Graham Audio LS8/1

Although the UK punches above its weight in classic loudspeaker designs, a few models stand out. The most obvious are the Quad Electrostatic, the LS3/5a and the Spendor BC1. However, of the three, that latter three-way ported design – first seen in 1968 – is the only one not to have a direct 21st-century equivalent. The Graham Audio LS8/1 goes some way to make up for that shortfall. It is no clone of the classic BC1. The result honours and updates that 60s masterpiece.

It’s easy to forget how significant the BC1’s impact was because it happened 56 years ago. The Spendor BC1 was one of the first acoustic suspension loudspeaker boxes. It competed with the low distortion of electrostatic designs. For its time, it delivered an outstanding low-distortion sound with an excellent frequency response and good dynamic range.

Entropy

But let’s reiterate this: that design predates Neil Armstrong’s setting foot on the moon. The problem with listening to a 1960s loudspeaker in 2024 is fifty-something years of entropy and component ageing. However, a lot has changed in the intervening 56 years. 

A roll-off happens in both bass and treble. There’s also a ‘once heard, always heard’ peak in the upper treble. Bextrene was the absolute cutting-edge loudspeaker cone material at the time. But so were loon pants and casual misogyny. Bextrene is a poor relation to modern driver tech today. Saying this is heresy in some Brit-fi circles. 

Fortunately for Graham Audio, the LS8/1 doesn’t come with that baggage. Yes, it’s a BBC-derived, thin-walled, stand-mount loudspeaker. Sure, it uses a mid-bass, tweeter and supertweeter with a front-firing port. And, yes, of course, the designer of the LS8/1 is Derek Hughes, son of the late ex-BBC designer Spencer Hughes. Derek put his considerable design smarts into developing this design. Given that he has also worked on many similar BBC-derived projects, it’s clear that he carries on the Hughes tradition. The speaker-designer apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

This is the BBC!

The three-way Graham Audio LS8/1 loudspeaker retains Hughes’s basic design and has the same shape, cabinet volume, and construction. That design moved with him when he and his wife Dorothy began building loudspeakers under the SPENcer-DORothy brand name. Given its layout, cabinet design, dimensions and drive unit array, a casual glance transports you back to the late 1960s.

However, closer investigation shows that a 200mm drive unit features a polypropylene cone, a 26mm tweeter, and a 19mm supertweeter featuring soft domes. There is also a switch to give a ±1dB boost or cut to those high frequencies. The LS8/1 doesn’t roll off at about 15kHz like it was playing an episode of Round the Horne on the BBC Light Programme.

The argument needs restating because this loudspeaker’s looks and layout have caused a stir among those who like the idea of the BC1 but have never heard one or haven’t heard one in decades. The Graham Audio LS8/1 is less uneven and has better power handling and frequency extension. It is also more consistent and has a higher volume ceiling than the BC1. Fortunately, the LS8/1’s existence does not degrade the ‘precious’.

What happens if…

A 21st-century reimagining of the same ‘what happens if…’ thought processes that created the BC1 more than half a century ago should be a win-win. It irons out bugs that could not be fixed with 1960s materials science.

Regardless, the LS8/1’s sensitivity is slightly below average, at a realistically rated 87dB. The impedance is a highly untroubling eight ohms, with no nasty dips or phase angles anywhere along the frequency range. 

Set-up is easy. Graham Audio’s LS8/1 is single-wired and front-ported. It benefits from a slight toe-in, at least 30cm of rear and side wall breathing space, and lightweight stands. The obvious choice here is the open-frame XF models custom-made by Something Solid.

I played the Graham Audio LS8/1 with several amplifiers, both solid-state and valve (tube) based, and it worked exceptionally well with all of them. My samples of the LS8/1 were already well run-in, so I can’t comment on their break-in time or performance.

Intrinsically lovely

There’s something intrinsically lovely about the sound of the Graham Audio LS8/1. It seems almost entirely incapable of making a bad sound. The music sounds so enticing and attractive here. The performance is seductive. It’s also one of those loudspeakers that gets the midrange right as a priority. Instruments and music that occupy the midrange (string quartets, lots and lots of jazz, folk, and anything with a solid vocal component) shine here.

For example, ‘Canadee-I-O’ by Nic Jones [Penguin Eggs, Topic]. Jones’ percussive, low-tuned guitar and his voice sit in the room between the loudspeakers. It’s like you are cast back to 1980. The detail and precision of the sound are outstanding. If you listen carefully, thousands of wannabe folk guitarists can be heard having their dreams dashed as they try and fail to replicate his playing style. 

The same holds when playing almost every jazz album from about 1958-65. Herbie Hancock is perhaps the musician who points to both ends of the Graham Audio LS8/1’s performance. Play ‘Cantaloupe Island’ from Empyrean Isles [Blue Note, from 1964]. It’s like being teleported into the studio with the band. The sound is sublime.

Move to Chameleon

Move across to ‘Chameleon’ from the 1973 Head Hunters album [Columbia], and that more synth-led fusion sound – though still very good – doesn’t emphasise the funk-oriented groove as well. We skip his vocoder-tinged disco years for good reasons. ‘Court and Spark’ – featuring Norah Jones – from 2007’s River: The Joni Letters [Verve] restores the order.

The overall sound is sophisticated and refined. The LS8/1 will never be the first choice for playing rock at ear-splitting levels, but that was never the intention of the original BBC designs and isn’t the plan here, either. They can play rock or dance music. It’s just that they make such a good and convincing portrayal of midrange that you are drawn to that part of the music, and in genres that place the accent on gut-crunching bass lines or all-attack synth chirps, you step beyond the LS8/1’s zone of excellence.   

Tradition!

The British tradition always involved making a loudspeaker that sounded good in moderate-sized rooms. The bass rolls off in the mid-50Hz (with a clean and honest roll-off) partly because sub-50Hz sounds can prove challenging in its intended listening spaces. It’s not designed to go too loud because that, too, gets uncomfortable in those listening rooms. While that sounds ‘terribly, terribly’ British, it’s also a pragmatic approach to music reproduction in typical listening rooms. And it works. Decades from now, the Graham Audio LS8/1 will still be playing. It will be passed down from father to son like classic audio always used to be.

Wide-baffle stand-mount loudspeakers went out of fashion in the 1990s, as style and slimline tower loudspeakers dominated the audio world. Despite the slim tower’s dominance, there’s still a place for loudspeakers like this one. The LS8/1 would pass muster if it were a loving recreation of a 1960s classic. However, Graham Audio LS8/1 improves on a little slice of perfection for many classic audio enthusiasts. And that makes this loudspeaker something extraordinary.  

Technical specifications

• Type: Three-driver, stand-mounted, bass-reflex box-speaker system
• Driver complement: 200mm (SEAS) mid/bass, 25mm (SB) tweeter, 19mm (SEAS) tweeter
• Crossover: 3.5kHz, 14kHz
• Frequency response: 45Hz–20kHz, ±3dB
• Nominal impedance: 8 ohms
• Sensitivity: 87dB/2.83V/1m
• Maximum output level: 100dB/pair/2m
• Cabinet: Thin-wall birch plywood, damped
• Dimensions (HxWxD): 63.5x30x30cm
• Weight: 17kg
• Price: £4,712/$9,700 per pair

Manufacturer

Graham Audio

www.grahamaudio.co.uk

+44(0)1626 361168

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