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I need to try a proper British speaker...these should do (right???)

tomlinmgt

tomlinmgt

Lunatic Member
After five years in the hobby I think I'm a little overdue for the "British" experience. Lord knows I've been curious as the British sound certainly has its devotees. Actually, I got to spend about an hour with Mike T's Spendors and I liked them quite a lot. Surely these will have me tasting fish n' chips and ale in no time....:scratch2:

***EDIT***...go to pg.3, post #42 for system pics and listening impressions.


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Nice! They were well received by the audio reviewers. Those drivers in the back ground should fill in the low end nicely!

Glenn
 
LS50's.... Nice.

Just remember, there are several different schools of "British"... KEF basically straddles the middle of the "British" spectrum, so I guess it's the perfect place to start. It can become an addiction though. That almighty middle. I won't be getting rid of my Brit babies anytime soon.
 
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tomlinmgt said:
After five years in the hobby I think I'm a little overdue for the "British" experience. Lord knows I've been curious as the British sound certainly has its devotees. Actually, I got to spend about an hour with Mike T's Spendors and I liked them quite a lot. Surely these will have me tasting fish n' chips and ale in no time....:scratch2:


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Click to expand...

Nice acquisition Michael! These should rock in your room, acoustics being what they are and all the extraordinary work you've put into your listening space.

What stands are you planning on using? And it's time for reciprocal visits.:D. I've only heard the LS 50's twice, once in a large venue at CES and the other at a local shop where they didn't bother to really properly demo them. I think they are VERY good and would love to hear them in a proper set up.

Also time for you to come get an ear on the Spendors with the new Naim:thmbsp:
 
Yes please let us know, I am on the fence with them as a buy.
Speakers,Room,Feed ,All that good chit.


Best-

Boozehound.
 
What will you use for power? Are the LS50's tube-friendly? I see lots of people using solid-state gear.

Gettin' my Brit thing on as I type this...
 
The Pass First Watt F5 clone and Threshold s/300 have both been warming up for about four hours. Those should give me a good idea what some class A SS juice can do for the little wonders. By the time I'm ready to go out for a listen (another few hours) they should both be good and ready.

For tubes I have the Tube Audio Design TAD-60 and it's currently loaded with Gold Lion KT-88s and switched to triode push pull. I'll ultimately drop in the KT-77's and bias it down to class A single ended (that was the cat's meow with the Altec 19's). I can get 60 wpc out of it with the KT-88's switched to UL and half that with the -77s switched to triode and biased to single ended. If you're unfamiliar with Tube Audio Design the man behind these was Fisher guru Paul Grzybek (Bizzy Bee) so I suppose you could consider the TAD-60 a Fisher on steroids....maybe????

Upstream of that is the Mondiafan tweaked (including external power supply) Acurus RL11 pre and Schiit Gungnir DAC. I can either source from my laptop (hiRes or Tidal) or a Pioneer Elite cdp.

Stands are nothing fancy...just some PE specials (Dayton I guess...hey, cut me some slack....I'm not really a little speaker guy) but the room makes up for any shortcomings in the speaker stand department as it's been treated...um...a little bit. :)

Room dimensions are 16x20x8 so the mini mites get to show me how big they can sound and I'm unrestricted wrt speaker placement and listening spot location. Four subs with DRC ensures a well integrated bottom end is on tap at the flip of a switch (or four). I also have the u-frame OB subs loaded with Acoustic Elegance Dipole 15's but I doubt I'll need those and the distributed bass. Might be fun to try 'em all at once, though. :scratch2:
 
