Sound Artist LS3/5 speakers

rikhav

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Any audiophile following 2 channel audio on different forums like our own hifivision, other websites , audio magazines and on YouTube has to know about legendary BBC design monitor which is named LS3/5 which was mainly designed by BBC for their mobile broadcast vans and how it has become into a very popular home audio speaker. There are also other designs like LS6 as well but let's stick to the LS3/5

Now we have many different iterations of LS3/5 made by different speaker manufacturing companies.
Some follow the recipe exactly and some do their own take with modifying the actual design the way they feel it sounds the best.
Harbeths P3Esr series needs no introduction and its based on LS3/5 design but its their own take . Same with spendor Audio.
Soundartist similarly has their own iteration based on the Rogers design

Am sure most would have seen its review on various YouTube channels.
I happened to hear the very same speakers in a short session here in Mumbai.

Here are my personal impressions
Ofcourse they are highly subjective and only what I think

Mr Harsh Merchant a dear friend was one of the first guys who bought these from the distributor. And he graciously invited me for a listen

( P.s - i must say he's a passionate guy about audio - he truly loves it - and I'm sure he would host anyone who asked )


First let me describe the room. There is no acoustic work done.The listening sofa is against the wall. There are large glass windows on the left just 2 foot away from the right speaker

Just behind the speakers is a wall unit (that we all used to have in our old houses)

All in all this was an absolutely normal house infact not even ideal for audio

Having said that here are my thoughts

The speakers were setup approx 8 to 9 ft apart and listening position was around 5 to 6 ft away. Even though the original BBC design Speakers are meant to be used in near field monitors these absolutely disappeared being setup the way they were.
Full marks to Mr. Harsh for taking pains to setup the speakers painstakingly with help lasers and what not.

Everything played on the wall behind and instruments and singers were easy to pinpoint.

As said it was a brief listening session and associated equipment was as follows

Amplifier - marantz 11s2
Dac - Nad M51
Source - computer playing on jriver


Heard the following tracks

Krishna more peechva - Channulal Mishra
Kodo Mondo - Head Darajin
HD tracks hi res sampler - i put a spell on you 192 - Chantal Chamberland
Karie na - Taal ost

After listening to all the tracks I concluded it had a lively sound signature and mids were star of the show being very resolving.
They do have more bass than the Harbeth. Also the bass for the driver size was authoritive and textured but not at all boomy.

Here if we try to find any negetive aspects then it can be that the Harbeth is laid back and a bit more smoother since it was a monitor meant for nearfield listening The soundartist LS3/5 has made a small modification to the crossover to make it sound more lively than the Harbeth since they postioned the speaker not for the nearfield.

Some would prefer this and some may not. Hence the correct pairing i belive would be a warm laid back ss amp or a tube amp.

I think it all boils down to ones preference.

SoundFoundations is the distributer in India and the price is attractive for someone who wants a BBC LS3/5 design but may not be able to stretch budget to a Harbeth or a Falcon


At that price it becomes an absolute no brainer and a steal.

I would urge all, especially all in Mumbai & Bangalore (Soundfoundations has a new experience centre in banaglore too it seems in addition to the Mumbai one ) , to listen to these beauties once

Weather you may like it or not
It does give an insight in to BBC design

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Hi Rikhav,

Just a clarification, is it LS3/5A or LS3/5 ?

Since BBC monitor which is legendary is LS3/5A, which has unbeatable mids and of-course none of the speaker could touch itz easy sweet music it gives nicely. Of course for the size we cannot expect bass and it can be easily merged with a subwoofer.

As of now the equivalent is Kef LS50 which i can rate against LS3/5A.

Regards

Edit; Just now zoomed the photos you have posted it is LS3/5A only....
 
Any audiophile following 2 channel audio on different forums like our own hifivision, other websites , audio magazines and on YouTube has to know about legendary BBC design monitor which is named LS3/5 which was mainly designed by BBC for their mobile broadcast vans and how it has become into a very popular home audio speaker. There are also other designs like LS6 as well but let's stick to the LS3/5

Now we have many different iterations of LS3/5 made by different speaker manufacturing companies.
Some follow the recipe exactly and some do their own take with modifying the actual design the way they feel it sounds the best.
Harbeths P3Esr series needs no introduction and its based on LS3/5 design but its their own take . Same with spendor Audio.
Soundartist similarly has their own iteration based on the Rogers design

Am sure most would have seen its review on various YouTube channels.
I happened to hear the very same speakers in a short session here in Mumbai.

Here are my personal impressions
Ofcourse they are highly subjective and only what I think

Mr Harsh Merchant a dear friend was one of the first guys who bought these from the distributor. And he graciously invited me for a listen

( P.s - i must say he's a passionate guy about audio - he truly loves it - and I'm sure he would host anyone who asked )


First let me describe the room. There is no acoustic work done.The listening sofa is against the wall. There are large glass windows on the left just 2 foot away from the right speaker

Just behind the speakers is a wall unit (that we all used to have in our old houses)

All in all this was an absolutely normal house infact not even ideal for audio

Having said that here are my thoughts

The speakers were setup approx 8 to 9 ft apart and listening position was around 5 to 6 ft away. Even though the original BBC design Speakers are meant to be used in near field monitors these absolutely disappeared being setup the way they were.
Full marks to Mr. Harsh for taking pains to setup the speakers painstakingly with help lasers and what not.

