Anyone have Sound Lab electrostatic speakers? I Searched...

[Mrmb]

I’m pretty pleased with my Mola Mola Kalugas, which put out quite a bit more power (400 into 8), and I can’t imagine getting by with 60 watts. Into the high impedance region in the bass (> 30-40 ohms), your Pass amplifier won’t be able to do much more than a few watts, but perhaps the 60.8 does in fact put out a lot more. I know Pass understates the wattage of their amplifiers.

What "godofwealth" said!!

Without going back through this thread, my recollection jeffreybehr, is that your audio room isn't a small one. And the XA60 controls your Sound Labs as well, if not better than the BHK's at 600-Watts? Of course, your listening levels may be lower than some. My levels are generally fairly low. But when I want to crank-it-up, I want the headroom to do so. Thus, I'm left wondering if the XA-60's would perform to the levels I would want to attain, at least some of the time?

Therefore, I wonder if anyone else has tried the XA60 (on the newer, PX panel, Consummate backplate S/L's) and found it wanting (at least some of the time) decibel-wise and moved to another Pass Labs Amp, because of that?

 

[godofwealth]

As I suspected, according to Stereophile’s measurements, the 60.8’s actually put out about 150 watts per channel into 8 ohms if you define it as the wattage at 1% THD. The reviewer also compared it to amplifiers at 10x the wattage, and didn’t find much difference, I suspect because the 60.8 is a far more powerful amplifier than its specs suggest.

Pass Laboratories XA60.8 monoblock power amplifier Measurements

Sidebar 3: Measurements

www.stereophile.com

 

[Atmasphere]

A 150 Watt solid state amp on Sound Labs is really only good for about 40 Watts.

 

[jeffreybehr]

A 150-Watt solidstate amp on Sound Labs is really only good for about 40 Watts.

Ralph, I understand your (often-stated) point about SS amps' inability to deliver much power into an ESL's high impedances in the lower frequencies, and I thought about that before ordering these 'low-power' SS amps...BUT, there are NO frequency imbalances that I can hear in the MUSIC I listen to with this system.. Maybe that's a result of my apparently lower-than-average listening levels, but these 'little*' Pass class-A amps make glorious music with my Majestic 745s.. And maybe there are better-sounding amps out there (such as your MA-2 and -3 OTLs), but I've stopped shopping and am now just listening thru my ONE pair of monoamps.

* physically exactly the same size as the class-AB X260.8s!

 

[Atmasphere]

Ralph, I understand your (often-stated) point about SS amps' inability to deliver much power into an ESL's high impedances in the lower frequencies, and I thought about that before ordering these 'low-power' SS amps...BUT, there are NO frequency imbalances that I can hear in the MUSIC I listen to with this system.. Maybe that's a result of my apparently lower-than-average listening levels, but these 'little*' Pass class-A amps make glorious music with my Majestic 745s.. And maybe there are better-sounding amps out there (such as your MA-2 and -3 OTLs), but I've stopped shopping and am now just listening thru my ONE pair of monoamps.

* physically exactly the same size as the class-AB X260.8s!

Yes- this isn't about a frequency imbalance. Its about how loud you can play it before the amp just runs out of power.

 

[godofwealth]

I’ve been very pleased with how my Mola Mola Kalugas drive my SL G9-7c models. They’re about 400 watts into 8 ohms and double into 4. I wasn’t expecting them to sound so nice. But with the matching Makua all-in-one preamp, it’s the first solid state components that I can imagine settling down with in the long haul. Large tube amplifiers are unfortunately really difficult to deal with, as I’m learning the hard way with my monster ARC 750SE’s. At some point you begin to wonder if the game is worth the candle with large tube amplifiers. The Kalugas are much less stressful to operate and orders of magnitude smaller with much less heat as well. I used to prefer tubes on my Quads but with the SL, I realize a lot of what I was hearing was due to the intrinsic brightness of the midrange on the Quads.

 

[jeffreybehr]

Yes- this isn't about a frequency imbalance. Its about how loud you can play it before the amp just runs out of power.

Well, then I'm covered!

 

[godofwealth]

My sense is that the latest SL panels are quite efficient, close to 90 dB. So, even 50-100 watts might be enough to make them play loud enough. But loudness with the SL is very different than with a moving coil dynamic speaker. Because of the really large radiating surface, over 3100 sq inches per speaker for mine, they don’t get loud in the traditional sense. The soundstage seems to get larger. There’s no volume change as you move closer to them. It takes a while to get used to this.

