Omega Speaker Systems

Discussion in 'Speakers' started by recarcar, Mar 27, 2016.

  1. shaizada

    shaizada Friend

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    I wish I could give you that one elusive answer. It would bring me a lot of joy to do that...

    What impresses one person the most, might not be the most impressive to another. Not knowing where u r coming from, what u ARE seeking and what you INTEND to seek / gain with your choice of single driver speakers, it is even more difficult to provide insight one way or another.

    Single drivers universally excel at naturalness, harmony amongst different frequencies coming together from a point source. It will soothe your body and your ears will be very pleased within the smaller sonic arena they play within. They are kings of the arena they play in, yet if your demands overbear on their basic nature, you will tear apart their fabric of existence.

    Too high of a volume level and they fall apart. Too complicated of an orchestral score and they find it difficult to keep up. Knowing the weakness of the technology is paramount to the sheer joy they bring to the table as well.

    Hemp cones, Banana pulp, washi paper...everything has a sound all is used in the creation of the speaker in "harmony" with the cabinet and the designers ultimate goals. Every single driver speaker speaks differently.

    With the right speaker, the right electronics, the right music, the right volume and MOST importantly, the right listener...that leads to a fulfilling ownership experience. What single driver speakers do, multiway simply cannot. YET, what multiway speakers do, single drivers CANNOT.

    I'm sorry for not giving you a clear destination. Having no understanding of your path, I can't even point you correctly. I apologize for that.

    What I CAN give you is that, be honest, truthful and insightful with yourself. Understand HOW you listen and why you value a given sonic presentation. Cost of possessions, pride of ownership will then give way to the true JOY of ownership as your chosen system will speak to you.

    Speaker choices will become much easier for you once you understand more about your self. If you give me a "value" system, I might be able to give you some speaker choices that might work for you. Listen to them and enjoy the journey. With the right mindset, heart and willingness, you will get to your own island of happiness.

    I'll stop here. It's late because I am unable to sleep. I have a daughter I have to take to the Dentist tomorrow, a pediatric specialist for her tooth pain. She is sleeping soundly (I gave her prescription strength painkillers) but I'm up and writing this. You actually gave me a moment of peace letting me write all this out...THANK YOU for that.

    Cheers.
     
  2. shaizada

    shaizada Friend

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    To add a bit more to this subject, I personally ended up with two audio systems. One with a 3 way speaker that I absolutely love and a more heart warming single driver setup that I share with the family downstairs.

    For the single driver setup, I have a pair of custom Blumenstein Audio Naga speakers (3" Banana Pulp Fostex Driver) matched up with a 24 watt EAR V20 amplifier. The joy this setup brings me is as important as the sound my other setup does. Here are some pics:

    Upstairs Setup:
    [​IMG]

    Downstairs Setup:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  3. jelt2359

    jelt2359 Friend

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    That EAR amp... I know I shouldn't, but audio jewelry is so wonderful
     
  4. spwath

    spwath Hijinks master cum laudle

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    Ill add to this topic, as I have a pair of Omega Mini Me speakers I got on craigslist for $100.

    I like them quite well, but, like others have noted, the low end is lacking, though I have a subwoofer to make up for this. They also cant seem to get all the detail for complex peices, but that is expected for single drivers. Mine have just 3.5"drivers, so that explains the low end as well. I have also noted anywhere outside my near field location kills all the trebble, and my subwoofer is just overpowering them, and it sounds quite bad. This could be due to their bad off axis performance, my not so good sub location, or the Audessy callibration from my receiver. Dont kill me for my set up, i dont have much room.
    [​IMG]
     
  5. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    Did you end up getting the CAMs? I'm going to have a dedicated listening space in my new house but it won't be huge, and I think pairing the CAMs with something like the Rag or whatever 2-channel products Schiit comes out with soon would be ideal for a smaller space.

    I have no issues losing some SPLs for greater coherence, speed, and imaging.
     
