Biasing putting me off

I've been thinking of putting together a Res audio Opus 21 +valve am + LV speakers for some time. I'm previously a Naim user and had decided to move on. I went to listen at Definitive audio and like the overall sound very much of opus 21 + Art audio concerto +Avatars or OBXR2. Since the audition my budget has fallen (child number 1 came along) significantly and I'm no longer able to jump in at the level I want to so I've been trawling the second hand pages. I'm interested in some of the Canary S/H amps around but am concerned about biasing. Is this a big deal on such an amp? I don't mind having a go at something like this but not if I'm going to break something or ihurt myself.

Brendan

 

If its like my amp, its a simple case of turning a screw and watching the meter. When its in the green its done.

Rod

 

Hi Brendan

Kevin Scott almost always has ex dem/ ex show/ trade in/ early model Living Voice speakers.

I'd reccomend buying them straight from him.

For a cut price amp, check out the ''stuff'' in the definitive audio classified section.

When designing the Avatars, he used the Canary amp shown below. For £950 it looks like a good buy to me.

Canary 608LV integrated amp. 25 watts with Living Voice upgrade Now: £950 RRP £3000


Biasing isn't a worry - it's something you need to do when replacing power amp tubes only, which is something you'll do once every couple of years. Many amps do it automatically, others need a small tweak.

It's a piece-of-piss job - when someone shows you how to do it competently it will take less than 5 minutes. For a small fee a local tech can do it for you when you need it done. That's often what I do, it's a non-problem believe me.

 

The standard Canary 608 integrated amp is auto-bias. Does the 'Living Voice upgrade' remove/disable this feature?

 

I read the review years ago in hifi+.

From memory, the standard LV upgrade mainly consists of capacitor and resistor upgrades.

The second upgrade (again just from memory) involved adding a border patrol power supply.

Kevin could tell you more.

 

I've got Art Audio Carissa + VPS DM pre with LV OBXR-2's.

The Carissa is auto bias so no issues there. Not sure about your budget but Central Audio have VPS DM and Diavolo for sale.

They also had the Art Audio phono stage but it sold before I could get my hands on it...

 

Biasing is easy ...I had the same concerns when I got my first none auto biasing valve amps..

but as stated it relatively easy .... I used a seperate multimeter the negative to the chassis screw head and the positve probe in the hole provided ....the hard part was then to remember which way to turn the screwdriver in the bias pot..

I took about as long to do as to write !

 

That's good then nothing to worry about. Canary don't have a uk supplier at the moment so I will have to check that someone like Definitive are happy to repair if something goes wrong. Other than that it could be those 303's that are for sale used at the moment or the 608LV if its still available.

Brendan