 

[jeffreybehr]

My Pass/SoundLabs system continues to sound nothing short of fabulous.. Will soon be moving the amplifiers about three feet closer to the front wall* and have ordered a 2M pair of 10AWG-per-pole AudioQuest Firebird SpeakerCable**.. Firebird ranks second in their chain of SC, with Dragon (RR $30K for a 7' pair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) at the top.. This move will be the first of many to reorganise the musicroom so that it's safer and more convenient to move around in.

FWIW, I've made an offer on a used SoundLabs Marquee centerchannel speaker (on USAudioMart.

Three Left!!! Sound Lab or Soundlab Marquee Electrostatic Center Channel or Surround Speakers

I present to you my collection of Sound Lab Marquee Center Channel electrostatic speakers.Located in Denver, PA.Each speaker is $1,500This set could also be used as surround speakers as well. I originally intended to use them all for a full electrostatic home theater experience, but an upcoming...

www.usaudiomart.com

After I move the poweramps, I'll have to find a new mounting place for any CC speaker, and since I use a CC speaker only with TV (almost entirely automotive racing and NFL football) and movies, I'm scheming about somehow suspending it from the bottom of the screen.

* and onto a single 3cm-thick slab of granite
** Am currently using RobinHoodSilver

 

[godofwealth]

@jeffreybehr, I notice Music Room is now advertising your Berning Quadrature Z’s. Some comments on why you didn’t like them as much as the Pass 60.8? I’ve always wanted to try a Berning. These look pretty light at 30 pounds apiece. The tube apparently last a long time and a tube failure doesn’t take out the amp. Cosmetically these look a bit shabby.

 

[jeffreybehr]

@jeffreybehr, I notice Music Room is now advertising your Berning Quadrature Z’s. Some comments on why you didn’t like them as much as the Pass 60.8? I’ve always wanted to try a Berning. These look pretty light at 30 pounds apiece. The tube apparently last a long time and a tube failure doesn’t take out the amp. Cosmetically these look a bit shabby.

The QZs fell into the group of amps with excellent sonic reputations and sounding just fine with moving-coils speakers but simply not very musical driving my SLM745s*.. That's no smear on the QZs' sonic quality, as they're in good company with various Classes, Ayres, Atma-Sphere, ArgentPur, PS Audio, Pass X260.8s, etc. poweramps.. And of those I heard at some length, the group of musical poweramps includes only two, the XA60.8s and the PS Audio BHK600s.

Shabby? Only in the pics.

* Another new name for my SLs.

 

[jeffreybehr]

A fabulous recording of Sheherazade played by the Toronto SO conducted by Peter Oundjian* on CHANDOS CHSA 5145.. Chandos apparently hired Soundmirror to record this (in 192/24 instead of Chandos's usual stingy 96/24.. The overall recording is about the best I've ever heard of 'Scuzzy', with fine string sound and a deep and natural soundstage with nothing apparently solo-miced and in my face. The tymps are audible but do NOT sound close to me, the small instruments such as oboe and bassoon sound small, are perfectly audible, and really do sound as if they're 10 or 15 feet from the mics.. The solo violin of concertmaster Jonathan Crow is located at about 11:30 in the soundstage and sounds VERY nice and NOT spot-miced.

Performance is highly listenable and not passive or understated, and the orchestra sounds very good if not quite as good as Beachum's Royal PO in that classic, EXCELLENT performance and 2-channel, EMI recording.. If you love Scuzzy, probably you'l love this one.. FWIW this in the only multichannel SACD I could find of this work, and it's well worth the finding.



* Never have learned how to pronounce that name.

 

[godofwealth]

Umm... not true. I have owned for many years this scintillating performance of Scheherazade with Valerie Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra, who would probably outrank the Toronto Symphony on this piece, I would wager. Try to find this SACD. It may be out of print. I still fondly recall Gergiev conduct Puccini's Turandot at Covent Garden. That was some performance. Since the Ukraine war started, he's become persona non grata in the West, so his international career has come to an end....but prior to that, he was an internationally renowned conductor who conducted many of the world's most prestigious orchestras, including all the top ones in the US.

 

[jeffreybehr]

What's not true? You're being VERY unspecific in your accusation.

I bought one on ePay for $32 delivered.