Kenwood LS-11ES (1989)

Name: Kenwood LS-11ES
Brand: Kenwood

The Kenwood LS-11ES is a compact 3-way, bass reflex bookshelf speaker released in 1989, originally priced at ¥56,000 for a pair. It was the top of Kenwood's bookshelf line at the time. The drivers are an unusual set: a 19 cm cone woofer, an 8 cm semi-dome midrange, and a 1.6 cm dome tweeter, crossed over at 1 kHz and 5 kHz. Maximum input is rated at 130W (EIAJ), sensitivity is 89dB/W/m, impedance is 6Ω, and the response runs 45 Hz to 50 kHz.

The drivers are where Kenwood made its pitch. The woofer uses a cloth-Dyneema composite diaphragm - a plain weave of Dyneema fiber and carbon fiber, meant to give light weight along with high internal loss and stiffness. The midrange is a sandwich composite dome with hard ceramic layers on both sides of an aluminum alloy core. It sits on a spherical wave horn baffle to reduce diffraction. The tweeter uses a "crystal plasma diamond" diaphragm. A continuously variable tweeter level control is on the rear.

The enclosure follows the same thinking. The front baffle is rounded to minimize diffraction, and a rear duct is positioned to cancel internal standing waves. The crossover uses Ritz-pattern printed circuit boards, with a separate network for each driver to minimize mutual interference. A dark brown variant, the LS-11ES (D), was also offered. An optional SG-11 speaker stand was sold separately at ¥16,000 for a pair.

Documentation on the LS-11ES is thin beyond its Japanese spec sheet. Most current listings come from Russian resellers importing from Japanese auctions, with asking prices in the 29,000-35,000 ₽ range. One seller described the pair as "the very top of Kenwood technology in bookshelf acoustics." Condition notes are typical of 30-plus-year-old speakers: original drivers untouched, grilles intact, minor oxidation on trim rings, and occasional small grille damage. One Yahoo Japan auction noted a crack in the saran net grille.

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