Kenwood LS-G5000 (1987)
The Kenwood LS-G5000 is a speaker that wears its ambition on its sleeve — a 48 kg, 3-way bookshelf-type system from 1987 that was anything but bookshelf in intent. Priced at ¥170,000 per unit at release, it was Kenwood throwing its full engineering weight at the high end, and the specification sheet reads like a catalog of late-'80s Japanese audio maximalism.
The woofer is a 30 cm polygonal carbon ceramic driver. Its diaphragm is woven from 3000 filler carbon fibers, three times the fiber count of Kenwood's conventional carbon diaphragms. Ceramic-reinforced powder is entangled in the weave to suppress the characteristic "sound of carbon." The magnetic circuit uses a φ180 mm strontium ferrite magnet with a total magnetic flux of 200,000 maxwell, plus a dual-suspension "Class A" arrangement to control non-linear motion. The midrange is an 8 cm semi-dome unit with a "crystal plasma diamond" diaphragm, mounted in Kenwood's spherical wave horn baffle. The tweeter is a 2.5 cm hard dome using the same diamond-based diaphragm material.
The cabinet is where the LS-G5000 gets obsessive. The front baffle is 50 mm thick, clamped front and back with die-cast plates using a "super press lock" mounting method. A high-rigidity top plate ties into the baffle to kill vibration. Laser-cut grooves 0.6 mm wide and 10 mm deep are routed around the midrange and tweeter to prevent surface wave transmission and diffuse reflection. The back plate is pyramidal to suppress standing waves. Internal wiring is extra-thick oxygen-free copper, and the crossover is a distributed network by band to address crosstalk distortion. A dedicated SR-G5000 stand (¥50,000 per pair) was sold separately.
A Russian seller listing describes these as "the top tier of Kenwood acoustics." A period video review pairs them with a Kenwood L-A1 amplifier and CD sources including the Pioneer PD-5000 and Esoteric DV-50s. One Russian listing offers a pair at 200,000 ₽, and another pre-order listing asks 185,000 ₽, noting delivery from Japan. The same seller describes the sound as "warm, lively, not tiring - deep."
Several things are missing from the record: the length of the production run, any formal professional review in the Western audio press, and how the LS-G5000 sat relative to other Kenwood flagships of the era. The fact sheet notes no independent technical measurements beyond the published specs.
- Type: 3-way, 3-speaker, linear suspension, bookshelf
- Woofer: 30 cm cone (carbon ceramic)
- Midrange: 8 cm semi-dome
- Tweeter: 2.5 cm hard dome
- Frequency response: 25 Hz – 47 kHz
- Max input: 200W
- Impedance: 6 Ω
- Output SPL: 91 dB/W/m
- Crossovers: 600 Hz, 6 kHz
- Dimensions: 400 × 700 × 383 mm
- Weight: 48 kg
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