Graham BBC Transducers
Housed in an idyllic country setting in Devon England, Graham Audio is a family owned company dedicated to preserving and expanding the legacy of the world famous BBC Loudspeakers designs. In addition, Graham has taken the exciting step of expanding the BBC principles to creating floorstanding versions of the LS6 and the LS 59 appropriately dubbed the LS6f And LS59F respectively.
As much as possible Graham Loudspeakers are manufactured exactly as they were in the late 1950s and early 1960s using thin wall birch cabinets design.
AS an example it is well known that The air enclosed by the cabinet must be considered. With no additional treatment, standing waves will establish themselves between opposite panels, and these will have a ruinous effect on the sound quality, especially in the mid-range. Most loudspeakers use acoustic foam, but the BBC preferred to use Rockwool slabs for the LS5/8 and LS5/9, held in place by a layer of fabric.
This approach is more expensive than foam, both in terms of material costs and time taken during construction, but Rockwool has proven itself to be extremely consistent over many decades so that is what Graham uses .
Here are a few of our favorite Graham BBC Transducers selections:
Chartwell Ls6f
The LS6f is a floor standing verssion of the famous Chartwell BBC LS6 ;a daring application of this design,the 6f betters it by some margin adding a greater sense of flow and greater bass extension , not to mention the elimination of the somewhat awkward stand requirement.loudspeakers.
Reviews
High Fidelity - July 2018“This is this type of design that is able to recreate the atmosphere of a small jazz club in a more tangible way than most other speakers. The naturalness of this presentation is so immense that every now and then listeners are due to be surprised by elements that break out of the "sequence of sounds", let it be an unexpected descent of the saxophone into the low areas on the West 8th Street on Castle Ave., or a more powerful drumming in the Jazz at the Pawnshop. ...The scale of sound also helps in such spectacular imaging. It is large, expansive and natural. ...Graham's speakers are also very dynamic. It is actually an inherent feature for BBC-school monitors, but in this case it makes a unique impression. Immediate attack and stopping - these are the elements that the reviewed loudspeakers are very good at, better than many much more expensive designs. The opening of the treble range also contributes to that.”
BBC LS35A
The LS3/5A was produced by BBC Designs Department in response to detail changes in the performance of the drive units that were originally chosen for the LS3/5 as designed by BBC Research and Development. It is the most well-known of all the BBC loudspeakers, and remains the compact loudspeaker of choice for many today.As you might expect this iteration ,engineerd by Derek Hughes pays strict adherence to the original BBC design of the 1960's.
BBC LS5/9
The LS5/9 is the original BBc design from which the current Harbeth Monitor 30.2 drew inspiration. Asking me to choose between these two speakers is like asking me which of my children I love more. Suffice it to say they are both outstanding and fortunately we have both.
BBC LS5/9F
Derek Hughes developed the new LS5/9f for Graham Audio from the experience gained whilst recreating the BBC LS5/9 to meet a popular demand for a precision monitor loudspeaker like the 5/9 but in a floor standing version.
Built to the same exacting BBC standards the LS5/9f is created using the damped thin wall principle with rubberised acoustic barrier and rockwool damping. The crossover is 2nd order on the bass and 3rd order on the treble, same as the standard LS5/9.As good as the LS5/9 is the 9F is one step better extending the low frequency range and impact considerably so as to increase the Dynmic impression and sense of space and flow