Would These 3 Vintage "Best" Speakers Still Be Contenders Today?

[Lone Mountain Audio]

On 5/25/2020 at 7:08 AM, Digi&Analog Fan said:

The older KEF bookshelf speaker that was pretty good was the Reference 101. They used LS3/5A drivers and sounded more accurrate than the legendary LS3/5A. But neither one was a speaker that you could play anywhere near loud in a medium size room. Even the LS50 I heard on Steve Guttenbergs video is more of a nearfield listening speaker. Not a speaker that excels at filling up a room according to him. I have enough different speakers to play around with and drivers. I have some current midrange drivers that you would not see in any speaker under about $8,000. I sometimes screw them in somewhere. Most midrange drivers sound and work just fine with most tweeters, if they are roughly the same efficiency. 

I have to add that KEF did most of the heavy lifting in engineering the BBC monitor (LS3/5 -LS3=outside broadcast monitor; /5 =5 inch woofer).  KEF was a OEM driver manufacturer and Cooke, one of the KEF founders, had worked at the BBC for a year as Technical Director.  The BBC LS3 monitor speaker was built under contract by multiple manufacturers using a KEF KIT for both woofer and tweeter.   Some familiar speaker names were at the BBC during this period of standardizing on loudspeakers across all venues to improve quality of sound:  Dudley (and Beth) Harwood (Harbeth) and  Spencer and Dorothy Hughes (Spendor) are two such names.   There were multiple other manufacturers who also built the LS3/5 including Goodmans, KEF itself, Rogers, and a number of others.   The speaker was an effort by the BBC to achieve an higher quality, standardized sound to all in-field recordings.  They developed a studio speaker (LS5) as well.   

Brad

[Digi&Analog Fan]

Thanks for the info. Has anyone heard a speaker with much more realistic vocal reproduction than LS3/5A? A lot of people don't get what's so special about LS35/AA's and their cult following. Almost all of these people have never heard one. They sound like the designers spent 2 years making micro adjustments getting the vocal range just right. The rest of the range is formidable too. Its apparent also what nice quality drivers they had that far back in the 1970s. 

[bluesman]

23 hours ago, Lone Mountain Audio said:

They developed a studio speaker (LS5) as well.   

Brad

They also developed a matching subwoofer for it called the AB-1.  I've been tempted to buy a pair every time I see them come up for sale, but I have no place to set them up since we downsized.  They gave the LS3/5a some real beef, although they didn't bring the -3dB point up more than half an octave.  They're great looking stands, too.  I've seen them in many finishes, but never in the original teak that matches my speakers (top left in the pics below is teak, but those are not mine).

 

  

[Vangelis]

Andy Singer nailed it. Of your three choices that’s the one.  I worked in the audio industry in the 80s and beyond. Although I never sold the Snells Type As I heard them at CES shows and in customers homes where I was always impressed. That speaker was ahead of its time 

[TubeLover]

I also heard the Snells quite often, back in that time period, and was very impressed. I have no idea, though, how they would hold up against current competition.  

 

At the time, I was desperately trying to get my hands on a used pair of IMF TLS50 MKII's, which I had heard demoed any number of times at a local high end audio store. These were a very respected British, transmission line, large, floor standing monitor.  I finally located a pair, in mint condition, being sold by someone who lived in an apartment in Detroit. It seems to me that I might have paid something like $800.00 in approximately 1979. A friend and I drove down to the city, with a borrowed van, and picked them up. Those were exceptional speakers, that I used, and enjoyed, for a very long time. 

 

JC

[Behexen250]

On 5/23/2020 at 11:27 AM, Digi&Analog Fan said:

Re: Andy Singer. I don't live in NYC and have never been to his store or any of the high end stores there, but he used to take out numerous display ads in the back pages of  defunct "Audio" Magazine, advertising full systems and he always sounded friendly and helpful on the phone, but I did not personally know him. Enough people must have liked him enough to make his successful business a success  for so many years before the high end had a downturn. I understand he moved. The only reason I even mentioned him was because of his quote about the Snells, from someone who has probably had just about everything come through his doors. What surprised me was that version of the Snell he was talking about, was a long ago  memory as far as its production run was concerned, when he praised it. With all the more current "newer is supposedly better" stuff he was carrying, it still stood out to him as memorable and exceptional.

