845s: To biamp or not

Thanks for the replies so far! One of my Cybers blew a cap last night due to using high-voltage tubes (I didn't know!) and so I switched to an 8W Dared 2A3 amp.... I found even THIS little thing could play quite loudly and cleanly and with tight bass through the Hyperions.

Adding the Gallo bass amp to that setup did definitely improve bass dynamics, though.

Bartokfan - I listen to very little orchestral music. I've only had the new gear a week and the first 30 hours or so was all Jazz.. I do listen to some classical and had planned on going through that next. I'll have to wait a bit to get the amp fixed now.

Tbg, the Hyperions are 90dB/W, but are a very easy load (see above). The enjoythemusic review of the Cyber 211s that was so glowing used these speakers.

-Paul

Paulfolbrecht, I suspect that only you can say what you like.

I had forgotten that the Enjoythemusic review used the Hyperions. If 20 watts with the 211s works with them, your 30 watts should be just fine.

What do you mean that you blew a cap with "high voltage tubes?" I think the driver tubes are the same Phillips 6922 and 5687s I got plus the Chinese 845s. If my experience is any indication, replacing the 845 with a NOS American 845 would do wonders.

They are hard to find and I actually blew an amp with a bad RCA 211; one of three I won on Ebay.

Tbg,

I want to have people tell me what I ought to like and then I'll decide if they were right or not. ;-}

I was using Full Music 845s which apparantly pull too much current. That blew the cap.

I have no plans to venture into NOS 845 territory - too little return for the $. The new Shuguang 845B are supposed to be quite nice for $100/pr.

Paul

P.S. Trivial difference but Consonance seems to rate the Cyber 211 at 16W.

Another idea is to stick with one pair of amp(s) for the (main) speakers but make more extended use of the sub I'm already using. Its crossover is now set to 40 which is where the Hyperions are just starting to roll off. I could use a pair of inline 50 or 70Hz highpass filters going into the Cyber 845s and turn up the sub's xover to fill in the gap.

Possible issues:

1) Since my linestage is passive (TVC), my source is then driving these little (FMod) inline xovers, and I don't know what that means to it.

2) The last time I tried this, with a 16W SET amp on Gallo Ref 3s, it just didn't seem to help the amp much... it wasn't able to play much louder (if any) without sounding strained.

Actually I probably just think too much.

Paulfolbrecht, yes Cyber rates them at 16 watts, but mine put out 20, and yes, you are right that this is trivial.

All I can say is that as Enjoythemusic was right when they said the NOS tubes made a great difference, but wrong when they said the GEs were best. The RCAs are far superior.

I am telling you that NOS is superior, now given what you said you must evaluate it for yourself. :<)