Hmm I think what type of LS3/5a you have.. the Gold Build spec than Falcon Acoustics use have a very tight bass indeed and extended (on the appropriate stands in a smallish room… I would say down to mid 30 Hz.. the Silver Build less so. Other manufacturers different. From what I can gather some of this is down to the quality of the defined cross over components.
I would suggest phase and timing (PRaT) and stereo field are second to none, really the best I have heard, on the Gold Builds that is.. kind of super infectious…
But you are right different LS3/5a speakers have quite different characters despite following the licensed BBC design.
Listening to Lovely Day by Bill Withers .. and that bass is just so phat.
I have a similarly sized listening room (3.6 m x 5.2 m). The question of suitable loudspeakers has already been addressed above. From my experience, I would like to add that speaker positioning in the room is crucial. My loudspeakers (Vienna Acoustics Haydn) do not sound good at all when placed close to the wall. They need space around them. After many attempts, I found that the optimal position is 1.7 metres from the rear wall and 0.8 metres from the side walls (measured from the tweeter), with a slight angle. This provides the best bass reproduction and fantastic spatiality, even in the depths. My listening position forms an equilateral triangle with the speakers (1.8 metres each) and the listening position has sufficient space to the rear wall. This is not a one-size-fits-all solution; every room and every speaker is different. However, if you are flexible with the positioning, I can only advise you to invest time in this. I also implemented a standard solution with room acoustics elements from GIK Acoustics. They advised me online and it was a huge improvement that went beyond upgrading individual components. If you can implement this in your room, it’s a very good option
Sounds good that they are better than Rogers,Chartwell,Spendor and Harbeth, but I
would be surprised if they work close to the back wall and have better Pace Rhythm and Timing and have tighter bass than Linn Kan.
That said ,LS3/5A have a wonderful midrange that work very well for voices.
Well I don’t have any Lin Kans so I can’t compare them , however my own masters sound pretty spot on with them with no undue exaggeration, other than a slightly raised hf… which for me shows they are working reasonably well.
A friend of mine play on these in a 3x4m room. Bass drivers is 18". Cabinet is 80x80x60.
I feel that if you have a small room, you need small speakers, is a myth.
My room is 12 x 24 feet. The right wall opens into a dining area and is shorter than the left wall. There is also a 9 x 8 foot entrance foyer. Construction materials present challenges. I have lots of brands over the years. None have worked well until my dealer suggested Spendor. I moved from the A4 to the D7.2. We also have NYC skyline view, which is importsnt to us. I am sure the windows do not help acoustics, but thr view is paramount.
Acoustic wise, we have found that less is more. We had all manner of acoustic room treatments. Our living room was like Stonehenge. We could not enjoy the space. We took out everything except the rug in front of the speakers, a small sofa and a swivel chair. Records in oak storage line the walls. The speakers fire down the room. Wr prefer floor standing speakers with a low center of gravity. We do not care for dangling speaker cables from monitor speakers b/c of our disabilities
I’m in a 4x3 m room, so it can certainly be done.
I had a small study with Kans for a while (2.5 x 3.5) - sat on the longer wall - and that was enjoyable but a lot of room sound, compounded by wood flooring and a blind instead of curtains.
The smallest space I’ve ever equipped. When I moved here my then system included Proac D15 floor-standing, ported speakers. They sounded dreadful. Unfocused, diffuse and lacking in everything that had made them stunning in a bigger room (in a different country).
As I had to buy locally in a land 99.9% empty of anything resembling hifi audio at the time, the only demo-available speakers on offer were Harbeth (I forget which model) or ATC SCM19’s. These were both linked into a NAIM Atom - nowhere near the performance level of multi-box system so I had to perform some mental gymnastics and magical thinking to imagine how each would perform in my home setup. I settled for the ATC’s even though I suspected that the 11’s might be a better choice. They turned out to be perfect, following what, as you can see is an aesthetic failure for some on here, but in every practical sense a perfect sound-baffling erection (opportunity for Skeptical, there
). The listening space is 3x3.5 metres. And before you ask, it’s a biofuel heater…
I also settled on ATC 19’s MikeD
I did demo the 11’s but the 19’s just ticked all the boxes but if I could only afford the 11’s I would have happily lived with them
I see you have your 19’s quite close to rear and side walls and I know from my own experience that they are not too fussy about placement
I actually found that in a small space, placement became crucial. Even a centimetre can make a difference, although they are mismatched deliberately to help counterbalance drastic bass and treble loss in
one ear (hence my current pursuance of getting back the hifi WOW experience with headphones).
Before the hearing loss, this was the best placement in my small listening space.
I’ve seen you post this a number of times now & seeing as this goes against the norm, do you happen to have any pics of the previous room treatments? Often times when this is the case, its normally caused from people using improper treatments & often seemingly just placed randomly. Obviously a good recipe for a poor outcome.
I can’t work out how they are mismatched, I presume it is distances at the side to the wall and rear to the wall. By how much?
The left one is back on the stand with the front of the speaker in line with the stand top plate. The right one is as far forward as it can go without falling off.
You might look at Dutch&Dutch active speakers. Complete shift in approach and system so may not suit your plans but worth reading about these.