  6. Malabargold

    Malabargold Flipper

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    In the end I went for the Sierra 2 speakers. I wasn't able to listen to any Omega speakers beforehand so I decided not to risk buying them. Still would love to hear them one day.
     
  7. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    Ah, that's a shame. I have heard single driver speakers before, but not Omegas specifically. I think it's worth taking a chance on them though.
     
  8. flatmap

    flatmap Acquaintance

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    I hope you'll enjoy your new setup.

    And if you're like many of us, there will be more speaker purchases down the road and opportunities to revisit the Omegas -- or try horns, or open baffles, or magneplanars and on and on. :)
     
  9. EVOLVIST

    EVOLVIST Rob Watt's Fluffer

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    I ordered some CAMs about a week ago for near field listening (3ft to 6ft away, though probably more like 6ft), and man these are a month out still!

    This is actually my first foray into speakers, having always been a headphone guy, yet here I am. I'm also perfectly fine picking up a sub if needed.

    I was a little afraid that my "amp" wouldn't be able to push these speakers enough, but this weekend I went over to a friends house where he made me the custom cables that I need - some RCA to dual banana pos/neg on each end. I was able to drive some 89db - 8ohm - 15 watt quite well that he had, just as a test. So, I don't think they'll be any problem driving these CAMs at 2w.
     
  10. Rockin_Zombie

    Rockin_Zombie Facebook Friend

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    Congrats. I got my super 7 mk2 near field setup a few weeks ago, loving every bit of it. They are extremely efficient, my 25wpc amp barely breaks a sweat driving them. Full rangers and near field are a match made in heaven, I've not been this satisfied with a speaker setup. You might need to add a sub later, I had one already fortunately which feels up the low end nicely.

    My only "complaint" will probably be the looong wait time that you're going through, completely understandable though as these are built to Order, and totally worth the wait.
     
  11. Grahad2

    Grahad2 Red eyes from too much anime

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    I have had the XRS models and the smaller (older gen) ones driven by a 3w tube amp before, worked well, although it'll prefer some more reserves for more dynamic passages, although less obvious with the smaller models. 2w may be a bit too restrictive to really let them breathe - there's at minimum a certain loss of dynamics. Anyone playing loud or dynamic music will definitely appreciate the headroom.
     
  12. EVOLVIST

    EVOLVIST Rob Watt's Fluffer

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    Yes, which is what was worried about, but we shall see. I've got between 2vRMS and 6.7vRMS to play with. That's -7 to +4db on the ol' volume knob, so I hope these pull through. It sounds like plenty of room, in theory.
     
  13. n2djazz

    n2djazz New

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    EVOLVIST...have you received your CAMs yet? If so, could you give your initial impressions.
     
  14. n2djazz

    n2djazz New

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    recarcar, are you still enjoying your SAMs? It's been about a yr and wanted to know if you're still happy with them.
     
  15. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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  16. EVOLVIST

    EVOLVIST Rob Watt's Fluffer

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    I really liked the CAMs, but I sent them back. I mean, they were great for nearfield listening, I was taken aback by the clarity, and the image so well it's almost spooky.

    After hearing them, though, I decided that I just wanted to fill up a larger room with sound, that nearfield listening simply wasn't my bag.

    But if you're a nearfield listener, they get my highest recommendation. Nothing I've ever hear compares. You really do need a fast sub with them, however, otherwise you're pretty much getting all mids and highs.
     
  17. n2djazz

    n2djazz New

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    This was very helpful, thank you.
     
  18. Garns

    Garns Friend

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    So, I joined "no woofer club":

    IMG_20191007_174015887.jpg

    Backstory: for about the past 10 years I have been using K+H O300d monitor speakers. They are pretty nice, sealed-box, powered three-way with a dome mid. Back in the day I was doing a lot of electronic music production, and they fit the ticket perfectly.

    I picked up the EC Aficionado you see here about 18 months ago. I'd been using it as a pre to the K+H's for which it does an excellent job. However, it seemed a bit stupid to have bought the AF only to use as a pre (since I've given up on headphones completely). @purr1n was always mentioning the Omega speakers, and I was feeling like my speakers were now the choke point in my system, so I thought I'd check them out.