Sound by Singer was a mixed bag. Andy spent time at the store but he really didn't spend time helping customers. He's a lawyer, and has that type of personality. Your experience depended on your salesperson. Some of his people were really good, while others not so much. 

[Lone Mountain Audio]

I actually worked in a hi end hi fi store in 1975 selling Audio Research and many other high end brands.  The best speakers I ever heard in there were the Dahlquist DQ10, Magneplanar Tympanis (near impossible to get right in a small room- talk about endless fiddling- but when you got it right WOW), KEF 105.  (I think they were all available around the same time.]

 

We had the NS1000 when new, I hated them.  The NS1000s (actually the entire line of speakers of this era from Yamaha) were overly bright and no bass.   Sort of embarrassing to turn them on as a "high end store" cause they sure weren't high end (nothing in Yamaha's line was high end at the time but their receivers and integrated were a good value).  NS1000 and the entire range looked very cool with the black box, metal mid and HF drivers and white woofers.  There was a lot of mid fi out there (this was the era of GIANT receivers), Pioneer, Sansui, Kenwood, etc. Yamaha was the new player at that time.  NS1000s were very much in that mid fi category along with other "box" speakers like Dynacos, Infinity, JBL, Advent, etc. 

 

Brad    

 

 

 

 

[lmitche]

My first audiophile system was purchased in NYC in 1984. This included a Naim 42 pre-amp powered by a SNAPS, with a Naim 110 Amplifier driving a pair of Linn Sara Isobarik speakers mounted on very heavy, spiky stands.  I still have this system but haven't used it in a few years.

 

My shopping was done in two stores, Sound by Singer in Manhattan and Innovative Audio in Brooklyn Heights. Both offered full systems. Both store owners, Andy Singer and Elliot Fishkin, met with me on multiple occasions before I decided to purchase the Naim system.  I can't remember the offering from Sound by Singer, but it is likely it included the Snell speakers as I have been aware of these speakers for many years. Both Andy and Elliot were interesting people. I liked Andy's intensity and Elliot's laid back presentation.

 

In the end I went with Elliot's offer.  He emphasized the "source first" philosophy which made complete sense to me. Accordingly he recommended a Linn LP-12 for my system.  I couldn't afford one and this new technology called a Compact Disc was just released. Everything about digital made sense to me so I bought one of the first Sony CD players.

 

We moved to London UK in 1997 and I drove to the Naim factory in Salisbury to have the system voltage changed from 110 to 220 volts. The lady that did the work opened the preamp, looked at the wiring, and pointed at a fellow sitting nearby. She could tell that he was the one that assembled the preamp years ago by the way the wires were bent and placed the box. After spending a few fascinating hours in the Naim demo room, they returned my system. They had upgraded the 110 to the next level 135 amp and replaced the output transistors with a better matched pair with new capacitors for free.

 

Later while still in London I bought new Naim electronics and CD player for the Linn Saras. The Saras are bookshelf speakers with the Isobarik design that uses two woofers one mounted behind the other. This design delivers terrific bass for such a small speaker.

 

Many systems later, I am grateful to Elliot whose axiom "Source first" has been reinforced many times through the many iterations of digital music servers and endpoints explored over the past five years. Digital 'rips' of those early CDs sound better than ever and finally deliver on the promises of the format.

 

[Lone Mountain Audio]

On 10/3/2020 at 12:46 PM, lmitche said:

SNIP

 

Many systems later, I am grateful to Elliot whose axiom "Source first" has been reinforced many times through the many iterations of digital music servers and endpoints explored over the past five years. Digital 'rips' of those early CDs sound better than ever and finally deliver on the promises of the format.

 

 

Elliot is a great guy and this is sort of proof of how a well experienced salesperson can save you a lot of headache and money (by avoiding bad purchases). If they use that knowledge to help you skip steps that many less informed people take, carry good brands, they can be so helpful.   Not all of them are great, but Elliot/Innovative Audio has been doing this a long time and doing it well.

 

[Paulie321]

I have a pair of A3i with new woofer cones, and new kids and tweeters by atomic hifi, the guys that are Snell experts. The sound better than what I thought was best, my Snell CVS. Looking for some A Reference speakers now.