opinions on hyperfi deal

Hyperfi are currently advertising Celestion A Series Cinema 1 and 2 with alledged price reductions of £1800 and £2500 respectively!

cinema1 is now £699.99 comprises b-stock:

2 A1 150 watt fronts
2 a5r 150 watt surrounds
1 c1i 120 watt centre
1 a6s 200 watt active sub

The series 2 is similar but with:

2 a2 220 watt fronts. and costs£999

This is an apparent huge price reduction, however, if it seems to good to be true it probably is.
I don't know what the b stock definition is but would welcome any thoughts on these systems and the offer...

TIA Pete

A mate has the A5's, very nice sound- great treble. Dipole effect could be better - could be wider- still nice speakers.

General Skanky has the A1's.

I think some of them are 4 Ohm speakers, so would recommend a decent poweramp, not a AV amp. 100W will be OK for the standmounts, preferbly 150-200W for the floorstanders needed.

Nice speakers. IMO better than most, and certainly a bargain if in stock.

Crumbs!!
Sounds like it's not a duff set up then Nathan?

Might give them a ring for more detailed spec, regardless of the price drop I would want to be certain it's £700 well spent..... I can see my wallet from here and it has credit cards with zero balance on them!!
Must..try..resist..must throw wallet into garden hedge...can't help myself.......wife will beat me...wallet taking over rational thoughts.....arghh

[Mark Haywood]

I would suggest that your first port of call should be to telephone Hyperfi to check whether they have what you want in stock. I live not far from their shop, and, in my experience, one needs to be super-quick to find such deals in stock.

Good luck!

Oh just noticed the centre- not from the A range. I would ask them to bundle in the A range centre.. if not remove that centre from the package and ask Celestion if they have any in stock somewhere.

I think Mark Ward uses the A range centre, he seems to compare it similar to a Kef Model Reference 200 centre (£700 rrp) I have a Kef 200, it's fab... so if they're similar then I would snap one up ASAP!

The only thing holding me back is I do not have the chance to audition or examine the 'b-stock' speakers. I imagine they are not defective in sound but the cabinets may be imperfect..

Nathan I looked in my mag and they do not stock an A series centre speaker.

I'll give them a ring ...back soon..

well they have them in stock and resistance is 6 to 8 ohm...what do you think, should I go for it?

What are your current speakers?

What AV amp/poweramp are you using?

Would you replace the AV amp if it's not adequate?

Currently AE120 front and AE150 centre old set of monitor audio studio 5 rears no sub and sony strdb 930 amp. would upgrade amp.

I'm pretty sure 4 Ohm...

Celestion A-1 Bookshelf Speakers; Two-way design; One 7" polypropylene woofer; One 1" titanium dome tweeter; Vented box design; One 2 1/4" flared port on rear; Cloth grille; Frequency response 43 - 20 kHz ± 2 dB; Sensitivity 88 dB/w/m; Nominal impedance 4 Ohms; Bi-wirable; Size 16"H x 9.5"W x 14"D; Weight 31 pounds each; Cherry veneer: $1,499/pair; Rosewood: $1,699/pair; USA Distributor: Adcom, Inc., 11 Elkins Road, East Brunswick, New Jersey 08816; Phone 908-390-1130; Fax 908-390-9152.



The magnetically shielded Celestion A4c centre loudspeaker is of similar design but finished in boring old matt grey to match the majority of televisions out there. Two 6½inch mid/low frequency drivers flank a titanium dome 1inch tweeter and a 4inch midrange driver. Priced at £500 the A4c is up against some stiff competition from the likes of KEF, Ruark, Paradigm and Mission, all considerably less expensive. The Celestion centre is another 4ohm design and has a sensitivity of 88dB, so once again, an amplifier with "oomph" is recommended.


The owner's manual indicates a frequency response of 100Hz to 20kHz, this would suggest problems using anything other than the Dolby Pro-logic "normal" crossover setting, some information would be lost with a THX or equivalent 80Hz bass-split. However, publicity material from Celestion quotes a response of 65Hz to 20kHz. Both subjective listening and RTA measurements convinced me that the real-world response, aided by the fact that this is a sealed enclosure is somewhere between the two, but I did feel that with an 80Hz crossover a little lower midrange content was lacking.

Taken from SMR & a magazine review.

Looks like replacing the Sony is a must!

The price has gone up but not by much.. this guy says it's not b-stock and the rears are A compacts not A1s...the plot thickens

Thanks Nathan I figured the sony would be showing it's age...can get the speakers for under £800, will I be a proud owner or just an impulsive skint bloke who thought he was getting something for nothing (relatively speaking)

If you can get the A centre as well (either from Hyperfi or from Celestion or second hand/from a shop) yes I would go for it.

Need to get something like the Rotel 1075 5x100W, minimum. You need a high current amp.

[buns]

Hey there..... i have a full set of A series.......6x A1's. A couple of points.

1. Make totally sure of the grade of the speakers, i tried to get my final pair of A1's from hyperfi b stock and was told they really were hit and miss on the condition (by hyperfi themselves).

2. The loss of a matching centre is more of a problem than you might initially assume. The A1's are very powerful speakers and i find it hard to imagine the c series centre will have any prayer in coming close to proving an adequate centre image.

3. The impedence of the A1's is definitely 4 ohm. That is not their lowest and they will frequently go down to 2. I tried running a pair of an old yamaha A5 and sinply ended up tripping the protection circuitry on any sort of loud sequence.

4. To add to the diving of the speakers issue....... these speakers were rarely given the praise hey desired. The A1's retailed at 900 pounds and were thus matched with similar amps. This didnt necessarily work and it turns out that these speakers need a really high end amp to get them sparkling.

It all depends on your plans i would say. If you are planning on building a top system over the next while it is a good buy if you can get new stock. You could probably mix and match and get a full new A series system from various sources for under a grand total....... but you would be missing out on the sub (which i know nothig about). But if you dont intend to be moving into a good power amp set up (the rotel suggested should be a minimum) then you just will not get your moneys worth.

all the best

Ad

well thanks everyone for your 'sound,' advice (he,he,he). If the kit is all new I think I may take a chance. In the long run I want to upgrade everything but I am worried about the amount of dough I will need to spend to get the speakers in the goove!