    Initially I was gung-ho to pick up the Super Alnico that everyone talks about, but I emailed Louis at Omega, and told him what I was after: speed, clarity, transparency, microdynamics. He immediately pointed me towards the (significantly cheaper) Super 3 series as the superior performer for my requirements. These use his 4.5" RS5 driver, with ultra-lightweight paper cones. I figured that since I'd need a sub with these anyway, getting a larger cabinet would produce bass I didn't need and slow the driver down, so I went for the smallest possible model, the 3i monitors you see above.

    The nice thing is that, since Omegas are hand-built, Louis can do basically anything you want. I got him to mount the driver on the wide face of the cabinet (14"H x 11"W x 7.5"D) to try and get the baffle step frequency down a bit. This might degrade imaging slightly but that's not a priority for me. In addition, I upgraded binding posts, multi-ply baffles, and internal wiring from Zenwave (Neotech litz OCC). I am also using Zenwave speaker cables with the same Neotech.

    These suckers really need to be broken in. First impressions were completely dreadful, no bass, aggressively forward, nasty mid peaks. They needed a good 50 hours to sound acceptable, and 100 or so to show their true colours. Some time after that I can comfortably say that these in combo with the AF are exactly what I've been driving towards for the past few years. The bits I like are:
    • Coherence. The lack of transition between upper mids and the treble gives a sense of ease and effortlessness and an unmatched clarity. The full-range driver magic is very apparent.
    • Speed. These are extremely fast. Apart from resolving very delicate sounds very well, this means that macrodynamics are actually excellent. When a whole band hits together it's explosive. Voices just leap out of the monitors at you.
    • Resolution. They dig out huge amounts of low-level information (like actually far down in the mix) and microdynamics (small changes in volume of a possibly loud sound) but, again, with a natural and effortless presentation.
    • Smoothness. After break-in, no weird dips or peaks in FR that I can hear. I understand these are the smoothest of the Omega drivers.
    • Tonality. Uncoloured and honest.
    • Soundstage and imaging seem pretty good, but in all honesty they are not that important to me.
    What don't I like? Well, there isn't that much, but let me mention things that might be deal-breakers for others:
    • Presentation. These are somewhat forward/aggressive speakers. If you listen to a lot of high-energy busy music this might be a bit overwhelming. Yggdrasil is probably not helping here. It's not a problem for me: I tend to listen to stuff with more space in the mix, and like this more energetic sound. But if you want laid-back sound, look elsewhere.
    • Low-end extension. OK, it's clear these aren't going to be bass monsters. However it's better than I expected. I should really do some measurements, but I reckon the -3db point is about 50hz, I can hear (not very clearly) down to 35, but 30 isn't there. Bear in mind I have everything possible in my favour: high OI from the Aficionado (NFB); small cube room (9x9x9) so not much air to shift and only one node frequency to handle; nearfield listening position (1.5m); wall loading. For me, there's enough bass to render male voices and piano realistically. If your room was bigger or you had a SS amp it might not be so.
    • Overall FR. Related to the forwardness, I think these probably don't roll off above 1khz as fast as would be typical (though I am sitting very close to them). In the bass they seem to be tuned flat until they roll off, so if you are used to a hump they may sound a bit thin. I'm used to flat, so they sound good to me.
    Overall, these are a stonking bargain and are not in any sense an "entry level" speaker. In symbiosis with the Aficionado they are clearly ahead of the much more expensive K+H monitors in the things that matter to me. Anyone who is spending $1000+ on headphones or low-end powered monitors should contemplate the fact that you could get a pair of these plus a gainclone for $900US.
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2019
  19. recarcar

    recarcar Friend

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    One of the very few pieces of audio gear I regret getting rid of is the SAMs (was moving out of the country and wanted to avoid the hassle).
     
  20. gridmaster

    gridmaster Facebook Friend

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    \

    The website says he's not accepting orders until July 18th, how did you get your order in?
     

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