Midband and upper coherence, size, imaging, ability to make you focus on the music and not the hi-fi system! Just buy them!

Inefficient, need lots of power, don't go very loud, no bass below 70hz (compensated by mild bass hump) expensive to buy and hard to find!

Fabulous classic, loveable keepers! Despite their shortcomings, this speaker is just beautiful. I heard a pair of 15 ohm Chartwells a couple of years ago and hesitated, and they were sold to someone else. This time, I found a near mint pair of 11 ohm Rogers (two binding post), auditioned them in the shop briefly and grabbed them! I took them to a friend's house recently, and we ran them on Quad II valve amps and a Musical Fidelity X-P100 preamp. He owns some Quad ELS 57 originals and Jamo Concert 8's. He couldn't believe how good these things were! They acquitted themselves very favourably against these two other fine speakers.

I made the mistake of selling my original Quads years ago. Not these, I intend to go to the grave with these ones!

Great imaging, excellent voice reproduction, excellent detail of sounds, full soundstage

low bass lacking

I have owned these speakers for 23 years and they never cease to amaze me. I have not heard any speaker at any price that I like better for voice reproduction.

The imaging is so good that you would swear that a center speaker is hidden in my room when the recording calls for the vocals to come dead center, with music to the right, left and behind.

Despite their small size and bass limitations, they do a good job of producing a "full sound"

They reproduce pianos very well.

With all of the new technologies of the last 20 years in audio, it is amazing that these speakers still sound as if they were designed and manufactured a week ago!!!

If accurate reproduction is your goal, give these a try if you can find them.

I will never sell them....they are true classics!!

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Kef 103.2, Legacy Victoria

Excellent detailed and natural sound, small size

Expensive when new (but worth it!) Lack of low-end bass

I worked in a radio studio for 5 years listening to these amazing little boxes and finally decided to get a pair, which is something I should have done a lot earlier! I managed to pick up some from the last lot to come out of the Rogers factory, and they still amze me everytime I listen to them for the effortless way they convey sound naturally. these speakers will reveal every little ounce of detail in your recordings; so if your system isn't up to par you'll soon know...
Their only drawback is of course the lack of bass at the very low frequencies, though they'll suprise you will the ammount of bass from such a small cabinet. Then again, what d'ya expect form a 5" woofer?! These speakers as I'm sure a lot of you know were designed in the 70's for the BBC for near-field speech monitoring, andd a recent trip to broadcasting house showed they were still going strong all over the building.
Anyway, enough gushing over them from me, basically still the best small monitor i've heard and the standard to judge all others.

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Mission 780i

Only

Not discovered yet !

Yeah, what more can I say after all the other positive reviewers wrote before me.
I've the 15 Ohms version, which combines perfectly with Tube amplifiers, but, some power is required to make these babies sing.
I also own the Magnepans 3.5, and notice that the Rogers sounds like a small Magnepan. I think that is the greatest compliment to the Rogers speakers.
Of course, the image/soundstage is smaller compared with the Maggies, but in overal Tonal quality they are similar.
The midrange is superb. Get one pair if you can !!

Cheers Jacco.

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Diapasson Micra

Soundstage. imaging, midrange

A little light on the bottom end.

Absolutely superb loudspeaker. Feel like I won the lottery. $25.00 for a pair of these speakers; sometimes the audio Gods smile on you!

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Many 2 way bookshelf speakers.

great speech re-production & excelent mid-range

None considering small size of cabinets!

The set I have are actually my Dad's. They are a very early pair of Audiomaster LS3/5a's and therefore 15ohms. They definately aren't the easiest speakers to drive! Iam running them through a lecson AP1 Power Amp and Meridian 101 Pre and with this set-up they match well. My Dad's had these since they were new and I've still to here a similar sized speaker that sounds as good. Shame they stoped making them!

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AE 109's

New LS3/5a SUCKSOld LS3/5a KICKS BUTT
Don't get the NEW one because of the OLD reviews.
YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD!!!

Thru out the years, I have owned both the old single wire 15 ohms and the new double wire 11 ohms versions. The old 15 ohms version is definitely better than the newer ones. They image better (completely disappear), have better midrange, and much better bass (punchier and deeper).It is ultra important to get good, sturdy stands for them. I found that the stands made by Linn for their Kan speakers works very well. Currently I have the Target ST-60 and they do not sound nearly as good as the Linn stands.
10 years ago, my system consisted of: Linn LP 12/Ittok/Linn MM (I forgot the name), Audible Illusion 2A pre-amp., Audio Research D-60 amp., and old version Spendor LS3/5A's on Linn Kan speaker stands. This is the most musical and enganging system I have ever owned so far. Unfortunately I have to sell the system to go to professional school. Until now, I have not heard any system that comes even close!
5 stars for the old version
3 1/2 stars for the new version
Overall 4 stars

I was a bit surprised and disappointed that these classical speakers were not reviewed on these pages, so here I go with at least a preliminary review.
After reading Ken Kessler's promotion of the BBC LS3/5a in issue after issue of HiFi News & Record Review, I have been eager to listen to them for a long time. Especially since he always raved about the magic midrange all the time, and I have come to the understanding that for me the midrange is definitely the most important area of the frequency range. That is probably why I love my Quad ESL-63's so much. So when I found a second-hand pair in an ad for the Swedish equivalent of $435 I felt this was the time to try them out.

The pair I thus acquired a week ago is of the earlier, single-wired, 15 ohms type, with sockets accepting only banana plugs. The cabinets are of a lovely walnut veneer, well preserved, and after applying some teak oil they really shine. I have completely forgotten how nice walnut can look.

I was a bit frustrated about the banana sockets, since my only banana plugs were on loan to my brother-in-law. But I found that it worked quite well just to stick the cables in the holes and then be careful not to move the speakers. (Abhorring, I know, but what could I do on a Saturday night? I don't know of any 7-Eleven offering banana plugs in the Stockholm area.)

So I hooked my new little pets to my study system, comprising a Quad 67 CD, a Tandberg TCA 3038A preamp, and a Quad 405 poweramp. At first they were standing on the floor. I just wanted to check that they worked. And they did! Actually the amount of sound was surprising, given their low sensitivity. They sounded nice, but the bass was overblown and bumpy, of course. In want of a couple of Atacama stands, I took two kitchen chairs and put one speaker on each. Now the frequencys were sorted out in a more natural fashion.

And the midrange truly sings! The sound from these speakers hit me immediately as being very likable and nice. Neither the top nor the bottom is extraordinary. The treble seems soft and a little bit muddled. The bass is still surprisingly low from these small boxes, and maybe powerful enough for a small room, but it is really not enough to suit large orchestral music in larger room. But the mid is all you need to truly appreciate vocal music - both male and female voices came across engagingly and with great tonal beauty. At the same time the LS3/5As showed clearly the difference between analogue sound from my Revox B77 and the digitals from the Quad 67, so it is analytical as well, but not too much so - really all that a small monitor should be.

I could live happily with these speakers as they are now. And I'm dying to hear them with better ancillaries, on a good pair of stands and with decent cables. I may come back with a new review after more time spent with them, but for now I give them a rating of 4. They are not perfect, but for their price (of a second-hand pair, at least) and size they are truly remarkable and may be all you need.

I apologize for the discrepancy in my review below. I gave these speakers a rating of 4 in the text, but then I slipped somehow and happened to choose the 5 star alternative for the rating. So I restore balance by adding 4 stars this time, which will give them an average of 4.5 - and that they deserve!