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Review 2 of 2
Price Paid:
$0.00
from Goldman Audio Summary:
I must first start out by saying I do not consider myself an audiophile and while I can hear differences between speakers I do not feel I have the "golden ear" that others claim to have.
I am in the process of slowly upgrading my system for both music listening (2-channel and multi-channel) and home theater. I am trying to go out and get the best sound I can by buying what most consider to be "value" product. To give you an idea I have a Rotel amp and processor, marantz universal player and a hodgepodge of other components I am in the process of upgrading.
I spent quite a bit of effort researching speakers and doing some listening over time. I was looking at B&W 703's, Maggie 1.6QR and a variety of others but my budget was max around $3000. Then I ran across some reviews about the relatively new Hyperion HPS-938's. Every review raved about these things so even though they were a little out of my budget, I set out to find a pair to listen to. This was not easy. Hyperion has limited dealers around the country and they apparently can't make enough of these to satisfy the demand they are seeing. I called Jon Goldman at Goldman Audio and he happened to have just gotten a pair he had just set up. I went over for a listen and bought the demo's on the spot.
If you read the reviews of these speakers you will hear about seamless midrange to high transistion, deep fast bass, etc. etc. You can read the reviews yourself and suggest you do, but everything that is said is true. These speakers are outstanding and considering their price point they are an incredible value.
I have them bi-amped with 200W going into the bass cabinets and 200W going into the mid-tweeter cabinet. It did take a little break-in to tighten up the bass and let the tweeter settle in but these things just sing. Seem to sound good with just about any type of music as long as the recordings are good. They are very transparent and seem to excel with vocals, jazz, and classical. While I am sure some speakers will go down lower, these do dig in fairly well and they don't leave you wanting for more bass.
The midrange and bass drivers untilize a different design principle called SVF or syncro vibrate flat-top. I am not going to go into explaining this you can go to their website to check it out. The tweeter is a fabric dome and set in a shallow metal horn. All this means nothing if the sound is not good, but that is definitely not the case here. The cabinets are hand-rubbed piano black and the quality here is as good as any other speaker I have seen at 2 to 3 times the cost. Apparently they now also come with a wood finish that costs about $6000.
I recently heard that they just had a price increase and the HPS-938's in black now go for $4500. Even at this price these speakers are a bargin and if you are looking for speakers at this price level or even at twice this price you should try to find a pair of these to listen too. While this may not be easy to do it will be worth the effort. Hyperion also has some other less expensive models including some bookshelf monitors I have not hear. They are also apparently workign on a center channel speaker I will be looking to buy in order to match the 938's in my system. Strengths:
Great sound for the price.
Oustanding midrange sound
Quality finish
Value Weaknesses:
Limited dealer network
Hard to find pair to listen to. Similar Products Used:
B&W, Magnapan, Polk
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5 of 5
