expensive and excellent Sonus Faber Cremona Auditor. While the Spendor is the closest modern equivalent, I consider the "voiced" Cremona Auditor the 21st century spiritual equivalent to the LS3/5a in terms of emotional projection in domestic circumstances. However, at 4ohms, the Cremona Auditor demands a much more capable amp to sound good. The LS3/5a, in later 11ohm or preferred older 15 ohm form, makes alot of mediocre amps perfectly usable again.

Why doesn't someone in China just knock off the LS3/5a? Well, it could be done, but two critical elements are missing -- the KEF drivers are no longer made. Certainly many equivalent modern alternatives exist that are better in every objective sense. An alternate speaker can be engineered to attain the same BBC objectives and many companies can and do such a thing through designs that are outwardly similar but duplicating of nothing from the BBC spec. Without the KEF drivers, along with everything that can be duplicated, you're just not going to get the same speaker. You might however get a speaker you like better. An LS3/5a aficionado might not agree, and hence the climbing prices.

Phil
It is always my reference for sound especially for vocal part. Sound reproduction is always tricky. The more revealing the speaker system is, the worst is for one to get the right palette of sound. It is like lenses (eg.Nikon vs Leica) and negative films (eg.Fuji vs Kodak) for pictures, you are talking about colour balance, colour tone, colour separation, contrast, resolution and curvature of field, just to name a few. These ideas apply equally well to sound reproduction based on a different combination of components and equipment you set up in your system.
Over the years, I have had different made model of LS3/5a. I currently still keep not less than 6 pairs of LS3/5a of which it includes 3 pairs of KEF piano black paint limited edition. For all these years, I have tried these speakers with different components. Tube amp ranging from 25 watt to 100 watts per channel. Preamp of different brands. One outstanding point which I always noted from these speakers is that it captured the quintessence of midrange reproduction. Its extensions on both frequencies extreme (of course within its own limited freqency range so to speak) and dynamism highly affected and depend on the quality of the preamp (says with AudioResearch Ref Preamp). With good quality components and properly setup within not too large a room, you can get a big sound. More important aspects of these speakers besides the midrange reproduction is the way it defines intensity level of energy within the whole sound spectrum with respect to individual sound frequency distribution. It is so well balanced and with this fine balance it helps to define a non-analytical sound approach which many of us will not be fatigue for hours listening to these speakers.
Without LS3/5a, I can never be so successful in ways to set up my current downstair reference system which centred around a pair of Avalon Eidilon speakers (so difficult to get it right as they are so revealing). I do really understand why Mr.HP regarded it as one of the audio classic components ever made in the history.
They were designed by and made for the BBC.
The BBC uses three types of monitor loudspeakers:
#1 large full range for music production: 12 inch woofer 2 way or 3 way design, big ported boxes on stands. These cover the full musical range including the lowest octaves.

#2 medium size two way for speech and light music production, medium size ported boxes on stands. These do not cover the bottom octave or two but are otherwise the same as #1.

#3 small size two way design for speech and occasional light music, small boxes on stands. These have weak bass but for speech that is not a problem. The major quality is natural reproduction of speech.

The LS3/5 design was #3 twenty five years ago. The current BBC requirements are being met by HARBETH among others. I own Harbeth Monitor 30s which are category #2. They are first class.