It is always my reference for sound especially for vocal part. Sound reproduction is always tricky. The more revealing the speaker system is, the worst is for one to get the right palette of sound. It is like lenses (eg.Nikon vs Leica) and negative films (eg.Fuji vs Kodak) for pictures, you are talking about colour balance, colour tone, colour separation, contrast, resolution and curvature of field, just to name a few. These ideas apply equally well to sound reproduction based on a different combination of components and equipment you set up in your system.
Over the years, I have had different made model of LS3/5a. I currently still keep not less than 6 pairs of LS3/5a of which it includes 3 pairs of KEF piano black paint limited edition. For all these years, I have tried these speakers with different components. Tube amp ranging from 25 watt to 100 watts per channel. Preamp of different brands. One outstanding point which I always noted from these speakers is that it captured the quintessence of midrange reproduction. Its extensions on both frequencies extreme (of course within its own limited freqency range so to speak) and dynamism highly affected and depend on the quality of the preamp (says with AudioResearch Ref Preamp). With good quality components and properly setup within not too large a room, you can get a big sound. More important aspects of these speakers besides the midrange reproduction is the way it defines intensity level of energy within the whole sound spectrum with respect to individual sound frequency distribution. It is so well balanced and with this fine balance it helps to define a non-analytical sound approach which many of us will not be fatigue for hours listening to these speakers.
Without LS3/5a, I can never be so successful in ways to set up my current downstair reference system which centred around a pair of Avalon Eidilon speakers (so difficult to get it right as they are so revealing). I do really understand why Mr.HP regarded it as one of the audio classic components ever made in the history.
Over the years, I have had different made model of LS3/5a. I currently still keep not less than 6 pairs of LS3/5a of which it includes 3 pairs of KEF piano black paint limited edition. For all these years, I have tried these speakers with different components. Tube amp ranging from 25 watt to 100 watts per channel. Preamp of different brands. One outstanding point which I always noted from these speakers is that it captured the quintessence of midrange reproduction. Its extensions on both frequencies extreme (of course within its own limited freqency range so to speak) and dynamism highly affected and depend on the quality of the preamp (says with AudioResearch Ref Preamp). With good quality components and properly setup within not too large a room, you can get a big sound. More important aspects of these speakers besides the midrange reproduction is the way it defines intensity level of energy within the whole sound spectrum with respect to individual sound frequency distribution. It is so well balanced and with this fine balance it helps to define a non-analytical sound approach which many of us will not be fatigue for hours listening to these speakers.
Without LS3/5a, I can never be so successful in ways to set up my current downstair reference system which centred around a pair of Avalon Eidilon speakers (so difficult to get it right as they are so revealing). I do really understand why Mr.HP regarded it as one of the audio classic components ever made in the history.