Kenwood LS-11EX (1992–1993)
The Kenwood LS-11EX is a 3-way, bass-reflex bookshelf speaker from the early 1990s, built in Japan. It's fairly obscure. No formal professional reviews or official manufacturer documentation have surfaced, but the record that exists shows a seriously engineered compact speaker. Kenwood positioned it as the top of their bookshelf line and an improved continuation of the popular LS-11 series, specifically the LS-11ES. Sellers are quick to caution that it is not the LS-11ES.
The drivers are where it gets interesting. The 19 cm woofer uses a Dyneema fiber diaphragm. The material is lighter than water, has the sound velocity of carbon and internal loss comparable to paper, and is woven with carbon fiber in a longitudinal and transverse arrangement. The 8 cm midrange is a semi-dome with a new cycloid curve for the dome section, and the 1.6 cm tweeter is a titanium dome. Each driver sits on a spherical wave horn baffle to reduce diffraction, and the frames are aluminum die-cast. The cabinet uses a round baffle to approach a point source, with a 30 mm front baffle and 18 mm walls elsewhere, plus a rear duct and 14.2L internal volume. Magnetic shielding is built in. The crossover is split into three separate networks for low, mid, and high to minimize inductive interference. It uses Ritz-pattern PCBs and German film capacitors, with gold-plated banana terminals.
Specs from the Japanese Audio Database: frequency response 45 Hz to 48 kHz, rated input 60W, max input 130W (EIAJ), impedance 6Ω, output sound pressure level 89 dB/W/m, crossover points at 1 kHz and 5 kHz. Dimensions are 228 × 403 × 276 mm (W×H×D), weight 8.8 kg. A dedicated SG-11 stand was available separately (¥16,000 a pair, 3.5 kg each).
The original Japanese price was ¥60,000 for a pair around 1993. On the Russian resale market in 2025, examples have been listed between 38,000 and 69,000 rubles, with the higher figure including Target MR series stands. One Yahoo! Chiebukuro user put it this way: "I'm a Kenwood-ear person, I can't buy anything else - it's probably a matter of taste, but that's how it is."
- 3-way, 3-driver, bass-reflex bookshelf system, magnetic shielding
- 19 cm Dyneema-fiber woofer / 8 cm semi-dome midrange / 1.6 cm titanium dome tweeter
- 45 Hz – 48 kHz, 130W max (EIAJ), 6Ω, 89 dB/W/m
- 228 × 403 × 276 mm, 8.8 kg
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