I would be all over those, but don't really trust someone with so little feedback. But Aleph 2 sounds like a great idea (bonus I liked my Aleph 30), I always thought these were 50 watts or something. I will keep my eyes out for them.

How much power would dual mono F5s put out (not the Turbo)? About 60 watts into 4 ohms?

Nate- I was not a big fan of a couple of vintage Krell amps I've heard and probably not worth the effort to drive down there for a limited audition.

They clip at 1 ohm at 10A, so that would be 100W @ 1R, but nominally with reasonable distortion it's 25W @ 8R and 50W @ 4R.

They only have 15dB gain, hence another reason for the mono blocks.

I drool over this page:

http://www.firstwatt.com/prod.html

The best FW amp would be a Aleph JX, you'd need serious heat sinking and transformers though.

The Aleph guy is pretty close too, right?

They clip at 1 ohm at 10A, so that would be 100W @ 1R, but nominally with reasonable distortion it's 25W @ 8R and 50W @ 4R.

They only have 15dB gain, hence another reason for the mono blocks.

I drool over this page:

http://www.firstwatt.com/prod.html

The best FW amp would be a Aleph JX (DIY only, and even then there isn't an official schematic released), you'd need serious heat sinking and transformers though.

The Aleph guy is pretty close too, right?

They clip at 1 ohm at 10A, so that would be 100W @ 1R, but nominally with reasonable distortion it's 25W @ 8R and 50W @ 4R.

They only have 15dB gain, hence another reason for the mono blocks.

I drool over this page:

http://www.firstwatt.com/prod.html

The best FW amp would be a Aleph JX (DIY only, and even then there isn't an official schematic released), you'd need serious heat sinking and transformers though.

Yes he is. I didn't know there was a ferry from southern CT to Long Island, so this is becoming more attractive now.

I would think an F5 Turbo v2/v3 would also be pretty nice, but another amp that would require monster heatsinking and a level of complication beyond my skills.

I really want to build the AJX. If I had less efficient speakers, that's what I'd be doing. Bonus, is I can retrofit them into my F4 chassis assuming I could get a bigger transformer (or two) to fit. I might pick up boards for them anyways.

Nate- I was not a big fan of a couple of vintage Krell amps I've heard and probably not worth the effort to drive down there for a limited audition.

I was mostly joking, I haven't heard anything in the class of amplification that you're shopping for.

Deepak,

The guy I bought my Pass Aleph P pre from has a set of Aleph 2 monoblocks that he was also going to sell. He was very reputable, can give you his contact info if you like. He may still have them.

I really like the case design on Krells from this vintage, much more on than their current overly shiny chromed look.

Long term, they eat output devices. My KSA100 from the mid 80's blew a number of them, once in a rather incendiary way. I'm not sure I can find the quote, but Krell said they went away from pure Class A with a huge standing current of a fair chunk of an amp because of reliability reasons.

Do you think 60 watts would be sufficient? Looks like they are around $6000 used, just a bit out of my budget though I'd consider them in the future.

Something more like $2000-3000 used is probably my budget.

60W of this caliber will be way more than sufficient as the power rating is a bit of a joke.

The Aleph guy had a another person that could have picked them up sooner than me so they are sold. But I think these are the amps that I'm going to go with.

to Marc

The Aleph P was one of the best preamps I owned; never should have sold that.

OT: but Audiogon really sucks now. You can't even reply to them by email since it is a "no-reply" email sent from Audiogon when the question is answered instead of coming from the seller's email.

OT: but Audiogon really sucks now. You can't even reply to them by email since it is a "no-reply" email sent from Audiogon when the question is answered instead of coming from the seller's email.

I suspect that Audiogon considers "no-reply" to be a feature, not a bug.

Looks like my paycheck this month will be fatter than usual and that may mean buying a pair of decent speakers. Quad 12l Actives to be precise. As these sort of seem to be THE Quad L's to get.

I'd like to know how well do these do in an untreated room. We're talking one plasterboard back wall, other three walls are solid brick (painted stucco); ceiling is 3.5m high and the floor fortunately has a rug. I'm planning to set them up for nearfield desktop listening, so the back wall might be a problem.

Also- how did you work around the separate power-up/volume control situation? A DAC/Pre-amp and a switchable mains divider?

^

The Auralex Modpads helped . (see & )

Also, Yes (preamp with volume control) and Yes (switchable mains power) see

Thank you for the thorough information!

One last thing- the seller has three different finishes- cherry, rosewood and silver. Any idea what may be meant by this? I have seen the first two but "silver" completely eludes me. The same seller once had the passive 12l2 in ebony which also seems a bit unusual. Are there any rare or limited edition finishes? Most likely though I'll go cherry because that also matches some of my other furniture and well.. Because they'll be my first proper speakers.

