Dennis Had Inspire Amps

[Simonatsea]

Originally Posted by BearCityUSA

I am interested in Zu as well. I have Omega Super 7 mkII monitors, which i really like, in my office. I am dreaming toward another system at the house with some floor standers. I was more thinking toward the Omens. I am a sucker for a good deal and like the comment above about the Omega 3i giving 85% of the Omega experience I have a sense the Omens may give something similar toward the Zu. I would love to hear any thoughts on the Zus in general.

Having run Zu Soul Superflys with my 6V6 I can attest to the ability to drive these speakers well. They image amazingly well and are absolutely transparent and detailed. They are quite beamy though. I found having them heavily toed in sounded best. Definitely a sweet spot speaker. My mcintosh MA320 at 30 wpc though a much larger soundstage. I also found it frustrating that although they sounded jaw dropping sitting in the sweet spot they sounded lack luster as little as 20 degrees off axis. Maybe the new radian tweeter in the soul supreme with its larger throat and horn will increase its dispersion. I actually just sold and shipped off my soul superflys... Miss them already, i still use all Zu cables, power, digital, phono,ic and sc. Really have nothing but good things to say about the company and their ethos. Coveting the Tekton OB at the moment.... However only have the ability to use bookshelf speakers in my currently living space.

Below is my old listening room with Zu Soul Superflys

[Musica Amantem]

Originally Posted by Simonatsea

Have you considered the Tekton designs OB? He is offering them at a pretty great deal at the moment $1700 delivered.... Unfortunately my room constraints aren't conducive to these at the moment....

I'm not familiar with those. What constraints do you refer to? One of the issues I may face is the lack of space and the fact that I listen pretty much near-field. In addition, the 8 Ohm-equivalent sensitivity of the Tekton OB's comes at about 91 dBs for its nominal 6 Ohm impedance, which is not good with my gear.

Some time ago I asked Erick to improve on my Tekton Lore 2.0 with a custom design. He said the only way to improve on those was going for three-way. When I told him I would be concerned with two crossovers he said the sound quality is not only linked to sensitivity. I decided not to go ahead with that concept and I was looking at a USD 2,500 price tag on something never been done commercially at Tekton (one-off risky!)

Thanks for the heads up!

[Simonatsea]

Originally Posted by Musica Amantem

I'm not familiar with those. What constraints do you refer to? One of the issues I may face is the lack of space and the fact that I listen pretty much near-field. In addition, the 8 Ohm-equivalent sensitivity of the Tekton OB's comes at about 91 dBs for its nominal 6 Ohm impedance, which is not good with my gear. Some time ago I asked Erick to improve on my Tekton Lore 2.0 with a custom design. He said the only way to improve on those was going for three-way. When I told him I would be concerned with two crossovers he said the sound quality is not only linked to sensitivity. I decided not to go ahead with that concept and I was looking at a USD 2,500 price tag on something never been done commercially (risky!) Thanks for the heads up!

These are the constraints of my new listening room.... Enough said. That said I am enjoying these KEF's immensely

[Bombadil]

One of my concerns about open baffle speakers is precise imagining. Speaker designers who strive for the best possible imagine employ several practices to achieve that. These include using offset or sloped baffles to align the voice coils of each driver, different techniques to address edge diffraction - sometimes using minimized baffles - my Spica TC-60, which are phenomenal at imaging, use felt to dampen nearly the entire front of the speaker with unique radiation pattern matched to the drivers cut into that felt.

And nearly all used heavily dampened cabinets to eliminate all back and side sound waves. With the designers stating that such waves will reflect off of walls and arrive at the listening position at varying times, smearing the time signature of the music. A speaker that widely radiates sounds can sound "big" and "wide" horizontally, but lack depth. It can also be difficult to position such a speaker in a real life room, where ceilings, walls, corners, bookshelves, furniture, etc can all dramatically affect the sound. I know those things always affect the sound, but will do so even more when there is a considerable amount of music being produced off of the back side of the speaker.

In own listening experiences, I have found this to be true. When listening to planar speakers which radiate off of the back, that magical sense of depth I've heard from Spica, Thiel, Wilson, and other speakers of this time, is lost.

A lot of people love speakers which radiate sound in 360 degrees and have that reflective sound. It's a personal preference thing. But I've always found myself drawn to more precisely time-aligned designs.

[Rosco65]

Originally Posted by Simonatsea

These are the constraints of my new listening room.... Enough said. That said I am enjoying these KEF's immensely

I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but in the near field, boundary-reinforced, low power scenario in which you enjoy your KEF LS50's the Omega Super 3i will excell at half the price.