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These sound really, really good...no doubt about that. With the tubes I found them warm and detailed and able to offer quick, clean dramatic shifts in dynamics with an impressive degree of realism that is only compromised by the limited scale of a speaker with drivers this size. Sound stage and image resolution are, as expected, excellent. Tone is clean and pure and this is most evident with piano, acoustic guitar and vocals. Top end is clean and well resolved with no hint of sharpness or edge. They maybe struggled a bit with music that is comprised of a lot of different sonic elements occurring all at once...especially if some of those elements were deliberately distorted...but that's also typical of small drivers. With the F5 they got a little thin (could be a power thing) but a bit more detailed and weren't as engaging. With both amps the reproduction of percussive content was very good with all the little tonal nuances inherent to cymbals and drums present. They weren't alarmingly tactile in the mid range, but sufficiently enough to be fun. All in all exactly as they are described over an over by those who have spent some time with them...extraordinarily capable for a speaker their size and difficult to criticize as long as expectations are reasonable.

I'll play around with positioning next but last night they were seven feet apart (center to center), about seven feet out into the room from the front wall (treated/diffuse and absorptive), about four feet from the side walls (treated/absorptive) and I sat about eight feet away from them and was positioned about five feet from the rear wall (treated/absorptive). I ran them without subs just long enough to hear what they could do with LF on their own and they sounded puny, because they are puny (nothing like distributed bass or dipole bass with big, capable drivers, folks). With the u-frame subs and a high pass at 100 Hz the result was, well, as described above. A very satisfying listen and the best small speakers I've heard, but not the best I've heard, period (that would be an unreasonable expectation). Up there, though. They set an excellent standard for mid range and and high frequency reproduction that I'll be referencing as I begin my journey into DIY.

E9FD119B-6581-499B-BDA6-1083EB19DA8D.jpeg
 
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Great write up and review.

How would you rate/compare them against the extensive number of speakers you have rotated through your listening space?
 
Excellent write up.

I think you've seen/tracked my "moving target" of speaker options, as I have yours. The LS 50 are on my want list for the next 12-18 months. If KEF comes out with a MkII, I think prices will come down to a level i'd feel good about. But from the reviews, they seem a bargain even at today's prices.

Having just worked the Linns into the rotation this week, I need to focus on listening as you have.

Again. Thanks for the write up.
 
baco99 said:
Excellent write up.
Click to expand...

Ditto... well done Michael! :thmbsp: The Brit sound can be addictive. Some R107's might be good to try against the LS50's... Canucker has demo'd both and can give you some insight into how they compare.... obviously the Bass of the Big KEF's will be special! :yes: I'd say you'd probably find the detail in the up octaves of the LS50's to be more defined.
 
GTIanz said:
Great write up and review.

How would you rate/compare them against the extensive number of speakers you have rotated through your listening space?
Click to expand...

Probably need a week or two with them to say for sure. One thing a I do intend to do is pull out the A. Jones -22 Pioneers, Dynaco 25's and KLH 23's and have a little shoot out. Might have to start a separate thread for that one. :scratch2:
 
Great write-up... ("Not really a speaker guy"? :scratch2: :D )

I may have to give the LS50 a go 'round once I figure out which subwoofer will be my first (HOME sub, that is). My first standmounters ended up being the little guys in my signature pic, which were about $500 less than the LS50 back in 2012, but the LS50's have always been in the back of my mind.

I think the biggest reason I have avoided FR-type speakers is that I keep thinking to myself, "How can an FR compete with the size and scale of a two-way of equivalent build/design ingenuity?" (and I'm a 'BIG speaker' guy in love with his big speakers), but apparently, they took the FR driver to the outer limits with those LS50 drivers. Tannoy, be praised.
 
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tomlinmgt said:
These sound really, really good...no doubt about that. With the tubes I found them warm and detailed and able to offer quick, clean dramatic shifts in dynamics with an impressive degree of realism that is only compromised by the limited scale of a speaker with drivers this size. Sound stage and image resolution are, as expected, excellent. Tone is clean and pure and this is most evident with piano, acoustic guitar and vocals. Top end is clean and well resolved with no hint of sharpness or edge. They maybe struggled a bit with music that is comprised of a lot of different sonic elements occurring all at once...especially if some of those elements were deliberately distorted...but that's also typical of small drivers. With the F5 they got a little thin (could be a power thing) but a bit more detailed and weren't as engaging. With both amps the reproduction of percussive content was very good with all the little tonal nuances inherent to cymbals and drums present. They weren't alarmingly tactile in the mid range, but sufficiently enough to be fun. All in all exactly as they are described over an over by those who have spent some time with them...extraordinarily capable for a speaker their size and difficult to criticize as long as expectations are reasonable.

