Will a pair of Manley tube amps be a good match for Martin Logan ESL 11A's?


I have been looking into the Manley power amps to drive a pair of Martin Logan ESL 11 A's. From Manleys specs they report a speaker load of 5 ohms is recommended. The Logans are rated at 4 ohms.
pvmike

Showing 3 responses by mijostyn

bdp24 and georgehifi are absolutely correct. You may want to read Roger Sanders white papers to get a contrasting view. I personally am not a big fan of using tube amps on ESLs which like jafox I have been running for decades. One transformer is bad enough. Two transformers is really uncomfortable for my brain. Now OTLs get rid of the second transformer and Atma-Sphere amps have a storied history with SoundLabs but I have not heard this combo yet so I can not speak from personal experience. But I have had numerous amps in my system and as a rule Class A SS amps fair the best the two outliers being The JC-1 and strapped AHB2s. I also cross to subwoofers at 125 Hz so the ultimate low bass performance is not an issue for me. You also cross to woofers I think it is somewhere around 250 Hz but don't quote me on that. Biamping would be a consideration but that still does not negate the issue with low impedance at high frequencies. Trick: put a 1 ohm 200 watt resister in series on the + side of the speaker. This will not decrease the efficiency of the speaker all that much and frequently makes the amp more comfortable with the high end. Digikey has them. These are not little devices. They are mounted in 3 inch X 2 inch heat sinks. I always do this if I have trouble with amps overheating and it solves the problem 100% of the time.
jafox, I have listened to JC-1 extensively. You can not find one even a little iffy review. They are all dramatically positive. My review is exactly the same. The only amp I have heard on ESLs sound better is the Pass XA 200.8 and I suspect the Atma-Sphere MA-2 is up there also. My assessment is that your review samples were hooked up incorrectly. It would be the only way you would hear something as bad as you relate.
I also understand that SoundLabs was using JC-1s in it's sound room. Transformers have all kinds of problems associated with their use. I am not educated enough to fully understand the issues but you can google this and like me you will probably be dizzy after the first page. The one I understand for sure is saturation. When the transformer saturates you hit a brick wall. It is pretty much like an amplifier clipping. But in the end it is the sound you like that matters. In my system tube amps can sound lovely but they have all lacked the dynamic punch necessary to recreate some music. This is only on ESLs mind.  
bdp24, you know darn well that Jim Strickland was the first designer to put that stunt. I happen to know somebody who uses Jim's high voltage amps on his own ESLs:) I would love to see how Roger tackles this design. 
The Acoustat Model X was released with the direct drive amp in 1976. He came out with the Transformers somewhere around 1979 because the dealers were telling him that people wanted to use their own amps plus without subwoofers the direct drive amp would at best push things to 85 dB on Monitor 4s. I though the amps sounded beautiful but also wanted more dB which is why I jumped into subs way back then. The RH Labs sub was perfect for the Monitor Fours. You just took them off those silly plastic stands and plopped them right down on top of the woofers. Perfect fit. A set of Kenwood LO7-M mono amps and 95 dB was your playground. I never had any trouble with the direct drive amps. They were discontinued because nobody wanted them. I sold my system when I moved from Florida to Ohio. Jim Strickland had already set me up with a dealer in Akron who would deliver my first set of 2+2s at dealer cost + 5%. John Ashe of Golden Gramophone and I would become good friends. I got my Krell KMA 100s at the same time. Now 30-40 years later I am sure whatever direct drive amps remain are in need of help. Those oil filled Caps are probably leaking all over the place. 
Roger is an interesting character. One thing I can say for sure is he knows how to find quiet 6922s. Last? Who said anything about Last?