Ray Lumley M100 tube amps


Anybody knows anything about these old amps?
I understood that they weren't bad and would drive low z
ineficient speakers with ease. Also, now would be really
low priced. Haven't seen too many arround thou...Thanks!
jstones

Showing 5 responses by ecclectique

Hello Jstones. Yes, I still own a pair of M-100's. They are still in active duty in my brother inlaws rig driving Meadowlarks. These are the later itterations of the earlier industrial versions[ the Grant -Lumley's looked like large dyna mk3's]which I used as well. I purchased them from a dealer here in Canada to drive a pair of acoustat 2+2's way back in the early 80's. They are geniune workhorses,beautiful sounding amplifiers with great trannies that are capable of driving low impedance loads. They have been super reliable as well.Other than retubing and changing out the coupling caps,mine are a completely stock circuit. Originally imported with Genelex kt-88, retubed with 6550c's about 4 years ago. They are very lush or tubey sounding in comparison to the ARC stuff from the same era, however they do create a deap and expansive stage. The larger M-150's and m-200's were not even in the same league sonically! If they are fully stock,reasonably priced and without any issues....buy em,its a no brainer as it would cost you dearly to buy that quality in today's current offerings.
Hi Raul. Hey, good score and best of luck on your search for another. One of the finest 100 watt tube amplifiers ever made,particularly when driving speakers with a difficult impedance load. I may still have my manual for the amplifier & will take a look for it this weekend. What speakers will you be driving with them? cheers...david
Hi Raul. Yes.... I have found the manual. I do not have a scanner,however I can photo copy it. Email me with your address and I will mail it to you.
Although I have never heard them with magnepans I am certain they would be a very good match.
Back in the late eighties, I was using a pair dayton wright XG10 electrostatics [an extremely difficult load] as well as a pair of acoustat 2+2's in a very large room. The M-100's were auditioned head to head with the Lumley M-150's, the big ARC 250, the MFA 200 monos,a pair of VTL 220 mono's as well as a few heavywight solid state amplifiers. All of the other amps had more power reserves than the m-100's, some more than twice the power.
Amazing though, the M-100 proved to be winner in the shoot out. Handily besting the other more powerful amps, paricularly in bass drive and dynamic range dep't. They do possess a certain vibe the others just couldn't match! That session was an enlightening experience for me, still not sure why but it's probably due to the massive hand wound output transformers employed in the M-100's.
I still remember the look on the face's of everyone in the room, staring at each other and giggling like school kids at a magic show. Great stuff! Cheers....david

Hi Raul. Mailed out a copy of the manual, a schematic & some company literature. Best of luck on your search for another. Cheers....david