Both speakers are about the same size, have a similar frequency response, and apparently both work well on stands and on bookshelves near room boundaries. The Omega's are 94.5db efficient and offer reasonably satisfying bass when used close to the front wall. The stock speaker has a rear port, but since all Omega speakers are hand built by Louis, he will move the port to the front if you wish. He will also mount the driver on the wide side or narrow side depending on your preference.

General note: I have no association with Omega other than being a long-term user and satisfied customer. Louis has been making speakers by hand for nearly 20 years now and has continued to support all the products he has made. My own speakers are the earliest version of the current Super 3i and originally came with a slightly modified Fostex FE127e driver http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/omega2/super3.html. He has provided me the his latest OEM driver (RS5) driver that is a drop-in retrofit to the original cabinet. This driver is far superior to the Fostex and really fantastic from the upper bass to treble range and is useful down to the midbass. When coupled with a fast, musical subwoofer (or two) it is a hard combination to beat in a smaller room. I also own a pair of Super Alnico Monitors (about $2,900 including stands) that are better in many ways (but not in the very top end) but can confidently say that the smaller Omega excels in the same systems as its larger sibling.

[FloridaBoy]

Originally Posted by opnly bafld

I found a good deal on a pair of 1981 Heresy's a couple of years back. Didn't expect to like them because (in my limited experience) I hadn't heard a pair of Klipsch that I had liked before. I was pleasantly surprised using my 2 watt set EL84 and while obviously they don't go real deep, I didn't use a sub with them in a 14' x 11' room.

Way too often the published specs are a numbers game.

I bought Heresy's in 1977, $600, had them for a year and got a 100% trade for LaScalas $900 that I had for 23 years. I got tired of the high end BS and bought a B stock pair of H3's in Lacewood veneer about 5 years ago. They have better bass than the originals but the titanium diaphrams took a good while to settle in. There are a more good speakers for low watt amps today than ever and no speaker is perfect. The Heritage line is a good place to start if you are new to the low watt game and used ones will not break the bank.

[FloridaBoy]

Originally Posted by Rosco65

I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but in the near field, boundary-reinforced, low power scenario in which you enjoy your KEF LS50's the Omega Super 3i will excell at half the price.

Both speakers are about the same size, have a similar frequency response, and apparently both work well on stands and on bookshelves near room boundaries. The Omega's are 94.5db efficient and offer reasonably satisfying bass when used close to the front wall. The stock speaker has a rear port, but since all Omega speakers are hand built by Louis, he will move the port to the front if you wish. He will also mount the driver on the wide side or narrow side depending on your preference.

General note: I have no association with Omega other than being a long-term user and satisfied customer. Louis has been making speakers by hand for nearly 20 years now and has continued to support all the products he has made. My own speakers are the earliest version of the current Super 3i and originally came with a slightly modified Fostex FE127e driver 6moons audio reviews: Omega Super 3 & Skylan Stands. He has provided me the his latest OEM driver (RS5) driver that is a drop-in retrofit to the original cabinet. This driver is far superior to the Fostex and really fantastic from the upper bass to treble range and is useful down to the midbass. When coupled with a fast, musical subwoofer (or two) it is a hard combination to beat in a smaller room. I also own a pair of Super Alnico Monitors (about $2,900 including stands) that are better in many ways (but not in the very top end) but can confidently say that the smaller Omega excels in the same systems as its larger sibling.

I've never hear Omega speakers but almost bought a used pair just to give 'em a go. I was too late. The Compact Alnico Monitors look interesting. So do the Blumenstein Audio Tritons.

[Rosco65]

The trouble with buying factory-direct is the leap-of-faith of buying sound-unheard. Generally the only way to hear something like Omega's (or Inspire amps) is to know someone who owns them or to buy and maybe return within the trial period. Problem is that oftentimes the trial period doesn't cover the time required for full break in
One option is to post a message an the Omega forum asking if anyone in your area is open to letting you listen. The Compact Alnico is a new model, so finding one will be difficult.

[Simonatsea]

Originally Posted by Rosco65

I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but in the near field, boundary-reinforced, low power scenario in which you enjoy your KEF LS50's the Omega Super 3i will excell at half the price. Both speakers are about the same size, have a similar frequency response, and apparently both work well on stands and on bookshelves near room boundaries. The Omega's are 94.5db efficient and offer reasonably satisfying bass when used close to the front wall. The stock speaker has a rear port, but since all Omega speakers are hand built by Louis, he will move the port to the front if you wish. He will also mount the driver on the wide side or narrow side depending on your preference.

I would love to try the Omegas out. I'll have to wait until some turn up locally on Canuck audio mart..... The USD is a killer these days....

[Rosco65]

Originally Posted by Simonatsea

I would love to try the Omegas out. I'll have to wait until some turn up locally on Canuck audio mart..... The USD is a killer these days....

There is a distributor about 4 hours from you, so if you were taking a road trip you could at least hear them in person.