[tlarwa]

I just want to share my initial listening impressions with my new A8 hemps.  I picked them up from -dB Sunday ... nice guy!  Anyway, they are set-up on the short wall of my 12'x17' listening room.  I have the placed so that the ports are 18" from the wall and the driver fronts are 24" from the side walls.  They are approximately 8' apart and my listening position is 8' back.  They have a slight bit of toe-in.  I tried them with more toe-in, to face my listening position, but I didn't like the result.  By the way, they are sitting on the Skylan stands that were intended for these.  Very nice.

I first tried them stand-alone (no sub) with my 6s45P PSE amp (about 1.5W).  This amp is able to sufficiently drive my Mark Audio 12p Super Pensils, but it surprisingly ran out of gas with the A8's.  So I switched to my rebuilt Fisher 400, and the extra tube wattage really let them sing.  The midrange was beautiful, but I did notice the lower extension limitation with certain music.  That said, I could definitely happily live with them that way for jazz, singer-songwriter, etc.  So I dragged my Adire Audio Rava sub (sealed, and a fairly "quick" sub) down to the listening room to see how it interfaced.  Wow!  I am really happy with the results.  A quick listen to Meshell Ndegeocello's "Peace Beyond Passion" (if you haven't heard her, give her a try) blew me away.  This album has some great dynamics.  The sub helped soooo much, and even without much fiddling around, seemed to blend well with the Omega's.  I plan to move it around the room to see if I can tune it in even more, which I'm sure will improve things.  Since I stole the Rava from my HT set-up, my next move will be to pick up a new sealed sub (or two).  Given the reviews on here, I'll probably aim for a deep hemp unit or two. 

So, I'm pretty pleased right now, but thinking I can do better in the amplification area than the Fisher tube unit.  So I'm putting my paralleled single end amp on the market, to free up some $$ for a new amp purchase.  Looks like the Red Wine units have a great following, and it should be a good fit with my Super Pensils as well.  I am going to miss the PSE amp though ... it's hand built and a beautiful amp (build and sound wise). 

Any thoughts or suggestions on amp choices, tweaking of position, etc? 

Thanks!

Tom

[tlarwa]

Pic of the "business end" of my listening room.  Minus the sub...

[Canada Rob]

The A8 is about ten years old and about the same size as the current Super Alnico Monitor which is 8 ohm.  Your little SET would likely be a great match for the Super Alnico Monitor if it has decent iron
(I run a 1.5w/ch SET with my Alnicos with great results).  Think twice about parting with your SET.  A well designed flea powered SET with the right speakers is one of the absolute pinnacles of amplification as far as musicality and live presentation.  If you up the power, look at a more powerful SET with one tube per output, pure class A, zero negative feedback using an octal based tube like the 6L6, KTs, 6550, EL34, etc.  More power, and reasonable $ to tube roll.  The Decware 34i.5 with it's dual impedance UFO OPT would fit the bill nicely.  Dennis Had has some nice amps too.  Triode Lab up here in Canuck land has some interesting pieces too.

The A8 uses a Visiton B200 6ohm driver (impedance which your SET could be struggling with) and would in layman's terms be called a leaky sealed cabinet, hence they could be less efficient than your Pencils.  Less bass than the Pencils is also understandable, as the Mark Audio driver is likely heavier/slower and in a larger ported cabinet, all of which would produce more bass.  My guess is the A8 is faster than the Pencil and that speed often helps in the soundstage department.

I suggest you move your Pencils out of the picture and let the A8s breathe.  Work with them a little more before throwing a sub into the picture.  Also, for system setup, short wall is generally not as good as long wall.  I realize it's not always possible, but if it is, you might be surprised at the results. 

[tlarwa]

Thanks, Rob.  My A8's are not using the Visaton drivers.  They have the hemp drivers installed.  If I'm not mistaken, they are 8 ohms, correct?  I will move the Super Pensils off the front wall for now, per your suggestion.  Moving them to a long wall is not an option.  I will also try the SET again, with the sub in place is time.  I really don't think then A8's will get me where I want to be in the bass department, for all types of music I listen to.  I'm sure they will be fine for jazz, singer-songwriter,etc., but I don't see them satisfying me on music like the Meshell Ndegeocello album that I referenced.  But in the spirit of experimentation I'll give it a try!

