I’m not a huge fan of cutting and pasting specs on my reviews, but I know these little details are what LS3/5a fans crave. Tweeter: 19mm Falcon Acoustics T27 – Graded and Computer Matched.Ĭrossover: Falcon Acoustics FL6/23 (BBC Design) Graded and pair-matched components throughout.Ĭabinet: Selected grade Baltic Birch Ply, Beech battens, internally damped. System type: Two-way infinite baffle (sealed box)īass/Midrange Driver: 138mm Falcon Acoustics B110 – Graded and Computer Matched. Here are the specs of the Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a, as a reminder:
PRIM ACOUSTICS DRIVERS
“Available in an exclusive Black Ash cabinet and utilizing Falcon’s proprietary hand-built drivers and filter networks these speakers offer not only a stunning fit and finish but a sound that will make you swear you’re in the recording booth.”
PRIM ACOUSTICS LICENSE
Manufactured under license from the British Broadcasting Corporation and built in accordance with their rigid specifications, Falcon speakers are the only LS3/5a on the market that faithfully replicates the original BBC design published in October 1976.
“Hand-built in Oxford, England by Falcon Acoustics, the MoFi Edition Monitors are a limited run of the legendary LS3/5a speaker. Here is what’s special about this Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a MoFi Edition:
Jonathan Derda of MoFi explained the basic purpose of this MoFi version: “We wanted to offer the lowest priced licensed and authentic LS35/a by making this a direct to consumer limited edition.” That’s the biggest reason why I’ve been able to hear a pair of new LS3/5as on several occasions since coming aboard PTA in 2018-that Falcon/MoFi connection, and their steady presence at high-end audio shows. MoFi Distribution scooped up US distribution for Falcon Acoustics a few years ago. Falcon has come up with the best solution for keeping these BBC designs alive-they don’t have to worry about managing an ever-shrinking inventory of original parts. Over the last couple of decades we’ve seen versions of the speaker that had close approximations to the original KEF drivers, but for many that wasn’t authentic enough. That’s why you see LS3/5as from all those different companies such as Rogers and Chartwell and Goodmans and Harbeth and all the others.įalcon Acoustics has been a licensee of the LS3/5a for the last few years, and they’ve been able to do something that hasn’t been done for a while-manufacturing drivers from scratch to meet the original specs. If you listened to the Occasional Podcastwhere Brian Hunter and I pretend we’re experts on “Brit-Fi,” you’ll remember that the BBC used to license their loudspeaker designs to no more than six companies at a time. What would I have missed, outside of everything below 70 Hz? Not a lot, I suspect. Not to labor the point, but they might have mentioned how much speaker money I would have saved over the years by just staying true to my LS3/5as. The Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a MoFi Edition loudspeakers are now in my home, sitting on those massive granite SRS stands from Acora Acoustics and hooked up to a stunning $16,000 tube integrated amplifier and a $4500 phono stage and a $4500 cartridge, all from South Korea, and yes, these cheeky monitors are suggesting that the sound would have still been this good many decades later. But still-what would have happened if I went with the $750/pair Spendor LS3/5as instead of the S20s? Would I still have them? Would I be still one of those anglo-audiophiles listening to Elgar records on my Linn LP-12 and my Naim NAP250 and NAC52 preamp? Those Spendor S20s were mine for many years, and they opened the beautiful, refined and informative world of British hi-fi. He thought I’d be happier, and that was enough for me. My dealer, the legendary Gene Rubin, advised me to stay with the S20s, I remember his reasons, that he felt the LS3/5a offered sort of a dated, vintage sound that didn’t quite match the S20s-which I already knew I loved.
I have one last minute question for the dealer-I noticed on the price sheet that Spendor still made their version of the LS3/5a, and they still sold for a crazy, unbelievably low $750/pair. I’ve auditioned them twice and I brought a checkbook.
I’m pretty set on a pair of Spendor S20s, the precursor to the SP3/1 that’s still being manufactured. It’s the early nineties, and I’ve just figured out that I love most BBC-designed loudspeakers. I’m reminded of that constantly in the presence of the new Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a MoFi Edition loudspeakers, and I wonder what might have been. Of all the audio gear I came close to buying over the last forty years, I probably got closer to a pair of LS3/5as than anything else.
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