LS3/5A and push-pull EL84 amps

I've seen mentions, here and there about this combination for small to medium rooms. Low-ish power (15 to 18w) for the speakers, of course. Wildly inappropriate in many ways.

But usually noted with a comment on how psychedelic and extraordinary a combination this can be, for sound and music enjoyment. Appropriate active subs are always an option too, I guess.

Does anyone here run this guilty audiophile secret combination? Are the rumours true, is it just the usual blarney?

 

I have a good friend and client who runs an audio note oto Se Signature into an old pair of SPx rewired 15 ohm LS3/5a's. Loves the sound in a relative open plan apartment. He posts regularly on the LS3/5a users forum and faces continuous comments that it cant work but yet finds it the best system he has ever owned in terms of just forgetting about hifi components and just listening to music. I also ran a similar system for many years and still have it boxed away waiting for a house with many rooms.

 

Thanks for that story. The Oto is single-ended triode, no? If so, that will only be putting out about 10 watts of so, I imagine.

Even Rogers partnering 6L6 pp amp is good for about 20 watts, I'm told.

 

I've heard the Falcon 15 ohm LS3/5a's sound fabulous with the Leben CS-300.
One of my first 'serious' systems paired the original Chartwell 15 ohms with the 15ish watt
Advent 300 receiver and I loved it.
Recently giving thought to pairing the Falcons with a Shindo Montille 391...

 

Parallel single ended so around 10 watts, double c- core output transformers, silver tantalum resistors give it plenty of control which is the key to the marriage of the 2 in question. High quality tubes provide the polish for speakers made 50 years ago and an amp 3 years old.

 

15 ohm Falcon LS3/5a owner here, I've run them with a Music Reference RM 10, Anthem Integrated 1, Heathkit UA-2 monos and Scott 222b. All of 'em EL84 PP amps and they all sang well together, some of the best sound yet.

 

How big is your room, puroagave?

 

approx 420 st ft, semi-rectangular with a vaulted ceiling. the speakers are 1/3 of the way into the room on the short wall, spaced ~9' apart and i'm seated in the mid-field.

 

So they do pretty well then! Thanks for that insight.

Find ourselves planning for a new living space. Interesting to note that you've settled on a range of speakers I feel drawn to. I had stacked Quads for a while (and would have 57s again). Daughter loves the sound of LS3/5As, as do I. So communicative. Spent many years with horns and high sensitivity drivers (AER, Fertin, Fostex).

This time, don't really want to dominate the living space until we can make room for a dedicated music room. So your thoughts are helpful.

 

Horses for courses. As you know 5as aren't for head-bangers, you own them for their tonality and the way threat the human voice, plucked instruments, etc. The added bonus is fabulous sound staging.

 

Yes. I no longer look for one loudspeaker (or any hifi component) to do it all.

 

SE if you want detail, PP if you want to go loud. I listen near field, use 86dB speakers and find SE plenty of power. Reasons why in great detail in the two articles linked.

If I want to go loud I use solid state.

https://www.x3mhc.no/dokumenter/SE-v-PP-Part1.pdf
https://www.x3mhc.no/dokumenter/SE-v-PP-Part2.pdf

 

I see we're in the same country, AM. What amp/speaker combo are you using?

 

I did a private message.
ProAc Tablette 10 and will be driven with SE EL84 UL (20% tap) once built. At the moment running in with a Yamaha RX-E600. Used previously AVI Neutron III (that I've owned sine 1999) and BR and sealed FE167E. Owned big amplifiers (both tube and SS ) in the past and owned the Rogers LS3/5A and the LS5/12A at one time too.

 

Hello everyone, serve this post as a presentation, it is the first I write although I have read you for a long time. Greetings to all.

This is my kit, and indeed the Falcon LS3 / 5a with the Leben CS300XS is a perfect match. The room is small, yes, 12 m2.

The music flows from the EL84 of the little Leben to the Falcon in an amazing way, the atmosphere is filled with sound, details, nuances, music in general.

Without a doubt a totally recommendable combination for small rooms.

 

Len Gregory used to drive his Quad 63s with EL84s with amazing success
My Vox AC30 has EL84s , built to fill theatres

 

The synergy between the LS3/5A and el84 amps is no accident. At the time of their development at the BBC in the late ‘60’s the move to solid state was well in progress, but valve amps like the Leak stereo 20 were still regular use particularly for monitoring of the signal quality and the speakers were tuned to make the best of this equipment.

 

For near field listening (e.g. next to a computer) I find a SE EL84 with 20% UL and the 5670 as driver (about 4 watts out...) powering some ProAc Tablette 10's very enjoyable. I noticed that most of the time I am listening at levels 15 to 25 dB below that... (120mW to 12mW....).

I did spend about two months (during lockdown) modelling the optimum configuration and although not much difference might be noticable at maximum output it becomes a different story when working at the lowest output levels. I could not get a higher value than 20% UL working properly at the lowest level. Am using only about 8.2dB global NFB.

Not the voice magic of the LS3/5A but the bass makes up for it. Had to use some EQ in the mid and upper bass to offset room resonances.

 

Let's not forget the Harbeth P3ESR that is a similar design and sounds absolutely sublime with the Leben CS300, highly recommend.

 

more photos would be nice