Lovely Little Speakers

Guys,

for those of you who covet the minimonitor, and eugolise the LS3/5A and it's clones, I currently have the pleasure of borrowing what has to be one of the finest of that breed.

I refer to the 10 year old Dynaudio Micron, a small sealed enclosure similar in size to the LS3/5A and designed for use near walls.

If you see a pair going s/h (sadly these are not for sale), get them! The closest thing to panels I've heard in a long time. No colouration, wildly good soundstaging, and vocals to die for.

Sadly due to the pathetic 82dbw efficiency and 4 ohm load, they won't suit headbangers or those with low powered amps.

But they truly are a great, if sadly neglected speaker IMO.

 

You know you want a pair of K2's really

 

Merlin,

Have you any idea what drivers they used?

 

Paul,

I wish I did but details are scarce. It looks like an Esotec 1" tweeter with the 4" Cone/Dome as seen an numerous high end three ways.

I do know they retailed for £1500 in the early nineties. If anyone can shed any light on further details I'd be interested - they are quite exceptional. I'd be interested to put them up against a good pair of LS3/5A's or some ESL57's, they share very similar strengths.

 

Try them against a pair of Harb P3s. I'd be interested in your findings there.

 

I haven't heard the P3 Joel and don't sadly have access to a pair.

Would you say it improves on the LS3/5a?

 

Not according to the current HiFi News, where they comapred 5 LS3/5a sized speakers to the original and they all lost out.

I might have a pair to play with (4 the last count, 2 real ones and 2 based on kits)

 

I must admit Lee that's what I thought. But it would be interesting to try these little babies against the "legend", I'd be interested in your opinion.

Here they are really in too big a room to be fair, but listen nearfield and they are somewhat shockingly good to my ears.

I do like Harbeths though

Oh and apparently the reason no Proac appeared in the review you referred to was the second of KK's possibilities as I understand it!

 

Of the 5 the little BlueNote came top and the Harbeth bottom
Truth, of course, is never believe reviewers and listen for yourself. Mind you Alan Shaw of Harbeth is very out spoken about how much he hates (nearly as much as Leonard Smalls) the LS3/5a's, so probably has ruffled KK's feathers once too often. Hence nothing from Harbeth will get a good review.

Oh and to pin my colours to the mast I use some large Harbeth monitors at home.

Michael I'm very busy at the moment but will try to get round, even if it's only for a hour or 2. How about his weekend? PM me.

 

Lee, Merlin,
I think the P3s are quite different to LS3/5s, and possibly closer to the dyns (maybe, possibly...).
FWIW, Alan is a *big* proponant of nearfield listening, and all Harbs (!!!) can be listened to like this, according to him.
BTW, pinning my colours to the mast, I also use Harbeths (in case I hadn't made that clear)
My ProAc Tablettes of ancient origin also sound v.good in the near field, and I can understand why so many people like ProAc. I still think they make everything a tad "nice", but are very good nonetheless. The Tablettes are currently doing excellent work as monitors in a Mac-based video editing system at the office. They're not getting my Harbs for that!

 

Joel

I think that most modern speakers of the same size sound different.

I can't see the point of trying to emulate a speaker that in reality doesn't have a great deal of bass, can't go too loud, sounds best either nearfield ie 1 -2 metres away or have them in the middle of the room and can't take too high a wattage of amplifier.

And I'm a fan, imagine what Alan Shaw says about them

 

Very true, and that makes a comaprative test with modern mini monitors a bit meaningless in the end...
I like LS3/5s, too. The legend is greater than the reality, but they are still fine speakers in their own way (not for me, though).
I suspect AS views LS3/5s in much the same way he would view any other old BBC monitor... They were so ubiquitous, it's easy to see why people would become p****d off and bored with them.

 

My first set of speakers were LS3/5As (hand downs from my dad), now I've got P3s.
The French LS3/5A Forum members are having a LS3/5a v clone tournament. So far, it's round one to the LS3/5As:

http://www.ls3-5a-forum.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=1ls35a

The problem with P3s, is that they take forever to break-in. I bought mine S/H, and even through they had 6-months on them, they weren't even fully broken-in.