Lexicon LX-7 Reliability questions


I'm looking at upgrading 6 separate amps in a pair of under-amped, tri-amped powered monitors with multiple 8 ohm drivers. The amp load is 2.7 ohms per channel X 6. Each tri-amped cabinet has one sealed 15 bass driver, and three 8" mids and six soft dome tweeters sealed together. Now, the bass is a bit heavy, highs a bit weak, and mids sound under-powered or the passive crossovers are doing something funny. I'm adding the Rane DEQ60 first to see if I can set-up a linear, precision balance with a Proceed Pro. If not, it's on to matching Rane AC23S active crossovers and bigger low ohm rated amps. To limit what the amps see using a Rane AC23S, I'll assign one new amp for the 15, one for the three 8" mids, and one for the 6 soft dome tweets per cabinet.

I called Lexicon and they still support the LX-7 although they disclosed that parts are becoming limited. I read that the LX-7 supports 2 ohm loads and it's less costly (good at this time) than two Proceed HPA3's or three Coda's. I read a couple member's notes on LX-7 fan noise and one note recommending soft dome tweeters for the LX-7. Any experiences with long term reliability or other good service center recommendations beyond Lexicon as a precaution before buying?

The speaker cabinets are front main's for a Proceed AVP2+6 processor and will likely include the Rane DEQ60 equalizer to balanced bass, mids and tweeter responses using Alan Parson's Sound Check CD and analog sound level meter. Old school, yes. Both the Proceed and Rane have "truly balanced inputs and outputs" to match the Lexicon LX-7. The Sound Check CD perfectly matches the Ranes ISO DEQ60 frequencies. That's likely more than enough project info and to the Q's:

Any comments on the LX-7 reliability/service life, other optional low ohm multi-channel amps or other thoughts is sincerely appreciated. Thank you.



soundsbeyondspecs
Hi Scvan, That' was a very helpful personal input. I see the Studios are reviewed by Stereophile at 6 nominal, 3 ohms minimum, and the Genesis 300's (very interesting design) at 4 ohms from their homepage. The LX-7 may be a perfect fit to drive two 3-channel powered monitors reaching 2.7 ohm loads. It appears to be very reliable. The balanced LX-7 would more than double the output support of the unbalanced factory amps. It would be located on a corner rack behind a large screen TV, so, the fans are not a significant issue.

There are two different types of factory amps in each cabinet. The larger amp powers the front 15, an 8, and 2 tweeters. Two matching smaller amps each powers one 8" midrange and two tweeters. The Alan Parson's Sound Check CD arrived yesterday (found it pre-owned last week on Amazon) and I ran a set of test tones. The in-room test of my system demonstrated several minor areas of the playback variability - yet, not as much as I suspected.

After running the Sound Check test sequence, I re-set the processor's volume and distance levels for all speakers. Something may have happened to the processor's previous set-up balance during a power surge or something. Now and several CD's later, a proprietary Proceed L/R surround mode with all speakers set to full-range sounds better than ever - a near MoJo perfection. In 2-channel, I could improve the main cabinets a bit, especially the midrange's under-amped sound at higher room volumes (85 or so C-weighted dB's). My only concern is using the Rane DEQ60 24-bit DAC's for the front main's, while the surrounds use the Proceed DAC's. The LX-7 is a very worthy candidate. Thank you for sharing your personal experiences of operating the LX-7 with your specific speakers and the very favorable results. That's just what I was hoping to hear.

Hi,

I've owned the LX-7 since it first came out and have not had any problems at all with it. I've driven my revel studios and now some genesis 300's with the amp and never had a problem at any volume level.

My only issue with the amp is that the cooling fan is a bit noisy and can be distracting during quiet scenes or music passages.