JBL L5, what are you powering them with?

[elitopus]

About a year ago I bought a pair of L5 off of FBM. I checked them out to make sure everything worked, but haven’t spent a whole lot of time with them. I just recently got them out of storage and hooked up again.
I use mostly Ashly and Hafler power amps. The L5 have been hooked up to a 150wpc channel amp. I listen to music loud at times, and the output meters get pretty close to clipping. The speakers seem to soak up the watts.
So, I have a couple 400wpc amps I could use. Been thinking about switching over to one to get some more headroom.

I know the JBL specs for the speakers are 35-350 watts. So I’m curious what other people are driving theirs with. And how much do you push them.

 

[elitopus]

Edit. The spec is 35-300 watts. Dunno why I typed 350 watts.

I guess I’m just curious if anyone is feeding them that much juice.

 

[Chris Brown]

Keep in mind that the L5 is a 6-ohm speaker. Most amps are going to put out more power into 6-ohms than they do into 8-ohms.

My L5 speakers, I end up constantly moving them back and forth between my music system and my home theater a few times every year because they do such a good job in both systems. In my home theater I power them with a Pioneer Elite VSX-74TXVi which is good for 180wpc into 6 ohms. In my music system I usually have them hooked up to my Yamaha M-2 which should be good for 300+ wpc into 6 ohms. Both are able to provide more than enough power for anything that I would want to do with the L5s. There isn't really any situation where you would need more power than that, as you would exceed the capabilities of the drivers. Bass uses the most power, but these only have an 8" woofer. They can't really put hundreds of watts to good use on the low end the same way something like an L100T can.

Edit. The spec is 35-300 watts. Dunno why I typed 350 watts.

I guess I’m just curious if anyone is feeding them that much juice.

35-350wpc, as shown in the spec sheet for the L5, refers to the Recommended Amplifier power. The benefit of more amplifier power would come more from being able to handle brief transient peaks without clipping. The L5 is not going to be able to handle that much power for any extended length of time, and there probably wouldn't be any real-world situation where that would be required anyway.

This is an older video of my L5 speakers, pushing them about as hard as I've ever pushed them. They were hooked up to my Yamaha M-2 when I made this video, which again should be pretty close to that 300-350wpc range into 6 ohms. The amp was not being pushed anywhere near it's limit however, even though the woofer was clearly near it's limits. Pretty impressive for an 8" woofer actually.

You might as well try the other amps regardless. Even if you find that don't need the extra power, you might just like them better anyway.

 

[elitopus]

The amps I use don’t list a 6 ohm rating, so I just picked a number in between the 8 and 4 ohm ratings.

I was looking at this for the specs. But I do think I saw 350 somewhere else. And that’s how it got in my head.


Basically the amps I’m using are the same brand, same series, same outputs (just more of them on the bigger one). They sound pretty much the same to me.

I guess I was just surprised that the speakers took all that the little amp could give them. And then looking up the specs I saw they had a pretty high rating, especially for a 8” woofer. So I was curious if people are actually using big amps with these, or just 100 wpc receivers.

Most of my speakers are pretty efficient, so it’s a good excuse to get out the big dog amps with these.

 

[elitopus]

I bought the L5 cheap and untested. They’re cosmetically challenged, but the drivers work perfectly. I don’t feel bad about moving them around and actually using them.

I’m doing some finishing work inside my house, and I listen to music all day. I’m 20-25’ from the speakers.

Here are a few pics after I got them. Looks like it was September of last year. I sold my house in October, so they got moved around a bit before I could set them up in the new place.

 

[elitopus]

@Chris Brown
Do you use a subwoofer with your L5’s, and if so what is it?

I have the parts to build some B460 clones. I need to get those done over the winter.

 

[Chris Brown]

@Chris Brown
Do you use a subwoofer with your L5’s, and if so what is it?

In my music system I have a pair of Dayton Ultimax 15" subwoofers in sealed cabinets, powered by a Yamaha P3500. I run the L5 speakers full range though, so they still contribute to the bass also.

When I use them in my home theater I have a meager old Cerwin-Vega LW-12 subwoofer, and I run the L5 speakers with a 45hz high-pass filter so that they can contribute some bass but not bottom-out on movies with a lot of bass.

 

[elitopus]

Nice. I’ve read good things about the ultimax drivers. I’ve considered a pair of 12” Ultimax for a more compact sub setup. I think I could run them in 2cuft cabs and they would sound pretty good

 

[Chris Brown]

I’ve considered a pair of 12” Ultimax for a more compact sub setup. I think I could run them in 2cuft cabs and they would sound pretty good

Yeah they work well, with nice tight bass. The big tradeoff with the small sealed cabinets is the low efficiency. They really suck up the power. My Yamaha P3500 is good for 500wpc into 4 ohms and the amp definitly hits it's limit before the subs do.

 

[elitopus]

I used to only use sealed cabs back in my car audio days. In many ways I think they’re better sounding than ported cabs. But yes they take some power.
I just happen to have an extra pair of 1350 watts @4 ohms bridged amps sitting in storage though.

There comes a time when you need more than just one 20 amp breaker for your system...

 

[elitopus]

Just wanted to update this thread to say I have been using the L5’s with a 400wpc amp. The speakers love it and sound great. They seem to soak up all that power with no prob.

I think for someone who likes to listen loud like myself, plenty of power is a must have for these speakers.

They sound really good with metal or progressive metal music. I think the 8” woofer is small enough to keep up with a lot of double bass drum action. Tool and Opeth sound like they should.

 

[Mr Boochie]

Just wanted to update this thread to say I have been using the L5’s with a 400wpc amp. The speakers love it and sound great. They seem to soak up all that power with no prob.

I think for someone who likes to listen loud like myself, plenty of power is a must have for these speakers.

They sound really good with metal or progressive metal music. I think the 8” woofer is small enough to keep up with a lot of double bass drum action. Tool and Opeth sound like they should.

Which amp did you choose, for the L5s?

Thanks!

 

[elitopus]

I’m running one of the Ashly FTX-2001 series 3 in the above pic. They’re my go to amps. I like Ashly and Hafler.

The system hooked up to the L5’s consists of a Denon CDP, to a slightly modded Hafler DH100 preamp, to the Ashly FTX amp.

It’s kind of my reference setup. What I’m most used to. I usually run my Urei 604’s with this same gear. Those are in storage until I get my house finished.