Everything played on the wall behind and instruments and singers were easy to pinpoint.

As said it was a brief listening session and associated equipment was as follows

Amplifier - marantz 11s2
Dac - Nad M51
Source - computer playing on jriver


Heard the following tracks

Krishna more peechva - Channulal Mishra
Kodo Mondo - Head Darajin
HD tracks hi res sampler - i put a spell on you 192 - Chantal Chamberland
Karie na - Taal ost

After listening to all the tracks I concluded it had a lively sound signature and mids were star of the show being very resolving.
They do have more bass than the Harbeth. Also the bass for the driver size was authoritive and textured but not at all boomy.

Here if we try to find any negetive aspects then it can be that the Harbeth is laid back and a bit more smoother since it was a monitor meant for nearfield listening The soundartist LS3/5 has made a small modification to the crossover to make it sound more lively than the Harbeth since they postioned the speaker not for the nearfield.

Some would prefer this and some may not. Hence the correct pairing i belive would be a warm laid back ss amp or a tube amp.

I think it all boils down to ones preference.

SoundFoundations is the distributer in India and the price is attractive for someone who wants a BBC LS3/5 design but may not be able to stretch budget to a Harbeth or a Falcon


At that price it becomes an absolute no brainer and a steal.

I would urge all, especially all in Mumbai & Bangalore (Soundfoundations has a new experience centre in banaglore too it seems in addition to the Mumbai one ) , to listen to these beauties once

Weather you may like it or not
It does give an insight in to BBC design

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Very nice. Would like to see how they fare with a pure Class A amp like Ali's perhaps?
 
Price is simple
We have always tried to give a fair one

So
It's simple

International price in USD plus gst
( I'm sure you guys are better than me in finding out current international price )

For genuine intrest ( if that price is acceptable)
You can call or PM

P.S
Respected sir
I cannot post an actual figure on a public forum
 

Would love it if these could be made available:
 
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Does it play loud? Or is it a jazz kind speaker..
It surely plays loud for an average room size
Maybe not to insane levels like a pro audio speaker but I don't think would expect it to go that loud
 
Why there is foam around the tweeter? Is has any acoustic purpose?
It's Part of the BBC design. Sir

Jenson

The LS3/5
was made for originally made for monitoring commissioned by BBC

And so the harbeth , spendor , falcon , Rogers and the Soundartist ( who was the OEM or Rogers since the 70s ) etc
which are based on this design play the same way since they are almost identical designs ( crossover, cabinets , size or druvers , even the impedance and wattage )

They ALL play in a small sealed box of the same size
And so they obviously have a limit on the bass they produce

None of the above are for parties and very large spaces
They are all intimate sounding , if you have heard a harbeth you would have an idea

As for your question about jazz
Well bbc didn't design these speakers just for jazz but more so for vocals so obviously they would play all kinds of music

The BBC flavour is a bit different from modern speakers
It's more to do with the sweetness of the human voice , the tone and texture of the instruments rather than the accuracy and pin point imaging and detail


So it's a highly enjoyable and listenable speaker if you are not going to analyse it
A bbc is thus an emotion fir easy listening rather than a critics speaker

Just from my experience
The speaker does need a decent amp

The best I've heard it play is with a simple NAD 356 and a nad 370
Which is not surprising since the NAD British legacy and flavour also dates back
( Yes today there are PPL who scoff at a nad in the hifiworld -i personally still love a NAD for what it does )

I'm sure it does play well with today's hifi more expensive and modern brands as well too

It's just that it's a simple sounding speaker
Just give it a simple sounding amp
 
W
Jenson

The LS3/5
was made for originally made for monitoring commissioned by BBC

And so the harbeth , spendor , falcon , Rogers and the Soundartist ( who was the OEM or Rogers since the 70s ) etc
which are based on this design play the same way since they are almost identical designs ( crossover, cabinets , size or druvers , even the impedance and wattage )

They ALL play in a small sealed box of the same size
And so they obviously have a limit on the bass they produce

None of the above are for parties and very large spaces
They are all intimate sounding , if you have heard a harbeth you would have an idea

As for your question about jazz
Well bbc didn't design these speakers just for jazz but more so for vocals so obviously they would play all kinds of music

The BBC flavour is a bit different from modern speakers
It's more to do with the sweetness of the human voice , the tone and texture of the instruments rather than the accuracy and pin point imaging and detail


So it's a highly enjoyable and listenable speaker if you are not going to analyse it
A bbc is thus an emotion fir easy listening rather than a critics speaker
Would also love to see below 👇 in the Market sometime

 
For excellent sound that won't break the bank, the 5 Star Award Winning Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 Bookshelf Speakers is the one to consider!
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