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In article ,
Trevor Wilson wrote:
It's not too different to the
situation in the US, a couple of decades ago. It was said: "No engineer
who designed a recording studio was fired for specifying JBL speakers."

It's very very different. Why the BBC went to the lengths of designing
their own.

You'll be telling us just how wonderful Bose are now. A nice modern design.

--
*Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Speaker unit to baffle.
 

In article ,
Bill Taylor wrote:
I don't think you'll find many professionals using the LS3/5A. Even in
the BBC they were only used in certain specific circumstances

Of couse. Where size was all important. They are also far less room and
position sensitive than some other designs.

and even
the BBC started using commercial powered speakers for the job that
they used to do many years ago.

The BBC do very little themselves these days. Many things that would have
use something like the 3/5a are farmed out - and there is no control over
what is used for monitoring there. And of course it should be possible to
make something as good for less money these days.

It seems to have maintained a cult status with a small group of
audiophiles who keep it alive.

Just because something has gained cult status doesn't necessarily make it
as bad as Mr Wilson suggests.

--
*Filthy stinking rich -- well, two out of three ain't bad

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Speaker unit to baffle.
 

sunnuntai 8. huhtikuuta 2018 15.13.12 UTC+3 Dave Plowman (News) kirjoitti:

No BBC speaker was designed by just one person. Always a team.

A camel is said to be a horse designed by a team :-)

But seriously, it is interested to note that speakers designed *for*
the BBC sounded better than those designed *by* the BBC.

When I lived in the UK, I frequented many many studio. I can only recall one
outside the BBC that used the LS3/5a. That was Argo. Much of their catalogue was spoken word recordings (as they were called) The speakers were quickly replaced.

Iain

Speaker unit to baffle.
 

maanantai 9. huhtikuuta 2018 1.19.24 UTC+3 Dave Plowman (News) kirjoitti:

The 3/5s was made for pro use.

:-) That's an interesting assertion. Made for pro use, but not used
by pros outside the BBC.

In contrast the Tannoy Lancaster was made for domestic use
(as Tannoy had no professional division back then) yet it
was adopted as a reference monitor by countless studios,
and cutting/mastering facilities.

And very highly regarded
by them. For the job it was intended to do.

The first time I head the LS3/5a was when the BBC invited recording
professionals from UK record companies and independent studios to
come to listen to their newly equipped OB vans, three of which were
parked outside their Maida Vale studios.

One of the group in front of ours was an engineer from Trident Studios.
As he came out from the van he remarked drily, "The king has a new suit
of clothes"

At the demo I attended we listened to a 15 ips non Dolby tape of Richard
Burton reading Dylan Thomas' "Under Milk Wood" played from a Studer B62.
It sounded very good indeed. After some ten or fifteen minutes, someone
asked "Can we listen to some music?" We were told that that LS3/5a was specifically designed for OB use to record speech. After some
minutes a tape of Ralph Vaughan Williams was brought in. The Cor Anglais
was so "rich" that is could have easily been mistaken for a bassoon. No
wonder Richard Burton sounded so good:-)

Trevor wrote:
The goal
of a high fidelity system is to recreate, as closely as possible, the
original musical event.

Dave replied
Ah - right. What sort of music would that be?

Me:
Surely a loudspeaker is designed to reproduce sound (music, speech,
birdsongs, or even a jack-hammer) with the closest possible fidelity.

Trevor:
The LS3/5a is incapable of performing this.

Me:
Correct!

Dave:
It's not very good at reproducing a 32ft stop.

Me:
It is not good at all at reproducing music.


Other small speakers can do the job far more convincingly.

Given the 3/5a was designed some 50 years ago it would be quite surprising
if others hadn't caught up.

Caught up. That infers that at some point the L3/5a was leading the field,
which is incorrect. It may have been good for OB drama, but not suited
for music (the purpose for which most people would use it)

There a a number of speakers designed *for* and not *by* the BBC back then
that still sound excellent. Both the Kef K1 and the Lockwood Major are very good examples.

Interestingly just a couple of weeks after the BBC car park demo,
Marquee Studios had put together a small OB vehicle which they
demonstrated. It was actually a converted "gown van" on a Bedford
chassis, with a small Neve desk and Tannoy LRM speakers. '
It probably cost a tenth of what the BBC had spent at the taxpayers expense, but sounded very good indeed.

Iain

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On 09/04/2018 18:09, Iain wrote:
sunnuntai 8. huhtikuuta 2018 15.13.12 UTC+3 Dave Plowman (News) kirjoitti:

No BBC speaker was designed by just one person. Always a team.

A camel is said to be a horse designed by a team :-)


cough committee!


--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.

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On Mon, 09 Apr 2018 19:02:12 +0100, Graeme Wall wrote:

On 09/04/2018 18:09, Iain wrote:
sunnuntai 8. huhtikuuta 2018 15.13.12 UTC+3 Dave Plowman (News)
kirjoitti:

No BBC speaker was designed by just one person. Always a team.

A camel is said to be a horse designed by a team :-)


cough committee!

Thank you! :-)

--
Johnny B Good

Speaker unit to baffle.
 

maanantai 9. huhtikuuta 2018 21.02.13 UTC+3 Graeme Wall kirjoitti:
On 09/04/2018 18:09, Iain wrote:
sunnuntai 8. huhtikuuta 2018 15.13.12 UTC+3 Dave Plowman (News) kirjoitti:

No BBC speaker was designed by just one person. Always a team.

A camel is said to be a horse designed by a team :-)


cough committee!

Please Graham allow a little poetic licence :-)

Iain

Speaker unit to baffle.
 

sunnuntai 8. huhtikuuta 2018 15.13.12 UTC+3 Dave Plowman (News) kirjoitti:


No BBC speaker was designed by just one person. Always a team.

That is so for all speakers, as anyone who has visited Tannoy
B+W or Kef will testify. I was surprised on my first trip to Tovil.

And even when the prototype has been built, there are a very large
number of people involved at consultancy level, in listening and
evaluation. The best possible way to get feedback for a new audio
product is to lend it to a busy studio for a couple of weeks.

Iain

Speaker unit to baffle.
 

On 09/04/2018 19:54, Iain wrote:
maanantai 9. huhtikuuta 2018 21.02.13 UTC+3 Graeme Wall kirjoitti:
On 09/04/2018 18:09, Iain wrote:
sunnuntai 8. huhtikuuta 2018 15.13.12 UTC+3 Dave Plowman (News) kirjoitti:

No BBC speaker was designed by just one person. Always a team.

A camel is said to be a horse designed by a team :-)


cough committee!

Please Graham allow a little poetic licence :-)

Iain


:-) Even if you can't spell!

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.

Speaker unit to baffle.
 

On 9/04/2018 10:22 PM, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Trevor Wilson wrote:
It's not too different to the
situation in the US, a couple of decades ago. It was said: "No engineer
who designed a recording studio was fired for specifying JBL speakers."

It's very very different. Why the BBC went to the lengths of designing
their own.

You'll be telling us just how wonderful Bose are now. A nice modern design.


**Yeah, right. The Bose 901 was designed around a false premise.
EVERYTHING that followed from Bose was similarly flawed. Bose is a
marketing company (and a very good one), that just happens to make and
sell speakers and associated systems. They're crap.

--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au