LS5/8 and LS5/9 are both standard BBC designations.
The basic design is a given and there is not much variance permitted by the BBC if the manufacturer wishes to use the designation and be licensed.
The BBC require them to sound the same as each other so any LS5/8 or LS5/9 (or LS3/5a) can be dropped in as a replacement for any other if one gets damaged, for example.
Mind you, I don't know how many are still in use at the beeb 30 years after they first came into service.
Derek Hughes said in the interview that he specified the 8" unit and that his intention was to produce the LS5/9 sound without the unit suffering the deterioration heard in the existing old units out there.
The LS5/8 does have a 12" bass unit.
Edit: some info, though I can't vouch for its accuracy it is, after all, on an internet site
http://www.markhennessy.co.uk/rogers/ls58.htm
another edit, Harbeth actually state that the Monitor 30 is a "refinement" of the LS5/9. Certainly all Harbeths have been designed using the BBC design philosophy since day 1 as Dudley Harwood was a senior engineer at the BBC and was instrumental in coming up with the cabinet philosophy used by all the LS speakers since and experimented with cone materials.
The basic design is a given and there is not much variance permitted by the BBC if the manufacturer wishes to use the designation and be licensed.
The BBC require them to sound the same as each other so any LS5/8 or LS5/9 (or LS3/5a) can be dropped in as a replacement for any other if one gets damaged, for example.
Mind you, I don't know how many are still in use at the beeb 30 years after they first came into service.
Derek Hughes said in the interview that he specified the 8" unit and that his intention was to produce the LS5/9 sound without the unit suffering the deterioration heard in the existing old units out there.
The LS5/8 does have a 12" bass unit.
Edit: some info, though I can't vouch for its accuracy it is, after all, on an internet site
http://www.markhennessy.co.uk/rogers/ls58.htm
another edit, Harbeth actually state that the Monitor 30 is a "refinement" of the LS5/9. Certainly all Harbeths have been designed using the BBC design philosophy since day 1 as Dudley Harwood was a senior engineer at the BBC and was instrumental in coming up with the cabinet philosophy used by all the LS speakers since and experimented with cone materials.
Devialet Original d'Atelier 44 Core, Job Pre/225, Goldmund PH2, Goldmund Reference/T3f /Ortofon A90, Goldmund Mimesis 36+ & Chord Blu, iMac/Air, Lynx Theta, Tune Audio Anima, Goldmund Epilog 1&2, REL Studio. Dialog, Silver Phantoms, Branch stands, copper cables (mainly).
Oxfordshire
