Any Laney Lionheart L20T Users....Please~~

[zozoe]

I need help....😏... L20T 4x10 or 1x12, both used UK Made? The 4x10 P10R's is less than 1/2 the price of the 1x12 G12H30-55, but it's more of a back-breaker, though either amp will really be going out much, if at all. Pluses, drawbacks, favourites out there? Much obliged. FWIW I've owned L5T head & combos, & a L20H head. I've always liked the punch of 4x10"s, but don't want to lose too much of that sweet low end & overall beauty that the G12H30-55 is famous for!! Truly different animals?
Thanks~

[sumgai]

zozoe,


Hi, and to The NutzHouse!


Your question boils down to one item: should you choose a set of Jensen speakers or a single Celestion? Don't ask me, I'm probably the most biased/prejudiced person Nut here. That probably stems from the fact that Celestion has yet to make a decent sounding speaker, and price it without trying to out-do Apple in terms of least bang-for-the-buck.

Regarding the weight difference between the two, another couple of questions might be - how old are you, how's your back holding out, and/or can you afford a half-rack of beer for your roadie each time out the door?  If paying a roadie is off of the table, you'll want to go with the smaller unit, and replace the Celestion with a decent speaker - almost anything not made in Britain (they all sound so mid-rangy).  If you think you're hearing some kind of "bass goodness", that's the box design, not the speaker - trust me on that one.  Replace it, and you'll thank me later.  (Not to mention, you can probably sell the Celestion on craigslist in just a few hours, and buy that replacement speaker.)

While I've not actually owned any Laney amps, I've had to "massage" a few them during my time as a bench repair tech.  Usually pretty nice sounding, but sometimes the assemblage of components makes them hard to diagnose and repair.

HTH

sumgai

[thetragichero]

my #1 speaker cabinet for awhile was a sealed laney 2x12 i ripped the celestions out of (70/80s i guess were their attempt at a tighter, more focused metal speaker like eminence makes so many of), threw an eminence black powder and legend 1218 in there, stuffed the cab with insulation, and rewired for 4 ohm (i really dislike any sort of switching/opportunity for human error when it comes to the load for a tube amp) and that thing could SMOKE most 4x12s. it was one of their cheaper made in China models too

you've got a different beast. 4x10 will certainly be louder because there's so much more speaker surface area, not to mention being in a taller enclosure so a bit closer to ear level
as mentioned, speaker diameter has little to do with low frequency content these days. that's why bass folks for years have been using multiple 10" speakers (4 or 8, although a lot are using just 2) instead of one or two 15". heck i built a simple box for under my truck's bench seat that had an 8" sub that is OOMPHY
now, if you piece a 1x12 combo on top of a chair you've now got it at ear level and it's lighter, but no fooling that it gets better bass

[reTrEaD]

Jun 10, 2019 16:45:01 GMT -5 zozoe said:

Truly different animals?

Probably. The choice of speakers definitely makes a difference in the way an amp sounds.

I haven't owned a Laney so I don't know how they're voiced. But I would expect all the amps in the L20T series will *probably* have the same tonestack. From what I've read, they use a single-ended output with 4 EL-84s in parallel. Not the kind of configuration I would choose, as I prefer the odd-order harmonics (particularly x3) from an overdriven push-pull stage, without the even order-harmonics.

The 4-10 version is no longer available from Laney. I'm guessing the weight (30.5 kg / 67lb) made it less desirable as it would make it somewhat of a chore to tote around. That might be why you found one at a lower price than a 1-12.

Simple physics: You have roughly 2-1/2 times as much effective cone area with 4 tens as you do with a single twelve. That means much less cone excursion at the same volume (and less cone breakup, all other things being equal). It also means that configuration would have inherently more bottom end, if the speakers were identical.

Difference in speakers: The Celestion G12H's used in Laney's current are plenty. Rated at 100dB for 1w/1m/1kHz. They tend to be rather flat and even in the midbass through 1kHz with a peak around 2.5kHz. But they start rolling off well above the 82.41Hz E2 open sixth string of a standard guitar.

The Jensen P10R has more of a scooped mid, with broad peak around 3kHz. The bottom end is definitely more pronounced than the Celestions in the last octave of a standard six string. And with four of them, I would expect that range so sound smooth and full.

You can download the spec sheets by clicking the documents button on theses pages, then clicking the specifications links:
www.tubeampdoctor.com/en/shop_Celestion_Classic_Series/Celestion_G12H_70th_Anniversary_12_30W_8_Ohm_T4533_375
www.tubeampdoctor.com/en/shop_Jensen_ALNICO_SERIES/Jensen_P10R_10_25W_8_Ohm_ZJ05051_989


On paper, I tend to gravitate toward the 4-10 version. But my tastes and your tastes could be very different. And I reckon the small, lighter, 1-12 version will have a better resale market.