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Easy to drive large speakers for Rock & Roll?

I am looking for a pair of easier to drive speakers for Rock music, I like to listen to my music pretty loud. I have a pair of Hyperion 938's & while I love the way these speakers can rock & go low I find them a little too bright for my tastes. I am driving them with a Rogue Atlas stereo amp using EL34's, these speakers are very easy to drive which I like. I am looking for a pair of speakers that I can drive with about 50 watts of tubes, had plenty of solid state amps & just love the magic of tubes. I like dynamic speakers with large drivers. I have had VS MK4 jr's, Vandy 2CE's, B&W's & now the Hyperions. I have heard some Klipsch speakers & don't want to really go that route either. So what are my choices in the under $2,000 range used?
fishwater

Showing 2 responses by paulfolbrecht

paulfolbrecht
603 posts
 
Fish,

I think you may have posted on this 'brightness' once before. Honestly, that's way weird to me. I also have a pair of Hyp 938s - the second pair I've owned - and they're just anything but. The are extremely smooth and the treble is NEVER harsh or forward. I have six pairs of speakers in the house now, all highly regarded, and the 938s are the 2nd-cheapest of the bunch. I won't say they're the best, or that they have no weaknesses, but they ARE the ones that NEVER sound bright!

I drive them with 16W 211 SET amps which do a superb job.
paulfolbrecht
603 posts
 
Fish,

I was just implying (and I should have stated this specifically) that the brightness is not likely "caused by" the Hyperion speakers. I'm not saying your electronics/cables are no good but it may be that they are the root cause of any brightness or forwardness.

The reason I really like the Hyperions - the reason I bought another pair after selling the first 18+ months ago - is that they're always pleasant to listen to!! Fault them if you will, but their kingly trait to me is just that they always sound - at least - good, and usually very, very good.

I'm not saying they pretty up bad material - I avoid bad material - but just that I have many recordings that do sound uncomfortably forward on other speakers, but not these.

The electronics are a Wavelength Cosecant DAC (also have other NOS/filterless DACs), a Shindo Monbrison pre, and the aforementioned 211 SET monoblocks. An ICE amp on the speakers did definitely bring out a bit more forwardness.

I also don't toe them in at all - they fire straight out - and that undoubtedly affects the tonal balance (this is how they're typically demoed...).

I think you can find plenty of speakers for less or equal money that are as easy to drive and dynamic, but all of these will not be nearly as full-range and not have the same accuracy of timbre. In my humble opinion and experience.

Good luck..
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