Graham Audio The Chartwell LS6, Classic English Loudspeaker

Following the success of the Graham Audio LS3/5 and LS5/9, we were curious to discover what could be done with a cabinet that was sized somewhere between the two.

The result is the Chartwell LS6, designed by Derek Hughes. A custom built 6 inch long-throw bass drive unit mated to a compact 17 litre cabinet gives bass extension and power handling that is comparable to the LS5/9. The bespoke 19mm dome tweeter extends to beyond 20kHz. The overall response retains the smoothness of both the LS3/5 and LS5/9.

A large rear mounted port gives effortless bass, while allowing us to minimise the size of the cabinet to allow it to blend easily into typical domestic environments.

A sophisticated crossover network blends the two units and equalises the overall response for optimum performance in free space. A switch on the front baffle adjusts the tweeter level to +1dB or +2dB. This can be useful for situations where the listening position is off axis.

In common with all our loudspeakers, the cabinet uses the classic BBC "thinwall" construction, where the panels are mass-loaded to ensure that resonances are moved away from the critical mid-range region, and a layer of Rockwool is held in place by fabric to provide air damping. Hand-matched veneers are applied and finished to a very high standard. The grille is carefully designed to minimise diffraction effects and is held in place by concealed rare-earth magnets.