Tier L · BBC Sound (mandate)
Built around monitors in the BBC line — the LS3/5a family and its descendants.
One certified system per brief. Costs appear only as signed percentages against each tier’s (unpublished) baseline; absolute prices are not shown.
The certified system
| Slot | Component |
|---|---|
| Turntable | Technics SL-1200G |
| Tonearm | Technics S-shape magnesium tonearm (SL-1200G) |
| Cartridge | van den Hul The Frog |
| Phono stage | Naim NVC TT MM/MC |
| Integrated amplifier | Sugden A21 Signature |
| Loudspeakers | Harbeth P3ESR XD2 |
| Subwoofer | Bowers & Wilkins DB4S |
| Whole-system cost vs tier baseline | +3.2% |
Amplification: integrated amplifier — an outcome of the search, not a requirement.
How the money is shaped
How the budget is shaped here — each share is the portion of the whole build this brief aims at that position. A position marked free is left to find its own level.
| Position | Share of build |
|---|---|
| Cartridge | 16.1% |
| Tonearm | 3.5% |
| Turntable | 18.0% |
| Phono stage | 17.7% |
| Loudspeakers | 25.3% |
| Integrated amplifier | 19.3% |
Why there is a subwoofer
A subwoofer is fitted. Below this loudspeaker’s natural reach there is real musical content — organ pedal notes, synth bass, the lowest drum weight — and the coverage arithmetic says a dedicated bass cabinet genuinely extends the system rather than doubling what the loudspeaker already does.