10 watts for special occasions? When we don't own unusual speakers of 100dB sensitivity, we can still convert normal speakers for purpose by remembering how each halving of frequency demands four times more excursion. If we reroute music's bottom two octaves to a subwoofer to eliminate them from our mains via active high-pass filter, we seriously ease their stroke and associated power needs. As long as a low-power amp's voltage gain goes loud enough, we can be in serious business. It'll only trigger 'impossible' reactions in those who've never done it; or who worship at the ear-killing altar of THX levels. I use line-level active analog precision crossovers from Manchester's Lifesaver Audio called Gradient Box II. They insert between volume-controlled sources of Sonnet Pasithea upstairs and Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe downstairs; and the speaker amplifier/s. Upstairs the low pass sees an active Dynaudio dual 9½" force-cancelling sealed subwoofer, the mirror-imaged high pass the below Kinki stereo amp. Downstairs the high pass sees 250w Kinki monos, the low pass a pair of Gold Note PA-10SE monos each of which drives one woofer of the 2×15" sound|kaos Ripole sub. Either way no low-frequency data ever presents at the voice coils of the main speakers. They don't heat up from extended exposure to bass to cause dynamic compression and stroke-related distortion. They play cleaner and easier. Bass duties go to dedicated LF weaponry with its own high-power high-current amplification. These are ideal scenarios to drop a low-power amp into. It's not asked to do anything difficult. It only does bandwidth that's already down 6dB at 100Hz.
In the shown context, my Dutch DAC's 2V RCA set by remote-controlled variable reference voltage on its R2R ladders hovered at their usual ~30dB down. Hyperion's own attenuator was wide open. Its voltage gain switched to 'high' wasn't to be denied so nothing of any real import changed versus my usual sound. Considering that my Kinki EX-M7 amp retails for $2'798 and does a solid 250wpc, all my love of non-conformist esoteric kit won't outshine the fact that using far costlier Hyperion instead made no real sense other than to confirm that with my 2.1 setup, you could without sonic penalties whilst double-bagging superlative headphone drive. Jan Garbarek's tribal soprano sax on one of my favourite albums by him, In Praise of Dreams, had all the jubilant upper-octave brilliance and occasionally raunchy lower registers which these isobaric Mark Fenlon widebanders without energy-robbing spiders delight in with great immediacy. Tiny aluminium-cab monitors set up free staged their normal unbounded selves whilst the sealed Danish sub provided the familiar foundation without any change whatsoever. Dragan's tuning was very similar to Mr. Liu's at Kinki so about nearfield directness and the livelier bite, brilliance and percussive pepper that come from it yet never grate. It's how to enjoy spicier food without inflaming your stomach lining.
For gain and tonality but not bass control, my downstairs alternative of 9½" 3-way Qualio IQ at 89dB followed suit. I simply won't show a photo of it to avoid the visual stimulus that can broadly promote things despite any accompanying text being very conditional. At $3'698/pr, Kinki's 250W EX-B7 monos still come in well below Hyperion. They make for a far saner far more realistic come-what-may recommendation without relying on active 2.1 division of hi/lo-frequency labour. What Hyperion Ge really wants for an ideal speaker mate are spherical horns of extreme sensitivity with active bass systems like Avantgarde; or Voxativ-type ~100dB widebanders. Dragan's earlier photo of the costly Cypriot hornspeaker is another such example. Now low purist power is a non-negotiable prerequisite not a peculiarity we must cater to. As a primary speaker amp, Hyperion is for people of the 300B SET persuasion. They have the proper mind set and transducers to recognize and appreciate its status at the fringes of transistorized respectability when kilowatt amplifiers are commonplace, 200wpc pulse-density switching amps cheap and plentiful. I appreciate Dragan's pride in the sonic prowess of his little black beastie; and just what a hard sell it is for speakers. It's the Bakoon/Enleum curse of low power from very costly transistors triggering widespread yawns. Meanwhile €20K exotic triode amps of 10 watts trigger excitement. Who said life was fair? Of course the AMP-23R managed to build a serious following. In original Bakoon AMP-11R form, I probably was its first Western review follower.
FiiO R7 w. 1TB SD card ⇒ USB ⇒ Soundaware D300Ref ⇒ S/PDIF ⇒ COS D1 ⇒ XLR ⇒ Cen.Grand Silver Fox or Hyperion Ge ⇒ HifiMan Susvara
Perhaps Hyperion Ge can hitch a ride on its momentum? Sonics argue that it can. At 10wpc, most shall still view it as a headphone amp. And in 99/100 circumstances, that's absolutely the correct view. The obvious exception is the desktop. Now even an 84dB speaker remains well within Hyperion's power remit. After all, just how loud can you stand to listen from one meter? For such scenarios Hyperion has my unconditional endorsement as a primary speaker amp. Few of course refer to a desktop system as primary. When the desktop is simply a secondary listening station whilst working in an office or browsing the web, Hyperion becomes what most people called it all along: a secondary speaker amp. For headphone use, it'll always be primary; a final proposition; something which ends all hardware-matching concerns other than über-emo loads which could get too loud too quickly even in low gain. That's where Cen.Grand's much finer-grained Muses ladder-on-a-chip volume holds the advantage on their flagship amp. Sonically the SAEQ is on the same plateau but again distinctive in its fresher more lively tuning. It's also more powerful and the only amp I had that can easily drive two headphones simultaneously if not more.
