Avguide Review Consonance Linear Preamplifier Cyber 211 Mono Power Amps

ROBERT H. LEVI'S Arrangement

LOUDSPEAKERS
Avalon Eidolon and REL Stadium Iii subwoofer.

ELECTRONICS
Eastward.A.R. 324 phono preamplifier, Due east.A.R. 890 amplifiers (ran as monos), NuForce Reference 9 SE V2 amplifiers, Eastward.A.R. 912 preamplifier, and an E.A.R. 834L Tube Line Stage.

SOURCES
VPI Spotter/JMW 9 tonearm, VPI SDS Controller, ZYX R-1000 Airy 3-XSB phono cartridge, Eastward.A.R. Acute CD role player, ModWright Sony 9100 Histrion with tube ability supply, ModWright Sony 9100ES with Signature Truth Modifications, Mod/Bybee Filters and Revelation Cryo Argent Umbilical. Alesis Masterlink 24/96 Recorder/Playback Deck, and the Criterion DAC 1 revised. Grado Statement Phono Cartridge. Pioneer DVL 919 LD/DVD Player, and a Marantz DV8400 DVD/SACD/CD actor. Magnum Dynalab Physician-108 Reference Tuner, Marantz 10B FM Tuner, Mean solar day Sequerra Reference FM1 Tuner, and Scott 350B FM Stereo Tuner, AQ 7500 FM Antenna, Stax 7t Electrostatic headphones, Grado Reference 1 headphones, and a Grado headphone amplifier.

CABLES
Kubala-Sosna Emotion, Harmonic Technology CyberLight, Harmonic Engineering science Magic 2, Dual-Connect interconnects, Dynamic Design THB Nebula, Soundstring, Kimber Select balanced, Kimber TAK phono AG, Kimber Hero counterbalanced and single ended interconnects, and Audio-visual Zen Silverish Reference 2 balanced interconnects. Kimber D-60 Digital Interconnects. Kimber Select 3038 Silverish, Kubala-Sosna Emotion, and Harmonic Technology Magic Reference Silvery speaker cables. Kimber Palladian, Tara RSC and Decade, Tice, Soundstring, and Kubala-Sosna Emotion Ac power cords.

ACCESSORIES
Monster Reference 350 Mark Ii v2 Ability Conditioner, World Power Ability Wing, Tice Clock, and Audio Prism Quiet Line IIs. Cable Cooker 2.v, Winds Stylus Pressure Gage, Bedini Ultra Clarifier, VPI Tape Cleaning Motorcar 16.5. Audio Magic's Quantum Physics Dissonance Disrupters.

What a delightful all vacuum tube amplifier and what a super bargain we accept here. Monoblocks for $4000 the pair �this is sound heaven for the not so deep pocketed audiophile enthusiast. They'll drive speakers as inefficient equally 87dB to enormous levels and sound sweet and winning. Exercise some tube rolling, experiment with interconnects, and you lot'll go mighty close to sound sky. The Opera'due south sing and look corking with excellent industrial design. This is the kind of fun production that volition bring real joy for the holidays to your eyes and ears!

The Opera's are well made and look solid. They are filled with premium parts, many hand soldered, and exclusive caps. Very good Electro Harmonix tubes are included and the circuit has lots of headroom. EH 6CA7s audio quite warm and delicious and you lot won't be disappointed for a infinitesimal. No biasing seems to be needed as long as the output tubes are similar. I love the on/off switch on meridian of the unit for easy attain. 4/8 ohm flexibility plus solid connectors makes these useful over the long haul. Comes with single-ended inputs. I put them on my Zoethicus stands and used all the same cables as my amp references except subbing Harmonic Technology'south new and fast sounding ProSilway iii+ between the preamp and amps. Other than the Opera amps, no other changes to the system were made.

This is a bang-up cable/amp match. Talk about high value and solid neutrality, the Operas were excellent here. Deejay after disk yielded agile, warm, and musical sound. They were tighter than I expected from EH 6CA7s and were certainly sophisticated for their pocket-sized $4000 cost. The Harmonic Tech cables are sonic over-achievers and the delicious sounding Operas are a perfect compliment. You'd expect this kind of ability and drive from 150-watters not just 75-watters! This is a certain fire recommendation.

I could have lived forever and a twenty-four hours with this combo, but I wanted even more than definition!

I then pulled the high value HT cables at $475 per meter and subbed the state of the art Kubala-Sosna Emotion Interconnects at $2700 per meter.

This is where it gets really interesting. On offset listen and totally stock, the Operas were certainly more elegant and rich with the Kubala-Sosna. I just prefer less loftier caloric sound with my tubes. I wanted a faster, tighter sound with more speed and snap, tighter bass and enhanced sparkle on height. As delivered and with the Kubala-Sosnas, the Opera's are B+ for audio and A for build. I tweaked them to A- for sound with a few cheap changes. This makes the Opera'southward perform in the $6000-7000 range with a $4000 price. Very nice!

