• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Anyone tried the Sound Artist LS3/5A (or other clones)?

One of the earliest batman response curves ever?
1121roger.lab2.jpg

From https://www.hifinews.com/content/rogers-ab3a-subwoofer-lab-report
 
thewas said:
Stereophile recently measured another clone, also in comparison to an original LS3/5a https://www.stereophile.com/content/falcon-gold-badge-ls35a-loudspeaker-measurements
Click to expand...
I wonder if it's fair to call the Falcon a clone. Falcon was founded by Malcolm Jones, reportedly the first employee of KEF and the designer of the drive units employed in the original LS3/5a. As I understand it, the Falcon Gold Badge edition is designed to be as exact a reproduction of the original as possible. Does that make it a clone? IDK. Maybe it does.

Regarding the Sound Artist "LS3/5a," I think the best way to regard it is as a model entirely unto itself, considering the moniker as nothing more than an homage. I've seen one or two reviews (subjective) that seem to judge it favorably on its own merits without regard to whether it is a true reproduction of the original LS3/5a.
 
Chaconne said:
As I understand it, the Falcon Gold Badge edition is designed to be as exact a reproduction of the original as possible. Does that make it a clone? IDK. Maybe it does.
Click to expand...
It seems they didn't fully succeed with making it an exact reproduction as the above linked measurements show but different definitions and semantics for a clone exist.
050121-Falconfig01.jpg


Fig.1 1978 Rogers LS3/5a, anechoic response on tweeter axis at 50", averaged across 30° horizontal window and corrected for microphone response, with the nearfield woofer response plotted below 300Hz.

050121-Falconfig04.jpg


Fig.4 Falcon LS3/5a Gold Badge, anechoic response on tweeter axis at 50", averaged across 30° horizontal window and corrected for microphone response, with the nearfield woofer response plotted below 300Hz.
 
Last edited:
I've heard the "mistral" model of these, It was ok. Don't think I'd pay $600 that they cost for them.

I really liked what came from the woofer and found the low end surprising, I haven't heard many sealed speakers at all but it made me want a pair of something sealed. The tweeter was a let down, lacked detail and felt pretty boring. It had that whole "speaker does really well with spacious jazzy vocal stuff but suffered with anything else" thing going on.

It really squashed any thoughts I had about missing some mojo with my monitors and made me appreciate the neutrality of them.

These folks also had the vandersteens Erin reviewed and those pretty much sucked.
 
I have the Sound Artist LS3/5a that I would be willing to send to Amir for measurement if someone would like to help with the shipping cost :) PM me if you are interested!
 
I own both the Sound Artist and Falcon Acoustics Silver Badge Edition of the LS3/5a. The Sound Artist are surprisingly good sounding speaker, that hint at the LS3/5a but are not the same. Without hearing both, you may be satisfied with the Sound Artist. It is fairly well made, I chose the Walnut veneer which is quite nice and appears to be bookmatched. However, the sonic difference is immediately evident upon first listen to the Falcon Acoustics. More transparent, greater soundstage depth and width and better extension in the treble region, with a more airy sound. The Sound Artist bass sounds muddy and a bit boomy by contrast to the Falcon Acoustics, less well defined. That said, the Sound Artist is a nice homage to the BBC monitor, that I’m glad I auditioned in my own room, the best way to really know a speakers sound.
 
differenceclouds said:
Available here:
https://www.china-hifi-audio.com/en...p-2320?zenid=2063e200a2bfd37984bc516c8ff74226
I read a subjective review comparing them to the Falcon remakes unfavorably. It said basically that the Sound Artist speakers were a pale imitation of the real thing. But what does that mean? I would love to see how these things measure, or hear any other takes on these from members.
Click to expand...
Read Stereophile's review of the Genelec G3. It measures and sounds better than LS35A and the other small speakers they had on hand. I had LS35As (Rogers) for many years and loved them. but they don't compare with modern, powered monitors like Genelec, KLH, etc.

LS35A worship is for old people (like me) and noobs who don't know better and for companies that like easy ways of making speakers that can be highly priced.
 
ferrellms said:
noobs who don't know better and for companies that like easy ways of making speakers that can be highly priced.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I fall into that camp - I watched a whole bunch of YouTube reviews of the the Sound Artist speakers, and they all seemed very favorable.

The only positive I would say is the fit and finish of the Walnut veneer - very nice, substantially better than anything in the price range. (I was looking at Dali / B&W / Polk etc. whatever else carried at a typical audio store)

That's about the only good thing I can say.

They've been a major let-down.

Most significant is the absolute blatant lie about them being an 11 ohm load. It dips to ~1.5 ohms in the bass regions. (Measured with a DATS v3)

Its really disappointing because I bought them to pair with a Quad 33 / 303 system - I could have lived with the mediocre sound quality, but not when the impedance dips to amplifier ruining levels.

Certainly learned a lesson about trusting YouTube reviews, hard to believe none of them showed the impedance curves.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom