Easy to drive large speakers for Rock & Roll?

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.

Paul I don't believe I have mentioned it before but regardless I do find the speakers very impressive, I do enjoy them but maybe they are a little too forward for my tastes. Regardless, I am not sure there is a suitable replacement that will be as easy to drive & as dynamic for the same money.

You would probably love the Klipsch Epic CF-3, or any of the Epic series but they are hard to find.

These were Klipsh's attempt at attacking the high end market. Everyone loved them except the legacy Klipsch community, so they had a relatively short production run.

The CF3s are monsters, about 100db efficient and absolutely rock. However, they are the most refined and sweet speaker Klipsch ever made. In fact, rumor has it Klipsch's lead designer still uses CF3s today- yes over khorns.

If you stumble upon an Epic series speaker give it a listen.

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..

To Dr. Joe's list above, I'll add the Altec Model 14 (little brother of the superb Model 19), and the JBL model 4430 studio monitor.

Duke
dealer/manufacturer