Rogers LS 3/5A restoration: questions

Excellent restoration. What is your impression of how they sound? How do you have them set up?
 
Thanks guys.

@mech986 : Hooked them uo to my 'big rig' in the livingroom. Imaging and 3D are stunning, mids (voices) are wonderful, treble is pretty good but in the low-end department they are lacking a bit. The jury is not out yet, but I feel my ADAM Audio loudspeakers might not be replaced.

Rogers.jpg
 
Thanks guys.

@mech986 : Hooked them uo to my 'big rig' in the livingroom. Imaging and 3D are stunning, mids (voices) are wonderful, treble is pretty good but in the low-end department they are lacking a bit. The jury is not out yet, but I feel my ADAM Audio loudspeakers might not be replaced.

Rogers.jpg

Very nice setup, those look like very nice and sturdy stands, somewhat similar to the vaunted IF Design stands.

The LS3/5a was never meant to fill a large room with significant bass or major volume, and of course, it does not do low bass below about 80 hz. For that purpose, you will need a dedicated subwoofer and crossover. Might be interesting if you have options of trying them in a smaller, more intimate room in a secondary system.
 
Thnx :) . The stands are Audio Magic Genta GLS-XL (that's a mouthfull), very heavy triangular shaped stands. At the moment I have some nice two way standmount loudspeakers in da house, doing some comparisons to see (and hear) which will stay and which I'll sell.

Speelkwartier.jpg
 
Nice! All the other speakers have either newer, more modern larger woofers and / or larger cabinets to work with not having had the size constraints that the LS3/5a had. Would be interesting to compare those to the final small LS speaker built with BBC, the LS5/12.

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Yes, DynAudio was the original supplier and made a many complete speakers. After that, Harbeth became the speaker builder. Supposedly very dynamic for a relatively small cabinet. Moderately rare as not a lot of them were made.
 
The LS3/5a was never meant to fill a large room with significant bass or major volume, and of course, it does not do low bass below about 80 hz. For that purpose, you will need a dedicated subwoofer and crossover.

My understanding (having never heard the LS3/5a) is that its upper bass hump ("fake" bass presence) makes pairing it with a sub rather futile.
 
no, don't believe everything you read. by themselves you don't notice this bump. yes, the speaker
is magic - it does what it does like nothing else: soundstage width, midrange with female vocals,
etc. It does not play super-loud nor does it do mega-bass. So, great for complex symphonic works, female
vocals, jazz, but not Greatful Dead, Black Sabbath, Nine Inch Nails, etc. for these you need
1000 w and four D9s.

Everyone I know who's heard them does not walk away muttering "did you hear that bass bump?"
in fact it's largely ignored.

There was a custom chartwell woofer (we now call sub-woofer) that was designed for the LS3/5A
and today's perfect solution is a DQ-LP1 or some crossover with variable low pass filters.

this LS3/5A, DQ-LP1 combo cost $400 back in the day, and is now about $4K,
and guess what they will bring in the near future?

if you can score both, run them and change the low-pass to just above 120Hz, see if you can tell
whether the bass bump is the one single issue that stops you from selling the pair.

My guess on why this myth is persistent: guys who bought them expected a miracle from a small
box - yes but not in the bass area, then sold them and now tell everybody they suck and this is the reason.
the second is $$$ - they've gone up 10x - gotta find a reason for dumping them and not feeling bad about
about an investment that did this well.

do note that Stereophile lists the Falcon-version and other LS3/5A derivatives in their class B sections
and does not say anything about a bass bump being a great reason to NOT buy it. Read the full
review - they mention it was missing - like I mentioned earlier you won't hear it.

so to bump the price not the bass up, find LS3/5As across the country (craigslist) and buy them.
I've seen pairs for $500 and there's one recently for $900. play them and if your ears can hear
the bass bump and if it annoys you and if you don't want to mess with crossovers and
biamping, then sell them and make a couple grand and buy those speakers with BASS
not bumps.

BTW if you do like them, use SE tubes on top and an SS amp on the bottom. you get
full range at low volumes (the bass doesn't disappear).

Bob
 
@beatcomber

You have the current king (LS50) and the runner-up. I suspect the LS50 will advance in
the future the way the LS3/5A did in the past.

If I had the runway, I would buy all the LS50s I could, and either dump them if
there's a mark II or keep them (for future profit) if the design is discontinued.

I have yet to hear the LS50s but am afraid to since I have this system that's
been built, tuned, and accessorized over the decades so

enjoy the music
 
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