845s: To biamp or not

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. :<)

I would never argue the point that they're better - but worth $700/pr? Not to me - not now anyway.

Why the hell is it that nobody in the 21st century can make a vacuum tube as good as one 50 years old? It's pretty darn ridiculous.

I was using highly modded Dared 845 amp with my 94 db efficient speakers and it wasnt enough power for me, It is an "integrated amp" so it has volume control. I found that for me the bass never sounded properly, it was too thin all around and though music was enjoyable it missed a lot of instruments altoghether. I like Class A PushPull tube amps, sound more real to me IMHO. With SET 20 watts didnt cut it and 12 watts of push pull class A bring down the house! I turned off my sub....
I had a TVC previously and sold it for the same reasons; something was missing from the music, I can just imagine the same effect adding up...·$%&?* (I like SS preamps I guess...still looking for the perfect preamp!)
IMHO SETs are for Horns in a biamped or triamped setup!!

This is what you ought to hear in your system and then you can decide if I was wrong or not!! I like your approach...

Cheers

Hi Paulfolbrecht

I bought a pair of Hyperion 938 speakers recently. I am considering 845 tube amps to drive it. Looking at several options:
- Hyperion's own HT-845
- Consonance Cyber 845
- Antique Sound Lab 1009 (dual 845)
- exploring others...

How would you describe the sound of the Consonance compared with other 845 amps?

Paul, when I blew one of my Cyber 211s with a bad NOS tube, I approached the U.S. distributor to get a schematic. He said none was available. I sent them to a close friend who modifies gear for repair. Given what you were told by them, I am glad I did not trust them to repair the amp.

I had not thought of trying the 6900 tube and will probably not try it now. I am not sure that having 6900s does not violate your concern whether NOS are worth the cost.

Ethifi, I bought the 211 version of the Consonance Cyber series largely on the strenght of the Enjoythemusic review and a pair being available on Audiogon. I had also heard very favorable things about these amps. I needed greater power than the present 8 watts that I had.

Since getting the amps, I have greatly improved them by using better tubes, carefully isolating the amps on good stands, changing the fuses to IsoCleans, and putting them on ac filtering. I doubt if brand to brand variations are as great as these changes. Also the guy who repaired my amp says he thought they sounded excellent and used very good parts.

How do the prices of the amps you are thinking about compare?