I have Fritz speakers and they are easy to drive and sound outstanding. I also have a pair of Falcon Acoustic Q7s which are similar to the Graham LS3/5s. Neither is a very efficient speaker. I think both are rated near 83db with the Falcon at 15 ohms and the Graham at 11 ohms. My Falcons take a noticeable turn of the volume to get the same loudness as my Fritz’s. However, the Falcon is a lovely speaker although limited given its size. The Grahams are likely similar to the Falcon and don’t get very loud but they are plenty loud for my usual listening levels. My guess is that you will experience the same distortion issues with the Grahams at high volumes but that’s more likely a speaker limitation than an amp issue.
Bookshelf Speakers for Luxman 590axii?
Hi All -
I’ve been running a Luxman 590axii in my office for a couple of years with Buchardt S400 MKii speakers. While the pairing is good I think the Luxman really need an easier speaker to drive. This is a secondary system and I’ll be switching in the Luxman and new speaker every few months for variety. It’s a smallish room and there is a listening chair about 8 feet from the amp/speaker set up.
I’ve been intrigued by the Graham LS3/5 speakers…
The other components in the system:
- Gold Note DS-10 Streamer/Dac
- Lessloss speaker cables
- Cardas Clear Reflection power cable
- Revelation Labs IC
- Puritan 136 power conditioner
The Luxman 590axii is rated as 30 watts of class a, but goes into Class AB up to something like 90 watts at 8 ohms. While that may be true, I’ve personally come to the conclusion this version of the Luxman shines best with an easier speaker load so it stays in class A. The Buchardt’s start distorting pretty quickly once the volume goes up.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Showing 2 responses by jastralfu
A few things come to mind as differences: The Fritz is a fuller sound particularly given the lower end extension down to 37Hz. They are rear ported. It’s a more balanced speaker wrt its flat response curve. It does not accentuate any particular frequency. It is also a very smooth speaker that is well integrated (tweeter and mid/bass driver). It uses a series crossover which helps with both the driver integration and the flat impedance curve. They play everything well. The Falcon Q7s have a low end extension to maybe 60Hz. They are a sealed box design which makes what bass they do play a bit tighter. They are brighter and do have a bump in the midrange of the response curve. Mine have the Gold Badge crossover which smooths out the edginess in the high frequencies. They are very good for small space near field listening, particularly for vocals, jazz, etc. I have a couple of subs in my system so I don’t really notice any lack of low frequency response from either speaker. Both speakers have excellent soundstage, imaging, and transient response. If you have a broad range of musical tastes I think the Fritz would be a better fit, but I’ve played every kind of music out of the Falcons and they’ve done well with it all. The Fritz will play much louder but the Falcons aren’t really designed to be played at concert levels. That said the Falcons will happily play at 75-80 db all day which is louder than I usually listen. If you like the sound of the Grahams you will like the Q7. The Q7 is a kit, though you can have Falcon pre assemble it, which is what I did. It’s also half the price of the LS3/5a. I would get the Gold Badge crossover as well. One last thing, the Q7 is basically an LS3/5a in a slightly larger cabinet. Here is a link to a review https://www.stereonet.com/uk/reviews/falcon-acoustics-q7-loudspeaker-kit-review |