by ichabod » Mon Dec 15, 2003 8:15 pm
Nothing to correct Joe.
The LS 3/5a was designed for OB, out of broadcast use. At least that's what it said from the sources I've read. In its early type, they discovered that it was good also for music when (as I recall) one of the employees of BBC played fm over these speakers.
As the story goes, they were all amazed how good it sounded. Many BBC employees after that began to assemble their LS 3/5a from Chartwell I believe if I'm getting this info right.
Speech or voice clarity was its primary purpose for monitoring out of main studio broadcast feeds on vans. Clarity was needed to differentiate the accents all over England to know which side or place the broadcast or BBC report was coming from.
Yes, I also read that they were placed on top of consoles for listening and monitoring. They were noted also for a highish sensitive treble to tell broadcasters of an upcoming feed by letting them hear tape hiss better for cueing.
This is the reason why they match better with tubes than ss which are harsher or harder sounding in comparison in the treble.
For the record, I've heard speakers with sweeter trebles than the LS 3/5a that can equally give good imaging similar to the LS but with lesser midrange authority in comparison.
So basically it was designed for the studio as we're told, but by accidental tuning and playing of speech and music it discovered to be good for voice (female specially) and music.
As Alan Shaw would say, a speaker that sounds natural on human voice first will be equally good for musical instruments as well. That in a nutshell is the underlying genius of these speakers.