Rogers LS3/5a (BBC) Speaker Review

[ROOSKIE]

Sound Artist, has their version for under $600 a pair.
This is the replica/knock off/Chinese hifi version of choice that many buy now .

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Free returns@Amazon

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There are other Chinese companies doing this as well. Sound Artist is the most well known.(due to Amazon sales and Youtube)

 

[WilsonLaidlaw]

I wonder how good any 20+ year old speaker is. In my UK house I have a pair of ATC SCM-19 Mk1 largish stand mount speakers sitting on lead filled four leg steel stands. They are over 15 years old. I feel their treble response is getting a bit flat, when compared to the more recent ATC SCM-40 Mk.2 speakers I have in my French house (both pairs driven by Krell amplification), so I have decided to replace the tweeters on the SCM-19 speakers, with the updated Vifa D26 tweeters made Peerless-Tymphany, as recommended by ATC. I bought these from Enrgtech.com rather than from ATC, at a saving of around 75% on ATC's asking price! I still have to get round to installing them, as it is not straightforward. The drive unit cores have to be moved over from their new mounting chassis to the old chassis, by removing the locating lugs on the new drive units, while keeping the dome centralised. I think I should probably get a professional to do this but my local speaker service people are booked up for months ahead. I think I will just remove the original tweeters from the wooden speaker housings and take them with the new drive units to whoever I get to do the work, rather than transporting the very heavy original speakers. This would be extremely difficult for me, given that I am disabled with degenerative spinal scoliosis and have a very limited lifting capacity.

Wilson

 

[AndreaT]

Another myth bites the dust. Yes, very expensive. Yes, it did sound better than a single cone speaker from a cheap all-in-one Stereo. There were and there are much better choices. Thank you Amir!

 

[Willem]

Maybe it was optimized to work together with the tube amplifier?

Of course not. The BBC used Quad 303 power amplifiers for this purpose, and they work very well with these impedance loads.

 

[DSJR]

Please clarify the term "tinsel" for those of us who aren't familiar with it in the context of speakers.

I'll try but it's difficult for me without demming it to you...

Tinsel, slightly wiry high frequencies are a little bit spiky/spitty and 'one note' and I apologise for not being able to describe it further. It's not the same as having generally too much top and nor is it the 'chrome plated glossy 'sheen' on string-tone of say, a Naim passive speaker of old which used the then ubiquitous small done Scan Speak model with a sharp distortion peak/resonance at 9kHz.

The Harbeth P3ESR in comparison, gives high frequencies a smoothness almost like silk in comparison (some if not all Accuphase amps have this 'character' subjectively if you'll believe such a thing ) and if you've ever heard a good jazz drummer playing 'tunes' on cymbals with brushes you may get what I mean. This characteristic goes beyond mere level to me and could be a form of very gentle compression for all I know.

These kinds of subjective qualities on speakers can't always be measured easily either as I gether they don't always come up in response plots, although the directivity Klippel plots may help hugely here..

 

[Willem]

Another myth bites the dust. Yes, very expensive. Yes, it did sound better than a single cone speaker from a cheap all-in-one Stereo. There were and there are much better choices.

This is nonsense. They were neither very expensive, nor did they have serious competition in this size and for this purpose, at the time. Of course, there are far better such speakers now, fortunately.

 

[DSJR]

Of course not. The BBC used Quad 303 power amplifiers for this purpose, and they work very well with these impedance loads.

HH also did a small pro amp for these and similar small speakers which I gather the BBC also used after the 303 was discontinued

 

[Willem]

I wonder how good any 20+ year old speaker is.

Very few, to be honest, and certainly not fourty year old speakers.

 

[LTig]

I wonder how good any 20+ year old speaker is.

When I sold my B110A chassis from 1988 they were 30 years old and looked like new, and also performed such.

 

[DSJR]

For it's use as a monitor for radio stations, I think it's just fine, with the elevated treble to give more insight into details. Accuracy does not matter for this purpose.

Not 'detail' but HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

 

[Willem]

Not 'detail' but HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

But if you look at the original measurements that high frequency rise is above the hearing of most people, and certainly of older recording engineers.

 

[Cote Dazur]

Thank you for this review @amirm. Always very interesting to see your measurements and read your always insightful comments on a speaker I know well.
Not anymore, which I regret, I had a pair of those.
As a stereo pair, as originally intended use, in the proper set up in the proper room, those speakers were, to my ears and brain, reproducing great music. I would not spend a small fortune on them, but if I still had them, I would love to enjoy them again.

 

[moonlight rainbow dream]

I've completely soured on the entire concept of "reduced BSC" designs. Just use EQ instead of kneecapping the performance of your speaker! It's so easy and so effective. The only exception is for speakers that will truly be flush-mounted into a wall.

 

[DSJR]

Very few, to be honest, and certainly not fourty year old speakers.

BC1's ain't bad in the midrange and can give Harbeth radial cones something to think about tonally if not power handling

But if you look at th eoriginal measurements that high frequency rise is above the hearing of most people, and certainly of older recording engineers.

I'd suggest it's what's going on below 10KHz as well. I was shown what the mesh cover (ex-Celestion Hf2000) did with and without and back then in 1975 at eighteen years old, it was clearly audible, as well as the Tannoy dual concentric raggedness above 8kHz or so which I doubt I could hear at all now).

 

[Phorize]

That would be a pretty cheap van. I still have the original receipt somewhere, but though not cheap it was by no means crazy audiophool prices. US 1977 retail price/pair $430.

We may have had slightly different expectations around what would have constituted.a roadworthy vehicle in 1985. At the time my mate had a Ford van that cost around £300. It wasn't a pretty sight

 

[Steve Dallas]

You do know that these are not Spendor's version of the same speaker? They are a similar size but a different design, much as was Harbeth's P3.

Yes. But we need measurements of that speaker as well. Obviously.

 

[sam_adams]

... palate ...

Jim

It's spreadable. Works both ways.

 

[fpitas]

I've completely soured on the entire concept of "reduced BSC" designs. Just use EQ instead of kneecapping the performance of your speaker! It's so easy and so effective. The only exception is for speakers that will truly be flush-mounted into a wall.

I agree. But big inductors cost money, so we can expect passive speakers to chisel on the BSC. The sensitivity goes down too, which doesn't help marketing.

 

[thewas]

View attachment 328449
Fun thing is, in room they're way flatter than some other "flat" speakers.
The more I listen to different speakers the more I think that most of the people (and me ofc) actually like room-engaged bass response.
We just fool ourselves thinking that we prefer "flat" response because it's not flat in room

 

[thewas]

No need to criticise the BBC engineers of the 1960s, but whoever there thought it was OK to grant a licence and endorse selling copies of this speaker for audiophile use today should be rewarded with a big glass windowed executive corner office at the new office building in Salford.

.., and made to listen to Mahler sympathies on a pair of them for four hours a day until they stop it.

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