I'll play around with positioning next but last night they were seven feet apart (center to center), about seven feet out into the room from the front wall (treated/diffuse and absorptive), about four feet from the side walls (treated/absorptive) and I sat about eight feet away from them and was positioned about five feet from the rear wall (treated/absorptive). I ran them without subs just long enough to hear what they could do with LF on their own and they sounded puny, because they are puny (can beat distributed bass or dipole bass with big, capable drivers, folks). With the u-frame subs and a high pass at 100 Hz the result was, well, as described above. A very satisfying listen and the best small speakers I've heard, but not the best I've heard, period (that would be an unreasonable expectation). Up there, though. They set an excellent standard for mid range and and high frequency reproduction that I'll be referencing as I begin my journey into DIY.
Click to expand...

Webster> Puny.

Slight or inferior in power ,size or importance:/weak.

Thank you for the write up. Back to the music.


Best-

Boozehound
 
Gang-Twanger said:
Great write-up... ("Not really a speaker guy"? :scratch2: :D )

I may have to give the LS50 a go 'round once I figure out which subwoofer will be my first (HOME sub, that is). My first standmounters ended up being the little guys in my signature pic, which were about $500 less than the LS50 back in 2012, but the LS50's have always been in the back of my mind.

I think the biggest reason I have avoided FR-type speakers is that I keep thinking to myself, "How can an FR compete with the size and scale of a two-way of equivalent build/design ingenuity?" (and I'm a 'BIG speaker' guy in love with his big speakers), but apparently, they took the FR driver to the outer limits with those LS50 drivers. Tannoy, be praised.
Click to expand...

"Not really a little speaker guy" is actually what I said. :thmbsp:

The driver in the LS50 is a coax, not full range. But speaking of FR drivers I recently started playing with them for the first time...Tang Band W8-1808...and am pretty excited with what I'm hearing. They still need some break in time but here are some initial impressions....

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=662271
 
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Boozehound said:
Webster> Puny.

Slight or inferior in power ,size or importance:/weak.

Thank you for the write up. Back to the music.


Best-

Boozehound
Click to expand...

Yep...when Altec 19's, Infinity QLS-1's, JBL L250's, ADS 1290/II's, Magnepan MG-IIIa's and Acoustat Spectra 22's have been on the menu a speaker like the LS50 is, indeed, puny. Although I've never considered "inferior in importance" a defining characteristic of the word and, as such, am not making that implication here.
 
tomlinmgt said:
Yep...when Altec 19's, Infinity QLS-1's, JBL L250's, ADS 1290/II's, Magnepan MG-IIIa's and Acoustat Spectra 22's have been on the menu a speaker like the LS50 is, indeed, puny. Although I've never considered "inferior in importance" a defining characteristic of the word and, as such, am not making that implication here.
Click to expand...

No I get it, they are just a small speaker like you say. Break in helps in my mind not in some others.

Best-

Boozehound
 
^^^

They sound a little small, too...compared to what my ears are calibrated to.

Bookshelf speakers don't offer life like scale...not like a line source or something with rather large drivers can. But the LS50's offer impressive scale given their size.

They're broken in....purchased used from AKer BeerCan.
 
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tomlinmgt said:
^^^

They sound a little small, too...compared to what my ears are calibrated to.

Bookshelf speakers don't offer life like scale...not like a line source or something with rather large drivers can. But the LS50's offer impressive scale given their size. .
Click to expand...

Another key word calibrated/calibration.. drives me nuts on a weekly basis.
This is are world.


Best-

Boozehound.
 
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