Pull the EH 6922s and replace them with Tungstram PCC88s at about $45 each and supervene upon the Phillips 5687 with a Tung-sol 5687 at about $twoscore. Just three footling tubes per unit of measurement to live the dream! They are available at Upscale Audio and VTV. No other changes needed. By the way, turn the amps off for this tube change! The EH 6CA7s are quite good and most as musical equally electric current production allows.

With these changes, holy cow the Opera's are wonderful! Gone is the vast bulk of slowness and any vintage tube sound. I won't estimate how close they come to my reference amps at $13,600 the pair, but you won't be lamentable you bought the Operas. They have tons of texture and loads of snap and power. Difficult to believe what a few small signal tubes can accomplish, only the pattern of this class AB amp is on target and should perform very well.

From the Consonance website:

Theory of Operation

The amplifier is a push button-pull Class AB mono power amplifier with ii pairs shunt-wounded EL34 output power tubes per aqueduct. It uses piffling global feedback. Bespeak goes get-go to the 6922 dual triode acted as input phase, then to the 6922 dual triodes acted as double drive phase. The 5687 drive the EL34 output tubes which are transformer-coupled to the load (In this case, the speaker.).

Specification:

• Ability: 78 watt x ii, RMS 1kHz ( Ultra-linear )
• Full Harmonic Baloney: less than 1%( 50watt, 1kHz )
• Frequency Response: ( -3dB points at fifty watt ) 6Hz-100kHz
• Input Sensitivity: 700mV
• Input Impedance: 100k ohms
• Output Impedance: 4, 8 ohms. ( User selectable )
• Point/Dissonance: 90dB
• Consumption: 90watt x two
• Overall Negative Feedback: Little
• Tubes: EL34/6CA7 10 8, 5687x 2, 6922 x4

Highs

Yous'll love the elegant blusterous highs unremarkably merely available from tube amps. Lots of definition and amuse here. Loads of item and harmonious textures will compliment fast tweeters and the like. Never, ever practice the Opera's go strident or harsh with the Kubala-Sosna cables. You want fine tube sound and they deliver. Somewhat less detailed than the very best, but hey, nevertheless a super deal.

Mids

Lots of midrange energy for all kinds of music�you lot'll enjoy classical or jazz with the Operas. Vocals are lush, textured, and focused. Instrumental colors are spot on. Definition is very, very good. This is involving sound, one you will listen to for many hours. Lot's of depth and latitude to the soundstage. My goodness the Kubala-Sosna cables and the Operas are i wondrously musical combo. I would similar even more than snap and speed, only the Opera's are very adept and mellifluous. If the amps err, information technology'southward more than forgivable at this cost. Hey, I like the sound a lot as you tin tell. If solid country could sound like this, you'd consider it a quantum!

Bass

This is good to very good audio. Information technology's quick and textured and more than satisfactory. I am used to more than slam and definition downwards under, just EL 34s are typically slower and more bloomy on the bottom. If you lot want top bass performance from tubes, you'll spend much, much more. You may want to look elsewhere if your speakers take a significant bass hump in their blueprint or attempt leaner sounding interconnects or speaker cables. The Opera's rarely ran out of gas, all the same. Clipping is rare. Their dual mono design is the way to become for best bass performance on demanding music in my experience. They have very powerful sound overall and textural cues with the One thousand-Ss are lovely.

The Operas are worth the time to cablevision lucifer and tube roll. You must experiment with cablevision combinations and yous'll get just the right textures and speed for your setup. At this toll, you lot can afford to buy meliorate ancillaries to bring out your personal tastes in system operation. The Opera'southward flaws are few and easily overlooked.

In conclusion

The Consonance Opera'due south are a terrific deal and look and sound much like the expensive audio jewelry y'all run across at the all-time salons. Audiophiles should work for tiptop audio and a bit of tube rolling and cable matching brings out the best from the Opera'south. Wonderful metal work and facilities compliment exceptional sound from such a modestly priced pair of monoblocks. The mids and highs are elegant and detailed with the kind of sound you can take habitation to mother. The bass is skilful enough to satisfy and entertain unless you have merely had a nutrition of solid-state sound your entire life. More powerful sounding than you would expect from 75-watts per channel indicating excellent design and R&D. I liked the Opera's and enjoyed many hours of beautiful, sweetness music with them. I predict that y'all volition, too. Robert H. Levi

A few words from Dave Clark

Uh... aye! These are truly stellar and at a hair under $4k ... well they are a real steal. I am in the process of writing a formal take on these, but again allow me say that while they practise have shortcomings (heck they are $4k!!) when compared to my $10k 200-watt Class A Claytons, what they lack is rather moot. They play music and sound very, very, very good.

Cyber 800 amplifiers
Retail: $3990

Opera Audio
web accost: www.opera-consonance.com

Norvinz
web address: www.norvinz.com

N American distributor/representative for Opera Audio/Consonance:

Ultraviolet Audio
web address: world wide web.ultravioletaudio.com

(All amplifiers, including the Cyber 800 at present characteristic a fully transferable, 5 year warranty.)

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Source: https://positive-feedback.com/Issue34/opera_cyber800.htm

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