L-300 question

[soundhound]

Hello all.... I'm new to this forum and had a question mabey someone can answer?? I have a pair of JBL L-300's which I haven't used for quite a few years when I moved to a smaller house. I used to power them with a vintage Threshold class A amplifier and they sounded very nice. Now I have much more room and would like to use them again. I still have the Threshold Stasis 2 amplifier (200 watts per channel class A) but recently aquired a pair of vintage W5M Williamson type tube amplifiers with the large Altec Lansing/Peerless output transformers (#16458) that I'm going to rebuild.Each of the 2 mono amplifiers uses two KT66 output tubes for a 25 watt output. I was wondering if anyone here has used 25 watt tube amplifiers with L-300's with any sucess? I know I can always go back to the Threshold but if the tube amps work well with the JBL's they may end up being a better match. Any help would be appreciated.

[mbd7]

This baby’s crave power so unless you do the DIY Bi-Amp, then use the most power you've got to get the most out of these truly awesome speakers. Plus due to their age I'd check the foam surrounds and pay close attention to the horns with either an analyzer or au natural (i.e. put your ear next to them at low volumes) to make sure everything is working

[hjames]

Quote:
Originally Posted by soundhound
I was wondering if anyone here has used 25 watt tube amplifiers with L-300's with any sucess? I know I can always go back to the Threshold but if the tube amps work well with the JBL's they may end up being a better match. Any help would be appreciated.

Are you planning to use the L300s in stock form?
From the sound of it you are familiar with circuitry enough to build a fresh crossover - and if thats the case you may find some advantage to running the speakers in biamp mode.

You see, the 15 inch woofers can use more power than the horn driver or slot would ever need - they are much more efficient and some folks have done similar things to the Pro monitor version of the L300 - so do some searches here for the Model 4333 as well as the L300.

But if you DO plan to change anything - make sure you keep the old parts so you can put it back to standard form - the L300 is pretty collectable to some folks.

[soundhound]

Thanks for your responses. I checked and all drivers are working well. The woofer surrounds suprisingly look and feel fine. Boy these speakers still sound great! HJames...I think a fresh crossover and biamping would be a great idea to get the most from these. I'll do some searching for threads on crossover schematics. I will make a point of no changes that can't be put back to original. The 1957 tube amps will keep me busy for a while as one has "updated" circuits that I'm putting back to original.These should be nice sounding amplifiers.

[Thom]

I've heard 200's played on a stereo 70, and while I would put a bigger amp on them, a stereo 70 would get you kicked out of most apartments if you didn't have any sense so it would be a matter of taste. I leave it to others as to whether this information would transfer to the 300's I know what is in them but I haven't ever played a set.