@andrewdrummond Thanks for the lengthy write up, very informative. I purchased a pair of V3.2 from you and am really starting to appreciate them now that they are in my system full time. I am curious about the external crossovers and if they are commercially available or can be DIYed. Any information you can provide would be helpful.
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I do understand for some reason that some people prefer the 11 ohm version of the LS3/5a speaker. When I first purchased my first pair of LS3/5a speakers I noticed that an 11 ohm version was available and no one was buying it, so I grabbed it and was so happy to get a hold of a speaker that seemed to be hard to find. This was about 30 years ago. So all I knew in the beginning was what an 11 ohm version sounded like. But I began to read on the Internet that a lot of people felt the 15 ohm version sounded better so I bought an 15 ohm version Rogers and after hearing the 15 ohm version, for me, it was not even questionable, the 15 version to my ears was superior. I also later on ended up buying other 15 ohm versions and another 11 ohm version, but this time it was made by Harbeth and once again, practically all of the 15 versions, outperformed every 11 ohm version that I had so me personally I came to conclude that the 15 versions are superior to the 11 versions and if you look at which versions command more money on the resale and on the Used market and which ones are more sought after and which one seem to be more valued. It is all of the 15 ohm versions. I personally have discovered that the best sounding versions made by Rogers are between serial numbers 4,000 to 11,000. |
Cicable was a company that Derek Hughes and Helmut Pullmans started and made some upgraded crossovers for BC-1s, LS3/5as, etc, but they are long gone. The Xtracable crossovers were basically the same and done by Derek for the V2 Stirling LS3/5as, the early ones with the Scanspeak tweeters. Having looked briefly inside my Cicables and Xtracables they predominantly use Mundorf MCap capacitors and Mundorf Mcoil AirCore copper foil inductors. The v3.2 crossovers use Jantzen Crosscap capacitors and Air core inductors. But other than that they are likely to use very similar circuits. Because the Stirling cabinets use bi-wirable binding posts it would be simple to remove the crossover pub and install it in an external enclosure and then just wire the drivers straight to the binding posts in the ls3/5a cabinet. The main difficulty is building some wooden jigs to make drilling the 4mm holes in the enclosure neat. RS components make some nice polyester cases which could be used, I have used some of the smaller ones to build my external AB-2 crossovers. You’d just have to find ones big enough, hopefully a little bigger so the air core inductors could be separated a bit more. Then you could experiment with upgrading the current caps and inductors to the Mundorf ones, I have used the Mundorf MCap Evo Oil ones in the AB-2 crossovers. As the v3.2 crossovers are hand assembled it will be a lot easier to desolder stuff and remove it without damaging the board or anything else. I might one day have a go at this and if I do will probably put details on the website. |
@andrewdrummond Andrew, what you are doing for Doug Stirling is very considerate and generous. I’m surprised that you still have some LS3/5a’s left. As I said about, they are a bargain. Probably the best speaker deal available presently. I am enjoying very much the LS3/6 pair you packed up so well for me. I’m tempted to buy a pair of LS3/5a V3.2 even though I don’t really need them. This has been a great thread. Thanks to the OP and everyone participating. |
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