Harbeth vs Spendor vs Chartwell vs Grahams vs Falcons

[jenson]

you get the drift..almost all of them make the BBC spec speakers, how do they rank amongst? off alte came across some videos of Graham Ls 5/9. they sound just gorgeous. they seemed to have a midrange to die for.

 

[Sushant Sharma]

Ken Kesslar compiled a list ls3/5as ranking them. There was an older list as well I think.

 

[sidvee]

I have heard/owned 3 on this list, harbeth, spendor and Graham. Graham is my favourite.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[souravin]

I can comment on Spendor as a proud owner of A5, wholesome bass with exemplary midrange. Shines so well in my small 12X10 room with Pass F5 Power amp and Pass BOSOZ Pre with almost all genres

 

[heliumflight]

Who are the distributors for Graham in India?

 

[vinothkumar]

you get the drift..almost all of them make the BBC spec speakers, how do they rank amongst? off alte came across some videos of Graham Ls 5/9. they sound just gorgeous. they seemed to have a midrange to die for.

Just add the Xavian speakers to the list, everything else goes next to it.

 

[drgopu]

Hi ,
I am a proud owner of Spendor A7 floorstanders.. No words can describe the musicality of spendors..Every instrument sounds just real and authentic..but not being clinical or dry.. Vocals are to die for..

 

[sidvee]

Guys, no disrespect, but from what I understand,the OP is referring to BBC inspired designs for ex., LS3/5 etc,, the Spendor A series, Xavian etc, while I am sure, sound superb, are not part of what the Op asked. Let us stick with the topic. I am still a fan of original BBC designs, so maybe I can learn something as will others, rather than veering into other designs. Maybe a new thread can be started for those.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[arj]

Are you looking at the 3/5A equivalents ? the Proac tablette 10 is also supposedly influenced by it !

 

[jenson]

Are you looking at the 3/5A equivalents ? the Proac tablette 10 is also supposedly influenced by it !

Actually more of the ls5/9 type..

I have some experience with the Spendor 3/5...loved em...but the grahams 5/9 seemed to have this unreal midrange...can shatter glass type I guess. Something in that vein...

 

[reignofchaos]

Have owned the Graham ls5/9 before. It's a very very transparent rendition of a bbc type speaker. Superb sound if you like bbc monitors but it still has a midbass hump, albeit a quite gentle one for my tastes. If you can live with that, it might be your endgame. I was also looking for better dynamics.

I believe @Analogous also owned one earlier.

Unfortunately that is the only LS 5/9 rendition I have heard. Have heard quite a few harbeths and spendor classics and also the Falcon LS3/5A. I like the Graham the best amongst that lot.

I eventually moved from that to ATC which was more transparent. Now I have moved away from that to a Tannoy prestige which satisfies my tastes completely.

 

[Analogous]

I have had the privilege of exploring a few BBC design derived speakers in my journey. They were all excellent speakers that I listened to extensively before moving on. These are listed not in any order of preference.

KEF LS50
ProAC 1 SC
The Harbeth P3
SpendorA5R (small towers)
Harbeth C7
Graham Audio LS5/8

The ProAC and the Harbeth P3 were my favourites specially with Jazz, Vocals. They did not live your my expectations with fast complex music. After a few months I discovered the music I was listening to was dictated by the speakers instead of being the other way around. Imagine that!

As my musical taste is a bit eclectic it’s not easy to find all rounders that scratch all my itches I guess.
The KEF LS50 are not the typical thin walled cabinet and their coaxial drivers may not qualify them to be in the list of BBC design based speakers. But they are decent all rounders master of none IMO.

There is only one way to discover- buy and listen to them for several months and decide if they are keepers for you or not.
Electronic pairing, room ancoustics and the other usual suspects apply of course.

@jenson, recalling your musical taste and the type of speakers you have had, I think I can safely say you will like them. Even the Chinese made LS3/5 clone (under license which I had for a couple of months with me thanks to @KNRAMU sounded great.

My only suggestion is to carefully consider your room size and need for quality bass below 60-80 hz region (subwoofer integration needs patient tweaking)

Several friends on this forum have listened to some or all of the above listed speakers at my place and could offer their opinions and insights on them too.

 

[heliumflight]

I had lived with B&W Dm4 for many years and in my 40 years with 20 speakers, they were not most dear to me because of their die for midrange. As pointed earlier not good for complex and heavy music.

 

[rwnano]

I have Irving m Bud Frieds IMF/ Frieds transmission line speakers. They are also relaxed and neutral with a good bass. They use a series crossover rather than the regular parallel crossover design. I don't have too many reference points but paired with a Harman kardon AVR amplifier it balances well . Harmans are punchy and the speakers are laid back .