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LS3/5a - what Amps are PF-ers using ?

Dowser said:
I Must disagree - I have not heard a pair for more than 30 years, but when traveling in Australia I worked in a HiFi Store in Bondi Junction - their best speakers were LS3/5as, especially matched with a top of the line NEC CDP (Never seen one since, stunning build and sound). Sounded great with all the shops amps, from lowly Nads and Rotels up to top of the line Japanese and Linn amps.

One day we sneaked the speakers and CDP to another store with a Musical Fidelity big **** off power amp (450? Huge black box with blue lettering :)). First listened to NEC CDP with MF and their AE1s on those big stands, stunning. Then replaced the AEs with the LS3/5as - best sound I ever heard except for some SF Extrema’s powered by the same SE valve hybrid amps I have now(except for my current ESL63s of course :)). LS3/5a with a bit of current into them sound stunning IMO but, yes, they sound good with almost anything.
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Probably an A370. Blue lettering says MkII. no such thing as 450 and only very few SA470's were made. As always it has absolutely nothing to do with current or power. It's just a very good sounding amplifier.
 
I own a pair of Rogers LS3/5a since the late '80 years. In all this long time, I never felt the need to replace them. I tried several power amplifiers but one impressed me a lot. Indeed, more than twenty years ago, I borrowed from Giovanni Mariani the best of his production. The Graaf GM 200 squeezed all the juice out of my small Rogers. Who thinks that they have lacks in the bass range would have to try them with this kind of OTL amp.
 
Graham H said:
Falcon Silver with Naim CB 32.5/Hi Cap/160, original spec recently serviced by Class A.

Have also tried Bryston B60R, Rega Elex R, Primare i15, Rega Io and Naim Nait 1.
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Would love to know how you got on with the Primare i15. I have been offered an ex demo i15MM for a really good price.
This would be a completely new direction for me & I'm not sure it's one I'm ready to make.
If I recall correctly Falcon were using the i15 amp with great results with there LS3/5As at the Bristol show a couple of years ago
TS
 
I heard the Falcon LS3/5a on the end of some primare amps at the Cheshire show held just before COVid and it was superb.
They were on some nice SolidSteel stands too which I also think helped…
 
Arkless Electronics said:
They can't handle much power so if you're limited to say 25W then you may as well have the best Watts you can get.
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I think you are wrong.

I run my Stirling LS3/5a V2's on 150wpc Primare i35 and Leema Tucana ii - no problems at all and sound excellent. Don't go over 90db ish though.

Falcon demo the LS3/5a's with the Primare i35 regularly
 
TonyScarlett said:
Would love to know how you got on with the Primare i15
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RichShortland said:
I heard the Falcon LS3/5a on the end of some primare amps at the Cheshire show held just before COVid and it was superb.
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The i15 was excellent, hard to fault. I listen to predominantly jazz and chamber music, their ability with timbre is notably good, dare I say they have a valve like quality to them. Excellent depth and imaging and no slouch, the only minor criticism I had was scale which is probably fixed by the i35.

I have yet to hear a poor or cool report of Falcon LS3/5as being used at shows with Primare, nice to see some enthusiasm for them here.
 
BigBlue2020 said:
I think you are wrong. I run my Stirling LS3/5a V2's on 150wpc Primare i35 and Leema Tucana ii - no problems at all and sound excellent. Don't go over 90db ish though.
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How do you know how much power your speakers are using when you listening?
 
BigBlue2020 said:
I think you are wrong.

I run my Stirling LS3/5a V2's on 150wpc Primare i35 and Leema Tucana ii - no problems at all and sound excellent. Don't go over 90db ish though.
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That's a bit A over T tbh. I think you might possibly be confused as to what Jez was saying in post #62. o_O
 
narabdela said:
That's a bit A over T tbh. I think you might possibly be confused as to what Jez was saying in post #62. o_O
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There really needs to be an 'Audio 101' sticky at the top of the forum to explain to folk that speakers only receive the maximum output power of an amplifier if the listener wilfully turns the wick up loud enough to reach said maximum output power. In other words, as far as loudspeaker health is concerned, feeding X watts into a pair of speakers is the same whether it comes from an amp that can output 5X or 500X.
 
ToTo Man said:
There really needs to be a 'Audio 101' sticky at the top of the forum to explain to folk that speakers only receive the maximum output power of an amplifier if the listener wilfully turns the wick up loud enough to reach said maximum output power. In other words, as far as loudspeaker health is concerned, feeding X watts into a pair of speakers is the same whether it comes from an amp that can output 5X or 500X.
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Ouch ! However, also true :)
 
Ianp said:
Just put the Leak 20 in, my word the Q7 do like a valve ! Noticeably richer in presentation. Beautiful.
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Agreed. I just stuck the TL12 Plus back in after a fairly long period with the Pass Aleph 3 and I definitely prefer the valve amps with the LS3/5As. The Leaks sound bigger and more lively and just get out of the way better/I get sucked into the music more. The difference is more complex with the JR149s and I think they may prefer the Pass. I certainly understand why the vast majority who like LS3/5As tend to gravitate to good valve amps.


PS I perhaps need to qualify this in that I am far from convinced I have a good preamp match with the Pass, which has very little gain (1.6V or so for full out) so I tend to have been running the Audio Synthesis attenuator at about 3/4 or more of its travel.
 
Tony L said:
Agreed. I just stuck the TL12 Plus back in after a fairly long period with the Pass Aleph 3 and I definitely prefer the valve amps with the LS3/5As. The Leaks sound bigger and more lively and just get out of the way better/I get sucked into the music more. The difference is more complex with the JR149s and I think they may prefer the Pass. I certainly understand why the vast majority who like LS3/5As tend to gravitate to good valve amps.


PS I perhaps need to qualify this in that I am far from convinced I have a good preamp match with the Pass, which has very little gain (1.6V or so for full out) so I tend to have been running the Audio Synthesis attenuator at about 3/4 or more of its travel.
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Absolutely agree on the pre match, same here with the Croft. Need to stick some attenuation in there.

Don't you just want something like the Prologue 5 so you can mess about with valve types ?!
 
Tony L said:
... PS I perhaps need to qualify this in that I am far from convinced I have a good preamp match with the Pass, which has very little gain (1.6V or so for full out) so I tend to have been running the Audio Synthesis attenuator at about 3/4 or more of its travel.
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Yes, the Aleph 3 has an input impednce of 23 kohms - a (resistive) passive preamp might sound a little gutless with that sort of load. The Leaks, by comparison not only have a huge amount more gain, but have an input impedance of 1 megohm!
 
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