LSA Group LSA-1 Signature Bookshelf Speakers; Rosewood Pair

I like to directly compare my DIY speakers to some of the world’s best designs from time to time, if just to take regular whacks at my ego. In my test rig, I’ve got a nice high-current speaker and amplifier switching box, so comparisons are easy and transparent. And I will say it’s nice to occasionally hear no difference in quality from a well-regarded speaker compared to mine, hearing instead just a change in perspective.

My crossover intentionally allows a very slight dip — the “Nudell dip” — in the lower-midrange, to give the soundstage presentation a touch more depth.

In contrast, I hear some speaker designers going the other way, accentuating the vocal and presence ranges to give extra detail and bite. Sometimes, in my opinion, at the expense of livability and resulting in listener fatigue.

There is a middle ground, however. The TAD Evolution One speakers are smack dab in the middle of that middle ground (I call them “accurate and listenable”), and actually, so are this pair of LSA-1 Signature speakers on the test bench at the moment.

With both the TAD and with these, there is a tonal honesty and a textural resolution that perhaps isn’t there in the same quantity with my own speakers.

I consider the wonderful LSA-1 Signatures to represent a “studio monitor” version of what my speakers bring. I spent a lot of effort to make mine tonally accurate and cast a wide ‘stage, but also to be every day listeners. And the LSA-1 Signatures seem to achieve all of that, plus a teensy touch of extra bite. A pro to my boxes’ amateur. Frankly, I like both arrangements, and I’d love to have both sets up here at the desk. If I was a mixing engineer I would definitely use both.

The LSA-1’s similarity to the TAD Evolution continues with the spatial presentation, but that’s also where the TADs start leaving these in the dust. Hard to compete with $30K speakers from the Andrew Jones team. But who said these LSA-1s were trying?

It was my own brain that conjured the aural memory of the TADs when I fired up the LSAs. I didn’t tell it to do that. ;) The LSA-1s offer wonderful space, wonderful tone (if on the accurate side), and wonderful dynamics. I think they’ll please anyone, from amateur to pro.