Hyperion HPS 968 or Coincident Total Victory IV

My friend, Paul Folbrecht has used the Cyber 211 with Hyperions, and was most pleased with the match. And, Paul is definitely one of the more discerning audiophiles I know.

However, as the former importer of Consonance products in North America, I obviously have a lot of experience with the Cyber 211 monoblocks. I also own a pair of Coincidents, and have mated the two together at various times.

Personally, I believe the Cyber 211 do best with back loaded horns - from the likes of CarderSound, Horning, Lamhorn, Beauhorn, etc.

In contast, I feel the Cyber 211 do not compliment most dynamic loudspeakers so well. By that, I mean, the amps are fairly bass shy and on the engaging/forward side in the midrange (the opposite of their sibling, the Cyber 845), which seems to wind up producing sound with not much in the way of foundation and being a bit too forward and lean overall. The richness and resonance of the mid/upper bass of backloaded horn can be most satisfying with these amplifiers.

And, for what it's worth, I think the Silverlines would be the poorest match of what has thus far been suggested. Though they've been touted as a good speaker for lower power tubes, my personal experience is that Dynaudio drivers, including the Silverlines, just do not come alive with low - moderately powered tube amplification. In fact, I think the speakers are best served by solid state.

Again, Paul definitely knows what he's talking about here. In fact, I think in the myriad iterations of his system, he actually ended up with this permutation (though with the Cyber 845 the first go 'round) twice! And, I hold the opinion of my late dear friend, John Potis, in the highest regard, as we were more often than not on the same page when it comes to tastes and likes/dislikes.

As for me, I believe Coincidents, and most dynamic (please allow me clarify: of the non-single driver type) loudspeakers, sound best with moderately powered transformer coupled, push-pull tube amplification such as my Jadis DA30 and DA60, and the Consonance Cyber 800 6CA7, 15th Anniversary Cyber 100 Signature KT88, and Cyber 100 Signature EL34 models.

My rationale behind this is that a bit of power is needed to get a larger driver going, control it, and have it able to produce the amount of "pop" I consider necessary to do justice to the music. And, I believe a transformer lends a certain "beauty" to the sound that keeps the average dynamic speaker from becoming too forward or lightweight that not having one might.

I've also used the Consonance Cyber 10 Multifunction KT88, Cyber 10 Signature 2A3, Cyber 100 Signature 6550, Cyber 100S Signature 300B, Cyber 300B PSE, and Cyber 845 with the speakers, though I'm less sanguine about those combinations.

My loudspeakers are heavily modified Digital Master/Troubass subwoofers. I would say that in regards to your concern about low level detail, which I believe is a reflection not on the Coincidents per se, as they use drivers produced by the more well established companies out there, but dynamic loudspeakers in general, my way of addressing it was to have my friend Bill Legall of Millersound completely rebuild the cone drivers, making them much faster, much punchier, more detailed, and more efficient (I should capitalize the M in much/more because it was that noticeable). Or, I should say, that he came up with the solution after listening to them, as all of the credit should go to him as the man truly has magic flowing through him.

Regarding your own desires, Abill, I believe you've laid them out very well. Again, in my opinion, it's a very rare dynamic speaker that can match the speed and clarity of the Lowther/Fostex/etc. type of driver used in designs like the Cain and Cain. And, in fact, it may be unobtainable. At least, if I had to put my money on it, I would say it was.

That being the case, from where I'm sitting, knowing you are swinging for the fences, I'd investigate the Hornings which marry the Lowther driver to multiple woofers or look into the companies that offer single driver and subwoofer products designed to go together like CarderSound, Cain & Cain, etc. when it comes to loudspeakers that can satisfy you. I will say the CarderSound Madisons with their larger drivers can certainly produce more than surprising low end, though at the expense of the imaging and detail the smaller driver models excel at.

DISCLAIMER: Jeff Carder of CarderSound and Jeff Catalano of Highwater Sound (Horning importer) I are close personal friends.

As usual, I like what Paul has to say.

Along those lines, I'd like to offer some agreement to one particular point he makes, even if the way I will state it will come off as either unorthodox or just plain flaky...

One thing that we noticed in playing around with various combinations of amplifiers and loudspeakers is that while numbers surely can point towards some conclusion, you can sometimes get trapped into a certain line of thinking that does not mesh with the way things actually turn out.

To elaborate, we used to have sessions with the Lamhorns where we listened with three pairs of monoblock amplifiers - the 15 wpc Cyber 300B PSE (parallel single-ended), the 16 wpc Cyber 211 (SET), and the 78 wpc Cyber 800 6CA7 (push-pull), all amplifiers operate in pure Class A and were built by the same company (so a certain amount of family flavor is going to make it into the designs, even if it seems not to be the case in this instance - but, I think we'll allow that if one of the amps were made by Cary or Quicksilver, there would be some flow of their own designer's thinking into them and enhance the differences beyond the obvious differences in topology). Turning our expectations kind of on their ear, the most powerful amplifier simply was unable to form a synergistic match with the backloaded horn, and just seemed not to be able to put the same kind of power that the Cyber 211 could. Yes, in certain aspects, the push-pull amp could certainly play louder, but the overall power curve seemed to be strongly in the 211's favor. And, for what it's worth, the seat of the pants differences between the 300B PSE and 211 were significant, regardless of just one watt per channel separating them on paper. Still, the 300B PSE also easily bested the EL34 amp in being able to align its output with the backloaded horn design.

Of course, with the typical sealed or ported dynamic loudspeaker, the results were the opposite, and the push-pull amp would walk away from its two lower wattage siblings, which suits the conventional wisdom.

My overall point here is there are many things left to be learned, and no amount of is going to undo what we witnessed that day. In the end, I think the point Paul makes in comparing the Hyperions and Lamhorns is echoed by me. And, I circle back to my initial post that were I deciding on what speaker to pair with a pair of Cyber 211, it would be a backloaded horn. The question is, do their inherent flaws, which ALL loudspeakers possess, mesh with you well enough for you to be able to live with them?