[PaulFolbrecht]

After a long search for a suitable SET for my Gallo ref 3s, I am considering switching over to the 938s which I heard once a year or so ago and loved.  Their substantially easier load opens up many SET possibilities which are not realistic with the Gallos in a big room (and allows lower-power chip amps like the Sig 30 to work better as well).

I have one question for owners: is anyone here bi-amping, meaning using a separate amp on the bass modules?  I am aware of the traditional potential problems with bi-amping with dissimilar amps but, I was thinking that it might be an ideal soln with these speakers even though I know they can be driven VERY well full-range with lower-power tube amps. 

Just thought I'd ask.  TIA.

[Dracule1]

Hi Paul,

I don't know of anyone who is biamping their 938s.  I haven't even seen Hyperion do this.  As you have stated, using two different types of amps for biamping is inviting a lot of headaches with level matching, incoherent sound, etc.I thought about this but in the end it was too much of a hassel.  I would personally go with two of the same amps (chip amps sound good here).  SET tube amps may not be the best choice for the woofer section because of the relatively loose base.  If you are going with 938s, why not try using just one amp first and see how you like it?  All of us are pretty satisfied with this approach.  You may end of saving enough to get the new 968s. 

[Aragorn]

Paul

I recently bought some 938s, and while they are still burning-in, they are clearly fantastic speakers for the money. I am planning to put a review here and AAsylum soon...
I biamp with a pair of Goldmund SRAs and the sound is magic- I have never heard midrange transparency like this. I know this doesn't really answer your question, but note that SRAs are rated at 50 watts per channel  and these speakers play really really loud if you dial it up. And no distortion at high levels.
Anyhow, good luck with your search!
Kind regards
Aragorn

[PaulFolbrecht]

Another idea is to use a sub with high-level inputs with a high-pass xover, at, say, 80Hz.  This keeps the vast majority of the bass energy off the single-ended triode amp I would definitely have on top and keeps the low bass where it's best-handled anyway.

As for keeping SET off the bass: yes, that's the reason for the post. :-}  Not their strongest point - but you might be VERY surprised at what a good 845 can do.  Anyway, if you like SET sound, these speakers were literally designed for it.  I have heard that with Hyperion's own single-ended (pentode) amps they are truly glorious.

I think that with SE tube amps, the above-mentioned sub with high-pass might yield the best (and stellar) results.

[PaulFolbrecht]

Well, as an update, it seems I was unclear on how the high-pass filter on a Velodyne sub works: it's not speaker-level, but line-level, meaning it'd be between the pre and the power amp and filter the *entire* signal.  Not acceptable, as that is certain to do some damage!!!

So, what I'll do is just run the sub via high-level inputs and set it's xover around 40hz (or whatever works well) to fill in the low bass.  As to the topic of this thread, I seriously doubt any type of biamping would be necessary with either a 28W 845 SET or the 30W Red Wine Sig 30.

Oh yeah, I bought the speakers.

[PaulFolbrecht]

As a follow-up, I am extremely impressed with the speakers thus far.  20 hours so far (demos so they are broken in).  Integrates beautifully with the Velodyne sub, too, which is just filling in that bottom octave under 40Hz.

Will post detailed thoughts after 100+ hours of listening.

[Dracule1]

Hi Paul,

Glad you like the sound of the 938s.  I had my doubts about the sound of the 938s.   Keep us posted.  BTW, where are you located?  I kinda like to know where 938 owners are, just to see how wide spread we are.

[H_S_D]

Dear 938 Owners,

Bi-amping is definitely the way to go!  My own setting is using HT-845 bi-amping which made my HPS-968 sound much powerful in the bass reproduction, not much different on the midrange and the tweeter though.  If you like, I would suggest that you do the bi-amping with tube amp, not SS amp.  They will show you the real capacity of your speakers.

The reason why we did not use bi-amping at shows is because bi-amping is not popular because of the cost.  Likewise, we don’t do tri-wire either.  Bi-wire is already hard enough.

Furthermore, if you use silver cable is much better than copper cable.  These are what I have in my system,

CD play, SONY SCD-1
Hyperion RCA Silver Interconnect
Pre-amp, BEC-P25T
Hyperion RCA Silver Interconnect
Bi-amping, HT-845
Hyperion Silver Speaker Cable
Speakers, HPS-968

As always, enjoy your music.

H_S_D

[PaulFolbrecht]

You saying you use TWO pairs of your 845s to biamp?  While I'm sure that sounds nice, in the bass region, it's most certainly at least debatable whether you want to go SET!

I tried bi-amping using my Gallo bass amp on the woofers and I liked it a bit better with my 845s running full-range, but maybe I didn't play with it enough.  Since your bass modules go all the way up to 230hz, perfect level-matching becomes pretty critical.

As for biamping cost - with a cheap SS amp - which is really all you need for bass - it really doesn't add all that much.  As for scaring people away at shows, be sure to tell them to stay out of the $250K rooms! ;-}