Lab.Gruppen

Has anyone tried Lab.Gruppen amps at home.

Their range of amps is really aimed at the prof. sound system market but they do a neat little convection cooled unit, the iP450.

http://www.labgruppen.com/iP450

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Their gear is held in high regard in the prof. market and the few technicians I have talked to say they are a work of art inside. A pair of iP450's running in bridge mode would give 300W, 8ohm/channel in a 1RU size. Only problem is they are a bit pricey, about £700 each.

 

Hi Andy, Not familiar with the smaller LG amps but they are extremely well built for sure.The bigger ones have serious low end grunt and tremendous transient delivery but not a great deal of 'air'.
Again only talking of the bigger models but Tannoy used to rebadge MC2 amps but when taken over by TC industries(who own LG )had LG amps forced on them-something Tannoy tech were less than pleased about.
S'pose it's nothing more than techs spending ages finding amps that match the sound of their speakers only to have to toe a less ideal corporate line.
I wouldn't buy without listening first-they are indeed well respected though.

Frank

 

Lab.Gruppen seem to be supplying re-badged units to all the major players...L-Acoustics, Martin Audio.

I have one iP450 already and that is a re-badged Bruel & Kjaer unit. I haven't tried it with my home system yet as it's a dedicated work unit.

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I'm getting a Martin Audio MA1400 next week which is just a re-badged Lab iP2100, that is as a "nixer" from a techie I did some work for. Fan cooled, so no good at home.

The sort of money that it would cost to get 2 x iP450's would buy you a Bryston 4B which is what I use on my main system.

 

Depends how loud the fans are I supposeMy MC2's have 'em but are hardly noticable-maybe at dead of night but otherwise ok.
I auditioned my mc1250 against the 4B and Chord 1200 eventually settling on the MC2 with my Tannoys-not much between them all really except wads of cash

 

MC1250, nice.

What are they worth if you don't mind me asking? I'm sure I saw one of those listed second hand at www.concert-systems.com last month (gone now)

http://www.mc2-audio.co.uk/mc1250/

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Hi Andy, the MC1250 goes from £600 to £800 s/h the smaller MC750 around the £500 mark I've seen 'em cheaper still but they're not that common s/h.The thing that makes me laugh about them is the power figs are genuine! huge current on tap-scarey really.
I know LMC have a few Turbosound badged ones for sale as they are moving to the lighter E series.
You sometimes see Funktion1 badged ones too.
They also do a stripped down version without the digital control section called the T series(the ones Tannoy badged)-these go cheaper but are identical soundwise.I may go for one of the MC750's to replace my T1000(they are much prettier
I personally think there are certain pro amps that p*** all over the so called high power hifi amps(i include the Brystons in with the excellent ones )and they are often much better spec'd and constructed using the best components available too-they know what they're doing these 'serious' pro guys.
Frank

 

Yes, it was a Turbosound badged one that I saw.

I agree that many of the pro amps represent good value for money.

I like my Bryston but their new prices are incredible really (and they have just increased them!). I got a good second hand deal and they're the sort of amp that you have forever (the 20-year quarrantee helps). I have compared my 4B to several other high power amps and the bottom end control they have is amazing.

 

Yer can't beat a good big'un

 

Frank- Hi.

Don't you think that your 750 watts amp may be a little unnecessarily powerful for the DMT 215s? They need a lot of current but perhaps not that much? .

I recently used a single Avondale 260z with my DMT15s- 90 watts and almost double that into 4 ohms. Seemed to have decent current for bass control despite only 90 watts.

The 'baby' 250-watt MC450, 450 into 4 ohms- surely enough for both DMTs, especially if biamping?

http://www.mc2-audio.co.uk/mc450/spec.asp

Andy, what speakers are you running out of interest? (I loved those replica 4345s!)


David.

 

Yes, the 4345's really are something to behold. You really have to stand next to a pair to get the full impact. The maker is a real wizard with wood and if I wasn't married, I'd have commissioned him to make me something similar ages ago.

I'm just running a pair of JBL 250Ti. I jumped off the modern hifi band wagon a while ago as decent bottom end seems to have evaporated with reasonably priced gear IMO (my pair of smaller 120Ti's also have great bass).



Totally different presentation to the 43xx series. I think there should be room in anyones life for both!!

 

Andy- well I doubt the 4345s are any bigger than Frank's Tannoys- so all you need to do to keep the missus happy is stick some plants on them!

The 250Ti are lovely-looking speakers. Four ways so, yes, will need some driving.

 

p.s. the 4345's David's referring to can be seen here:

http://www.zerogain.com/forum/showpost.php?p=210841&postcount=141

 

oooh lovely drivers (dribble). I used to own the 4312 with the 12" 2213H woofer. Wish I'd kept them.

Frank, I suppose (ultimately) the DMTs would benefit from active XOs- that's the way they are used in studios.

 

Active,mmmmm been there tried that
Got good results with a BSS FDS360 xing over at 1.5k 2 way but could have done with 1.2k really so it's sitting on my rack and I've gone back to passive biamping-a bit more friendly/less analytical but when I get round to changing components on or new cards may switch back-the slopes are 24dB LR so you have to get it spot on given how Tannoy use natural driver roll offs and gentler slopes when passive if you're not to lose the perfect dispersion overlaps @xover.
Frank

 

If you ever go back to using the BSS, I'd be interested to hear how it goes. Am interested myself in trying out an active xo oneday.

Andy, back on topic...

 

Not much else to say re. the Lab.Gruppens.

I'm interested in general at what prof. amps people have tried at home. It seems to me the prof. amp market has really improved over the last decade. Also, with the highly competitve pricing in the prof. market, any manufacturer trying to charge too much for their gear gets quickly pulled into line.

 

Andy, This could be your lucky day
All driving Tannoys;
BGW 750B a monster with a hard upper mid/top that ruined a phenomenal bass performance.
Amcron 300A same as above.
H+H S500D actually not bad rather veiled by todays standard but you could live with its top end.
H+H V800 soggy bass sluggish overall.
Crest 4801 this was a 'hifi' amp with plenty of welly-the whole Crest range are prety highly regarded fidelity wise.
Musical Fidelity F18 great power amp big spatious effortless sound-ridiculous size tho'.
Crown K1 powerful, good bass but a tad agressive presentation.
Chord 1200B powerful clean'n lean but ultimately to me-a bit sterile(did I just say that?)
Bryston 4B excellent amp great control and power-does what it says on the box-amplifies.
MC2...as above,stunning bass performance , airy with well balanced clean treble.
As they say, the rest is history
I know I 've tried more over the years but that's all I can remember for now.
Frank

 

Have a go at these then (for a change).

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BB5A-PMC-Stud...5328585QQihZ019QQcategoryZ23786QQcmdZViewItem

 

Actually, forget about the PMC's, this couch from the same studio has been sat on by Helena Bonham-Carter (Grrrrr!!)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-Seater-Blac...6348061QQihZ019QQcategoryZ93676QQcmdZViewItem