Added to the Archives This Week

They've been around for years, under a variety of guises and from an evolving list of manufacturers and distributors. But the BBC LS3/5a loudspeakers still cling to their legendary status. We provide not only J. Gordon Holt's original 1977 review for Stereophile, but also follow-ups from 1984, 1989, and 1993. Read about the little speaker that could.

Another hallmark of speaker design is the Uni-Q driver, put to use in the KEF Reference Series Model Four loudspeaker, reviewed by Thomas J. Norton in 1996. About the Uni-Q, Norton writes: "The advantages: a coherent radiator, free from the acoustic interactions present in all loudspeakers with physically offset drive-units. The disadvantages: the tweeter is now loaded, effectively, by a horn." So is KEF trading one form of interference for another? Norton investigates.

Finally, audiophiledom's original editorial curmudgeon, J. Gordon Holt, asks "The Absolute Sound of What?" In a 1985 essay, Holt lays out why he finally chose CD as his reference standard.

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