[Review] Battleship build.....

Battleship build.....

Following the Heathrow show back in april, I've been trying to get a home audition of a set of Opera cyber 800's monoblock power amps. But to cut a very long and tedious story short they finally arrive on friday morning.

The three boxes ....two 50cm x 50cm x 50cm approx the third a 30cm x30cm x30cm, all double boxed. The two big ones contain the amps and the third the cotton gloves and other bits like the valves.

Removing these monsters was a real problem as you can't lift them out....I ended up tipping them on there sides and sliding the amp and foamed inserts out sideways.

After removing the packing....their they both sat in all there glory. They are constructed like battleships with what appears to be plates of 10mm aluminium and wooden side cheeks, each amp weights in at 30kg.

I used the cotton gloves to handle the valves ....which were electro harmonics 6ca7's x8, the other valves 5687 x2 6922 x4
were already fitted.

Hooking up was a doddle .......and with some trepidation I switched them on. No thumps, buzzes, fizzes, just a plink or two from the heating tubes. So now for some music ..... ok so who nicked three hours.

They sound like there not there..what I mean is I'm listening to the sources not the amps. This was further reinforced by swapping the preamp to the quad 99cdp's own ...clearly these amps are not adding much of their own sound. There's power and depth to the music that was completely absent before, but I'm blowed if I can find a sonic signiture......

Swapping cable from the AgAu's to some Black rhodium Symphonies [that were lent with the amps] clearly shows why I make my own cables.... out they go [I never did like nickel as a conductor]. The cables have a sound thats clear over and above the power amps own sound or lack of it. Swapping speaker cables also shows why I've gone off stranded copper.

Ok the down side ....they get hot, like I rekon enough to heat the listening room/lounge on a cool day......

The perspex insert for the front won't fit?
The led described as green in the instructions is in fact blue!

The rest of the kit used ......
quad 99cdp2
quad 77pre [modded]
Martin Logan aerius i's
silver ribbon [2x5mm] speaker cables
AgAu ic's

Here's more info for the spec freaks....
http://www.operaudio.com/products/cyber800.htm

and a review

http://www.operaudio.com/Review/mag...yber-222 Cyber-800INHIFI+Issue39BRITAIN-1.htm

Can't fault the review ....

So will these be going back to Jim at Audiolincs .....I very much doubt it.....So thats my foreign holiday up the spout this year!

 

It's great you reviewed these as i have wanted to demo the power and pre combo since i read the review in hifi+.

Will definitely have to give these a go.

What speakers do you use?

 

Martin logan Aerius i's hybrid electostatics........

you could contact Alium audio....or Jim at Audio Lincs alternatively you could order straight from china ...but thats a bit of a pig in a poke.

 

Hi,

Good stuff!

What are AudioLincs like as a dealer? They stock some speakers that I'm interested in.

SCIDB

 

They seem very helpful so far .....I had several long conversations by phone and they seem happy to let me borrow the amps [no strings etc]. But then I suppose they know I'm very likely to buy.

I think the web site does not get upgrade very often as they do have stuff that doesn't appear on it .......

 

Heard the 9wpc single ended 300B versions at Heathrow too, feeding those awesome Coincident speakers. Very nice looking and even nicer sounding 'blocks if you ask me. Stonking value for money, even at Alium's inflated RRP.

DT

 

I had concidered them but my electrostatics need the power of the 800's

 

I have been using these amps for a year now, driving Harbeth Super HL5's
they replaced a dynavector and were an impressive upgrade,
only downside is that I have had to replace 3 tubes in a year,possibly fluctuating mains power or the Russians were at the vodka they day these ones were made
very interested to hear that these can be improved by the correct cables, I have only just got around to this topic and have realized that the monster multi strand coppe rspeaker cables that I am using could be seriously bettered,

I am using kimber entry level pjb interconnects. Zanash if you did not make your own, what commercially available speaker and interconnect would you buy.? I have only just worked out that in a quality system cables can make a substantial difference but I cant get my head around paying large sums for them. Any advice welcome
cheers

 

Apologies Zanash,
I have just realized that you make cables so asking you to recommend other manufactures is a bit off, i will pm you to see if you can help:

 

Thats ok ....I only play at as a hobbyist.

currently running 2x 5mm silver riboms in cotton sleeves as speaker cables. The Ic are AgAu .....my silver gold's using silver bullets.