I have completed three months listening and understanding the speakers.
They are completely burin in. As many have told me, including the guy who made the speakers, single drivers are very picky about pairing gears. Synergy is king and more so with these speakers.
Thankfully, Omega has a good following and Louis was receptive through out. Both of this and my personal preferences has allowed me to get pairing gears right to a relatively greater extent.
The existing gears underwent some changes. Some were rebuit/repurposed to suit the speakers and some gears were exchanged in favour of other to better match the chain.
Chain:
Hifirose 150b - Yogibear's tube rectified DHT (Telefunken Re084) preamplifier+ Mr Kunte's 2 stage 300b Power amplifier (WE 417a + Elrog 300b).
Swapping the DHT preamplifier with Feliks Euphoria with Tungsol 5998, adds speed, dynamics and separation, but doesn't give the tonal richness of DHT pre and it's outright vocal realism. I am sticking to DHT pre. Yogibear has done a great job in making it dead quiet. Feliks is also slightly enthusiastic which translates into a hint of harshness at time.
IC: Custom Made. Speaker Wires. Supra Ply 3.4S.
This chain enables the Omegas to sound clean, clear and open, and adds that hint of warmth which caters to the kind of songs I need. These speakers are very very revealing and getting the balance right is very critical. It is now not surprising why Omega owners around the world use all tube gears. You need tubes with these kind of drivers.
Bass is just about adequate and they cover their tracks but nothing to write about. But midrange and up, they show real magic. I have heard very few chains which sound clean and clear yet not fatiguing. It's a very fine balance and IME difficult to achieve with mass market products.
My speaker, preamplifier and amp, are all DIY in some way or other. I have my opinion divided against DIY. Low return, finicky and in most cases not pretty to look at. But with some patience and guidance, DIY, can result is tremendous value, avoids blind buy and can ensure synergy. Pretty or not is a personal preference.
PS: Since Feliks is no more doing preamplifier duty, it allowed to me set up a all tube based independent headphone rig with Feliks and use things to better match the headphones instead of speakers, which has turned out to be my fav sound rig (of any kind) till date.
Happy listening.
