Best solid state amp for stacked ESL57's

[Botte]

I run a Pair of DIY Pass F5 Mono blocks on my ESL 63's and they sound great.

 

[Studley]

I drive my 989s with a pair of F4s and a high gain preamp (Leben). Sounds terrific.

 

[vdi_nenna]

Tried to drive a set of Sound Labs ESL cira 1989 (6'x 2.5' panel) with 60w Aleph, F5 and Gain Clone. They all run out of gas in the treble region, they just break up on high volume. The gain clone sucks at any level of playback.

Have a Zen, but have to dig it out of storage. Is it worth even trying or will it suffer the same fate?

Will higher power be the only solution to driving these panel at high volume?

Thanks,

Vince

 

[Andersonix]

A 10W into 8Ohm Pass Zen?

I would have expected the F5 to be OK. What other amps have you tried? Do your ESL's have the original film?

 

[chinsettawong]

Hi Vdi_Nenna,

If 60W Aleph or F5 can't play it well, don't even bother to try Zen. You need a bigger power amp. 🙂

Wachara C.

 

[vdi_nenna]

The ESL are a friend's. The F5 is mine. The speakers had panels replaced in the past a few times.

Would you say 100w is the least to push through them or start at a higher rms wattage?

Thanks,

Vince

 

[chinsettawong]

Hi Vdi_Nenna,

It depends on how the step up transformer is wound - the step up ratio. With a low ratio, 100 W might not be enough.

Wachara C.

 

[vdi_nenna]

Wachara,

Thanks for the info. Will pass it on.

Vince

 

[moray james]

the old Hafler 500 did a great job on Acoustats (and they drop into the one ohm range). The Hafler is a solid work horse (just look how many are still in constant use) and it was stable into 2+2's and 1+1's. Get one cheap broken or not and just send it to John Hillig at Musical design in St. Loui and have him rebuild it into a modern day amp should do the trick.