They are quite good for nearfield listening -- they were my work computer speaker rig for quite a while.

Why would the back wall be a problem? Unless you have your desk situated differently than I am expecting, and/or you listen at unreasonably high volumes, it shouldn't be. That's why people listen nearfield.

I didn't take care of the power-up problem. I tended to reach around back at the beginning of the day's first listening session and turn them on, and leave them on until I left (they were at work). They were driven by a DAC that didn't have an off, so left that on all the time. I know, not green, but this was work, so didn't care.

I have to admit to not having heard of the silver finish before now, neither. I am not aware of limited edition finishes, but some are nicer than others. Try to find pics online. I have the ebony, and had to keep the lighting subdued ("romantic") not to show fingerprints and dust all the time. The grainier ones don't show those up as badly.

Pick what you like.

For nearfield I would say go for Adam A5x instead (front ported) but I haven't heard the quad to compare. Shouldn't be too hard find one to listen on guitar/pro stores.

Edited June 4, 201214 yr by Spychedelic Whale

Oh, wait, never mind, I figured it out (thanks, SW) -- you mean back as in behind the speakers. Yeah, I had mine in a corner with the monitor in the middle between them -- worked fine, but doesn't help you any.

My emotivas are rear ported, and at reasonable nearfield levels, being 9" from the wall hasn't been a problem.

I have thought about the Adam's as well but I was under the impression that Quad 12L Active is "the" speaker at sub 1k$ range. From what I can infer from earlier posts they were quite the rage at one time around here. Also the woofers on the Quad are a tad larger 6,6'' vs 5,5'' on the Adam A5X, that difference may mean not getting a subwoofer. At least for a while. Sure, ribbons may beat conventional tweeters but good midrange is what I'm looking for. And I wouldn't like them to go completely mute under 60Hz.

Regarding the wall may main concern was the bare plasterboard wall 2m behind my back. I'm afraid that it may reflect upper-mids and highs in a really nasty way.

2m is far enough away that it is less of a concern.

I bought the 12L's at the beginning of the rage, and still own them. Also, I think your other conclusions aren't off. They do go slightly deeper than, for example, my former nearfield favorites, the Spendor S3/5's. They also go slightly louder -- I wouldn't listen to the Spendors other than nearfield, whereas I will listen to the Quad's elsewhere in the room, although I usually keep it just a tad too soft, as I used their volume controls, rather than a preamp, so I usually just left them alone once I had them balanced.

And yes, their strength is the midrange.

~_________~

Dreamy-eyed frog is dreamy-eyed.

And yes, you will crave a subwoofer for that last octave, but I haven't gotten one yet, and haven't missed it other than on techno and electronica -- I usually just stick with vocal music (Camille, etc.), classical and jazz. Even prog worked out rather well, because the bassist usually wants to be heard, so he has his tone set with a lot of upper frequency information. ("Lead" bass.)

Yeah, it's good to know that I could use them to fill up medium sized rooms in addition to desktop use. For bass heavy music I can always fire up my Jamo HT system, plenty of watts there. Still- the popular notion of what is bass still lingers around 50Hz, not much content that goes lower. I'm not that much of an organ music fan anyway (my girlfriend is, but I can drag her to a church for her um... organ needs).

Not really a Quad question, but still relevant. There seems to be some notion that Wharfedale Diamond 8.2 Pro Active has essentially the same components like 12l active. Basically what I've heard is that if I don't like to pay for the fancy veneering and lacquers I could take this path. The only difference acoustically seems that it has front bass ports so distance to rear wall may not be as critical.

Anyone had experience with the said speaker?

We've been hearing this for a few years now. EdWood was contemplating 5 for a surround system, but changed his plans IIRC. I can't remember any confirmation or denial on this. Would be good info.

Don't forget the new Emotiva active monitors. They've gotten great reviews and Dan likes them too.

Edited July 5, 201214 yr by swt61

I have the emotiva airmotiv 4s, which I am extremely happy with.

Adam seems to be the Emotiva this side of the Atlantic. I was torn initially between the Quad 12L active and one of them 5'' Adams (both being sold at a similar pricepoint) but somehow I shifted towards the former. My sound preferences are best characterized by the HD650, therefore I'm a bit afraid of the monitor sound being sibilant and whatnot.

Wharfedale has a reputation for the sound that I like -- it's been recommended to me by several diverse people after I explained my tastes. If you can get them for only a couple hundred dollars, it's probably worth trying.