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In Reply to: RE: Another new LS3/5a - is this the most authentic yet? posted by mbnx01 on October 06, 2014 at 15:01:20
I'm still enjoying my 15-ohm Rogers LS3/5A's in the bedroom and my 11-ohm Spendors as part of a HT surround system. I agree with others that the price seems excessive (probably the result of the cost of English labour). LS3/5A's still have a beautiful midrange that few speakers can match. Some contemporary speakers outperform it in resolution, dynamics, and flat frequency response, but few can deliver that seductive midrange.
As for the new Falcons, they look very similar to my Rogers. The Baltic birch cabinet is more attractive than most MDF-plus-veneer contemporary speakers.
Follow Ups:
I keep hearing about the amazing technology improvements in the past 20-40 years when it comes to speakers. Maybe someone could enumerate on the improvements and the associated improvement.
About the only advancement I have found is in the crossovers when rebuilding old ones and some new ones where the prices for the speakers are uber-$. Otherwise it seems more that companies simply take raw off the shelf drivers and plug parameters into some computer software and out comes a design.
In reading literature of new speakers most seem to not go as low as older speakers and hence need subwoofers to become a real full-range speaker, distortion does not seem better if it is even published, most drivers are derived from old designs, etc. I had to replace speakers about 15 years ago and auditioned units up into the $20k range with some similarly expensive and respected electronics and especially in the midrange I found few even came close to my speakers that were from the mid-60s and even fewer came close to them in the high end. I ended up finally deciding on buying a new production design from I thik the late '50s but, at the last moment found a set of speakers made in '68 that did better than all in their range and I just opted for them.
My budget at the time was in the 5 figure range if necesary so, I was not as cost contrained as most.
Lately I have visited a few shops and given some listeing time to some of the more popular models of newer products and the best I could say was a range from ugh to maybe if I were entering the hobby and had little training they would be okay but I think in a short time I would find the faults unsustainable.
I auditioned the Rogers years ago and could see why some would love them but I was not one of them and I happen to like the British voiced speakers, generally.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
Brian,
Please do tell us what the make & model of both these amazing:
a) speakers you were originally using and
b) the speakers from 1968 that even speakers from today that cost up to 5 figures sound only " from ugh to maybe if (you) were entering the hobby and had little training they would be okay but (you) think in a short time (you) would find the faults unsustainable " in comparison to them?
Knowing this would give a lot more credence to this statement you've made!
I'm listening to: Club de Sol by David Chesky
Thetubeguy1954 (Tom Scata)
Full-range/Wide-range Drivers --- Front & Back-Loaded Horns
Central Florida Audio Society -- SETriodes Group -- Space Coast Audio Society
Agreed, Brian! That is why I still use Spendor BC-1's.
Dave
Two major advances in driver technology are increased Xmax and the introduction of copper or aluminium shorting rings which reduce distortion.
That is besides the large improvements available from active operation.
If one likes the sound of lower distortion in speakers is a completely different matter though.
I think that JBL and Altec Lancing were using shorting rings when they introduced ferrite magnet woofers. This was pro drivers of course. The technology is an excellent solution and I glad it is being more widely used.
Dave
JBLs pro drivers have pretty much always been two steps ahead of the curve.
It seems to take a generation before things trickle down to their domestic drivers and another before other manufacturers catch up.
These days it is becoming difficult to find drivers without shorting rings once you get into the mid-range of bare drivers.
But JBL have kind of upped the ante with their split-coil woofers which feature a dynamic brake (basically a third central coil which is shorted) preventing the driver from destroying itself through over-excursion. As far as I know they sadly don't sell them yet as bare drivers.
Although that may be more of interest for pro use or some from the open baffle fraternity.
I have heard some JBL pro speakers and I was surprised how good they sounded. There engineers seem to know what they are doing.
Dave
By active operation do you mean bi-amp using either an active external crossover or an internal big-amp/big-wire system?
If the former, you can than Rudy Bozak and if the latter, depending on definition you can thank Villcher and boys or Art Janszen. If you mean internal amps, look back to ADS and Advent in the early 70s and slightly before. Of course the concept of this last goes all the way back to the earliest days of audio the speaker occupied the same cabinet and was match to the amp and in the case of field coils, even powered by it.
Don Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto ON Canada
By active I mean replacing the speaker level xover with a line level one and one amp per driver.
If the amps are built into the cab doesn't really matter that much.
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