[Canada Rob]

Yes, the 8" Hemp is 8 ohm, other than that everything I said still stands.  The frequency curve on the 8" Hemp is on the tipped up side so your idea of using the sub may not be a bad one.  I hope the A8/sub combo works well with your SET.  It reminds me of when I had my first SET/single driver system.  The speakers were the 4.5" HempCone Super 5 Monitors (which also had a tipped up frequency response) along with a Deep Hemp sub (it was needed) driven by a Decware SE84C+.  The whole was greater than the sum of the parts, and the system was my reference for close to two years until I moved into newer Omegas and Decwares.   

[tlarwa]

Well I put the PSE back into the system.  Still not happy with it.  The synergy is just not there like it is with the more powerful Fisher.  I just sense more "meat" in the music ... If I had to describe it is say it is mid-to-lower range authority.  That's why I think the PSE is running out of headroom.  I also took the Pensils away to free up real estate around the A8's.  That allowed me to widen them out a bit.  They are now a shade under 9' apart (center to center) and 18" from the side and back walls.  I have the sub back in the mix, and Double Vision by David Sanborn and Bob James is sounding mighty fine on vinyl...

I think I'm going  to keep looking for a more powerful SET, either tubed or SS.  I'm thinking a First Watt might be just the ticket.  I'd like to hear one of the RWA amps that people rave about on this circle too...

[gbeard]

Hello!

Nice on the A8's! 

My experience with Louis' speakers is similar to yours. I found that while flea watt amps would drive them, they do like a bit of oomph. My old 845 amp was the finest, followed by a DIY Firstwatt F4 (plus pre with gain), the Manley Mahi Mahi, and my old rebuilt Eico EL 84 amp, but a real sleeper was the Almarro A318B.

While I've never heard them, I think Vinnie Rossi's gear matches great and my guess is that a Rogue Cronus Magnum or similar would be fantastic as well.  Perhap Quicksilver mid-monos...Just thinkin'...Or for some real power, a Pass XA-30.5 would probably be an amazing amp for them and well priced used right now.

Good luck!

[Canada Rob]

My experience with Louis' speakers is similar to yours. I found that while flea watt amps would drive them, they do like a bit of oomph.

Don't know which Omegas you're referring to, but any current Omega will run well on a watt and a half easily.  I've been doing it for years.

[gbeard]

Rob,

I apologize if I made it sound as if low wattage amps will not work with Omega's.  That was not my intention. Indeed, one of Omega's selling points is their efficiency and ability to be driven by dang near anything and they do sound terrific with a few good watts.

I had the old SuperHemps that I believe were 93db@8ohms, both with the standard and Alnico drivers. I had a Fi-X (2A3 & 45), Ultra Fi 300B mono's, Ultra Fi 2A3, Autiotropic 6V6 and a few others I can't remember. They all sounded wonderful. However, I stand by my statement, on my own Omega's, I personally liked my 845 best (which was btw, only 10 watts SET), and a few other PP amps that had 20-30 watts per channel.

Cheers,
Gary

[planet10]

The A8 uses a Visiton B200 6ohm driver (impedance which your SET could be struggling with) and would in layman's terms be called a leaky sealed cabinet, hence they could be less efficient than your Pencils.  Less bass than the Pencils is also understandable, as the Mark Audio driver is likely heavier/slower and in a larger ported cabinet, all of which would produce more bass.

The B200 is not all that efficient (typically measure about 90 dB). The Alpair 12p are in Pensils (note spelling) which are a mass-loaded TL. The box will only affect the bass efficiency/extension and have no effect on the overall efficiency of the speakers. Mms of A12 is about 9 g. Althou quite good, not my favorite Mark Audio driver.

dave

[planet10]

I think I'm going  to keep looking for a more powerful SET, either tubed or SS.

For almost no money, the Pass AmpCampAmp is a killer SS SE amp.

I'd be interested on your take on the difference in sonics between these 2 … i have yet to get my hands on any Omegas yet.

dave

[tlarwa]

For almost no money, the Pass AmpCampAmp is a killer SS SE amp.

I'd be interested on your take on the difference in sonics between these 2 … i have yet to get my hands on any Omegas yet.

dave

I may just give that kit a try.  I've been looking for a winter project (the Super Pensils were last winters project), and this would fit the bill.  It would make a good Xmas gift idea for my wife, too!