ytl@pooh.Philips.Com (Ying Tat Leung) (05/23/91)
Recently there has been a thread on the performance of the LS3/5A. I am interested in comparing it with similarly priced and similarly sized speakers. WHat I have in mind are the Linn Kan, ProAc Super Tablette, and the Spica TC50. I have listened to the LS3/5A, Kan, and Super Tablette on three different occasions in three different dealers with different electronics and source materials. Needless to say, I can't make much out of it except a general impression. The LS3/5A has excellent midrange and treble, with warm sound and outstanding human voice reproduction. Bass is sort of not too bad for its size (perhaps the psyhoacoustic effect of a slight boom around 120Hz, as pointed out earlier by a posting, is at work here). The Super Tablette is extremely clear with excellent imaging. But bass is really weak. The Kan does not image as well as the Super Tablette but has lower and tighter bass. Its mid/high range is neither as warm as the LS3/5A nor as clear as the Super Tablette. Overall it seems to be a good compromise though. I have not heard the Spica TC50. Anyway, it is highly unlikely that my wife would allow me to put the TC50 in the living room 8-). Any opinions/comments/experience? Ying
wkung@sunee.waterloo.edu (William Kung) (05/28/91)
I agree with your impression of the LS3/5a, although I really can't remember a boominess in bass response (even though everyone else says it's there). The Super Tablettes, I found, were a bit bright for my taste (bordering on annoying) although clarity and imaging were right up there, I guess. The Linn Kan are good, but Linn has a way of doing things differently (not to say that what they do isn't right because it often is!). I haven't heard the TC-50s, although everyone rants and raves about them all the time. Getting to the point, the old KEF Reference 101s used to be pretty similar in sound quality to the LS3/5a and Super Tablettes (and pretty good in overall quality as the Reference line would suggest). I don't think they still make them anymore, but I had heard that there are (or used to be) kit versions of the 101s available (same drivers, but you build the box according to the instructions). Bill.