Can one build a better (non) LS3/5A speaker based on T27s & B110s?

Just curious- there's a lot of on-axis data presented; did you do comparable measurements off-axis?

Hi Sy,

I'm listening and packing my home at the same time, so forgive me for not having more. I've posted a blog entry on the subjective listening experience and listening location. It gets very dull above the tweeter, but below and to the sides it works quite nicely!

It's not nearly as dark to the sides as my reference speakers, Mundorf AMT + Scanspeak 6.5" woofer. Which for me is a fail. 😀 😀 😀 I mean, I like speakers with controlled dispersion.

Best,


Erik
 
Almost 40 years ago a gentleman named David Barnett sent an article to to one of the DIY Speaker magazines detailing a mini-monitor clone he had designed. They were actually pretty good. I built them and my roomy and I used them in the dorms while in engineering school. I have mine apart now for a refurbish with better parts and am cleaning up the enclosure. If anyone is interested I will scan and post the article.
 
Almost 40 years ago a gentleman named David Barnett sent an article to to one of the DIY Speaker magazines detailing a mini-monitor clone he had designed. They were actually pretty good. I built them and my roomy and I used them in the dorms while in engineering school. I have mine apart now for a refurbish with better parts and am cleaning up the enclosure. If anyone is interested I will scan and post the article.

Yes, I am interested. If you post the name of the "DIY Speaker magazine" and the date of publication for this article, we may be able to find it on line.

Does the DIY use the drivers on the subject of this thread? Or something better?
 
Here are the plans. Quite involved if you follow all the instructions.
 

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really?
I had expected that being a USA designer he had come up with something unique, or at least different from the UK designs.

Yes Andrew, I too would have expected a more unique design, but will say they sound pretty good. Have mine totally apart for a recap and refinish of the enclosure. My coils are air core so are big, necessitating an external crossover on the back of the cabinet.

At the time we had no schematics to compare against so were not aware of the "knockoff" nature of it.

Back in the day we drove them with an SAE amp and DB systems preamp for some pretty glorious sound.
 
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Yes Andrew, I too would have expected a more unique design, but will say they sound pretty good. Have mine totally apart for a recap and refinish of the enclosure. My coils are air core so are big, necessitating an external crossover on the
back of the cabinet.

At the time we had no schematics to compare against so were not aware of the "knockoff" nature of it.

Back in the day we drove them with an SAE amp and DB systems preamp for some pretty glorious sound.

Fascinating. The KEF acoustic Butterworth was a very pure 18dB/octave BW3 filter. I build a lot of BW3 designs. They can work on either tweeter polarity.

What is good about Butterworth is the flat power response at crossover. Which sounds very natural in a small room, albeit with a lobing issue.

So we might be starting to actually get what was special about the LS3/5A. But TBH, bextrene cones and mylar tweeters are not that great. Nor is a tiny speaker with no bass and limited loudness. Things have moved on. 😎
 
Just glued something together.
Had the units laying arround and origial KEF XO.

Agree with System 7 , modern units will do better.

But it's not that bad at all 🙂

sinc. Leon
 

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Just had time for comparing :
With my Krill monitors with SCS XO and 7 inch carboncone (white)
and Mini Miracle . also 5 inch but TL design.

Both win the battle.
The Krill with a streetlenght !! (But , it's 2x size 🙂 )

Because most of the time we listen to the XO , I'll have to do my own XO for B110 & T27.

Will be more honest.

sinc. Leon
 

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@ cwmartin : not speakerheaven , I just like to build many and design my mysterie XO's.
for this moment my reference is my PAP Trio15/Lowther DX3/AMT25 open baffle set with my Leonidas XO 🙂
I did this Leonidas XO for PAP (=PureAudioProject) and I'm enjoying it myself the most.
It's very musical 🙂
 
The LS3/5A that had a lot of research and listening test that went into the "system" integration. Yes, the drivers are old. Worst yet, it uses 1/2" birch plywood lined with bitumen pad instead of the modern design "rigid box". The frequency response is NOT flat at all. The essential neutral midband comes with a upper bass bump and projected treble, but no deep bass.

Yet, the golden ears at Absolute Sound (Sept 2010) called it "strikingly realistic vocal reproduction" and "boxless sound".

Until someone wants to invest the amount of effort that Dudley Harwood at BBC did, it may be difficult to build a "better speaker" by just changing the drivers. It may sound good and different, but I will reserve the adjective "better" until proven.

(No. I do not have the LS3/5A. It could be built relatively inexpensively using kits from Falcon Acoustics in the 1970's. I helped friends to do that, but decided against it for myself. No regret.)
 
@ keilau : YES !! that's the one I use : I didn't look when mounting it inside.
It's the CS1a for sure.
And yes again , my box is different : more and deeper bass , more "tunefull".
It depends on what will be better ; this design has at least better bass then the Original 🙂
So suppose : construction will work for ls3/5a XO also 🙂.
I only checked with fingertips on the cone : hardly any excursion with "big" bass 🙂