Chartwell LS3/5a Nice Score!!!
My neighbor, a NASA electronics engineer, passed away and his kids are clearing out the house to sell and let me have free reign of his woodshop and electronics shop to take what I wanted. Most was vintage, but I got some nice tools, lots of vintage semiconductors (anyone need any?) and resistors, spools of wire, etc., a nice HP O-scope, vintage sweep and function generators, a compressor, and ... Oh, there was also a KEF 5" woofer still in the cardboard surround with a massive magnet I took.
I asked if he had any stereo equipment and he took me inside. There were Yamaha separates in the living room (with a Philips 212 TT) and a Sony receiver in the office connected to a couple small speakers. The grills said "Chartwell." He said they were good speakers. I told him I had never heard of them. They were very heavy for their size and I looked at the back and saw "LS3/5a" and I knew from Audiophile Magazine that these were something special. They are in pristine condition.
He gave them to me!!!
Actually, he was going to give me everything, but I gave him $50 (had no idea of the value of the speakers at the time). He was paying to have stuff/junk removed.
A Philips 212 is the first TT I ever had and was stolen shortly after we got married (early 80's). I went back over today and asked if they still had the turntable. She said yes and was going to give it to me, but I gave her $40. I hope it works. It has a Shure ME35 cartridge. (I do still have the Sony DD that replaced the Philips and it still works fine.)
These Chartwells do vocals so well!!! It is no wonder that people pay four digits for a used sets. Oh, I found out that that KEF woofer is a NOS replacement for the Chartwells. ;)
