LS3/5A & Pass Labs


I am looking for new speakers to go with my Pass Aleph 3, Aleph P, and 9X16X8'celing room...concrete walls. I found a used shop that sells used Spendor LS3/5A speakers $550-$650. I wonder what you all think of this combo in terms of musicality, sound volume, sound staging, speaker placement etc...

thanks
souporhero

Showing 7 responses by quadophile

Its very simple, when you visit the LS3/5a website click on the link which says Yahoo Group Mailing List which will take you to the page on YahooGroups server, on the page you will find the button "Join Goup" click that and fill the form on the next page and submit it. You will be notified by the Group Moderator about your being inducted into the group. Once you are the member of the group you can post messages. Response from the moderator may take a day or two but have patience you will eventually get a response. You must have a Yahoo ID to become a memeber, if you have one no problem but if not just follow the instructions when you try to join the group. It is a very easy and simple process with may take only a few minutes.

Coming back to your message, I do not think it is as simple as someone saying the subwoofer is impossible to integrate with speakers. Many fellow audiogoners are enjoying it. First of all one must accept the fact that none of the equipment we use is perfect, on top of that none of the rooms that we have equipment in is perfect, next comes our own hearing which as you may know is also not perfect, infact as we age it deteriorates. What everyone is actually doing is compromising on many many variables and tries his or her level best to make things acceptable.

One must experiment on his or her own and find the most acceptable set of components. I may like certain brand of speaker but my fellow audiogoner thinks otherwise and vice versa, that does not mean the equipment is good or bad, it is different sounding to each of us and our personal preferences come in the way. That's what makes this hobby so enjoyable and that is why we all come here to share each others experience.

As for amps, I have an older NAD which is just 25 watts per channel and is in service with my computer rig presently connected with a pair of Mission speakers. I have used this amp with the LS3/5a's and I thought the sound was very good. The Missions did not even come close to what the LS3/5a could do. On the other hand I have a large 300 watts Perreaux amp which I also used with this speakers and again I really enjoyed listening to it, there was a difference no doubt but the 25 watter did the job admirably. So if you have a 30 watt amp it should work. By the way which amp you currently own, if you do not mind my asking?

I realised you did not get an answer to your question: about 15 Ohms and 8 Ohms. All amp specifications generally are quoted for 8 Ohms into certain watts say 50 watts RMS into 8 Ohms. If you plug in the speakers with a 4 Ohm rating the output ideally should double meaning 100 watts. If a 15 Ohm speaker is connected the output becomes half, 25 watts. This is a very crude way of explaining but I hope you get the idea. You can always do a search on google and read about how amplifiers work and and what the impedence means. In real world there are always surprises

I look forward to your messages on the LS3/5a forums.
Souporhero,

I own the Chartwell LS3/5a circa 1978 in Rosewood Finish. They are in original condition and still sound like voice coils of God! Before you even think of buying them you should check out the website dedicated to the LS3/5a's and you will be able to educate yourself before you part with your money. The website also has a Yahoo Group listing of which I am a member. In the group there are many LS3/5a lovers from Hong Kong and they know the speakers inside out. Some of them own more than 20 pairs of LS3/5a speakers and all connected at the same time! They are so into it that I would not be surprised if one of them came up with the history of the speaker if only the serial number is provided to them.

If you have not yet purchased them I urge you to pay a visit to the site maintained by a very nice guy, Paul Whatton (the speaker designer's son). You can also try to become the member of the Yahoo Group mailing list (membership of 1157 as of today) where you can specifically ask for guidance and suggestions from members. They are nice folks who basically are true audiphiles and would not hesitate to help a fellow member who is interested in buying the speakers.

The website address:

www.ls35a.com
You may check out this thread which I started and has all the details you may like to read about.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1069704787&openfrom&1&4#1

You amp is fine and should give you excellent sound from the Ls/35a. You will be amazed how good some of the female singers sound when heard on these speakers.

By the way, when you are on the forum look out for posts from Joe Ki, I consider him to be a walking bible for LS3/5a's. Infact I have never come across anyone so passionate about any equipment as he is. His reputation is such that if a mosquito is sitting on the LS3/5a's and just batting an eyelid Jo Ki (KI Architect) senses there is something wrong about the sound. An amazing guy!

On the site you will find a database of Amps being used by the members. This information will be very interesting for you so do check it out as well.
I have the Chartwell's 15Ohms and a friend of mine has Rogers 11 Ohms and another one Rogers 15 Ohms. I have in my own system compared the Rogers 11 Ohms and my Chartwells, although strictly speaking both the speakers more or less had similar sound but if one goes deep down into the nitty gritty of things than there is a difference between the two, at least to my ears.

I found Rogers to be able to handle the Rock better than Chartwells and had a bit punchier bass.

The Chartwells on the other hand were smoother at the top end and had better resolving capability when it came to the female vocals as well as slightly deeper bass. (not in volume).

Now when it comes down to personal preference one needs to consider one of the two. I personally prefer the sound of Chartwells.

By the way Chartwells are 15 Ohms
Really look forward to your letting us know how they sound. I will be watching this thread closely.

If I can assist you in any way while you set it up, it will be my pleasure.

Happy listening and tweaking!
Glad you are enjoying the "liquid midrange", these speakers are very hard to beat in this particular category, unless you spend $,$$$'s.

"No toe in" will surely give you a very wide soundstage, I always thought these speakers should be set up only this way.

REL Strata does wonders to this little gem, I hope you do decide to go that route.

What vocal music are you listening to now?

You should listen to Diana Krall album "The look of love" on this as it sounds wonderful, especially S'Wonderful (Track 1). Let me recall from memory what sounds really good on them:

The Girl from Ipanema - Getz/Gilbarto
Most of Ella Fitzgerald
Making Music-Zakir Hussain
Most of Solo Piano Music

I am forgetting many but will come back and let you know
Allen,

Good to know you got the REL, I can assure you it will gel with the speakers one day, you just have to be a bit patient. As for crossover I suggest you set is lower than 30 Hz, I have set it up at 25 (A3) and it just sounds fine. You need to make sure that your sub it properly set as far as it max bass is concerned. The sound from the sub will depend on the quality of signal fed to it, if you have any weak links you should change the very component.