[AvsFan]

  In my case they seem to function more as a unit than Class A/B.  With my Super 3 HO Monitors (dual driver), the lower impedance in the midbass drew more power from my amp and made it sound bloated.

I know that AVSFan has similar dual driver speakers as I do.  His are newish and likely still need some breaking in.  I can say that I have been able to get satisfying midbass from the speakers using an SE 421A amp.

Roscoe,

So you're saying that with SS you were getting bloated mid-bass?

In my room with my electronics and SS amps, I am getting very little bass or mid-bass. It's pretty thin. A friend of mine described his as nasally and shouty with SS. I am hearing that first hand.
Man the last two speaker purchases have required some TLC and careful system matching to get the best out of them.
But I know once I do find an amp that has synergy with these Omega's, I'll be rewarded with some beautiful music.

[AvsFan]

If you have a preamp, my #1 recommendation would be to find a secondhand Dennis Had Firebottle amp.  SEP or Triode wired SET giving 3-12 wpc depending on output tubes.  You can use anything from a 6V6 too KT88.

I do have a passive pre right now, which I love. From Pine Tree Audio, but am getting a Freya+ in the near future. I'll look into the Dennis Had amps. Are too much tubes a bad thing too? Is it bad to have a tube pre and a tube amp? Do you think a tube pre and a SS amp might work?

[roscoe65]

I own some Schiit products for use in a second system.  I don’t think it would do justice to your Omegas.

You can’t have too many tubes.  The best system I ever put together (which I am still trying to emulate) was a California Audio Labs Alpha tube DAC, Audible Illusions IID tube preamp, Gary Dahl built direct coupled 45 SET with Magnequest DS-050s.

The Dennis Had amps need a fairly high gain preamp.  There are a number of Omega owners using a Dennis Had tube preamp and amp combo.  The combined price is about $3k or so new.  They are not old fashioned and overly warm.  They are modern sounding and respond well to tube changes.

[zmaggio]

I hesitate to recommend a SS integrated for Omega speakers.  One exception would be a Pass integrated amp.  A word of caution though:  some users have found that even modestly priced SE tube amps will smoke SS amps with this speaker.

I'm certainly not going to argue with the conventional wisdom that SET amps are the way to get to audio nirvana with Omegas - I know that's true for many, many people. On the other hand, I can't second guess what my ears are telling me works for me in my setup and my room.  And I am actually having pretty good results pairing SS amps with my SAM XRS.   

That said, it's not like I'm running super high end tube amps; I've been using a Line-Magnetic 218ia, and also a pair of Cary/AES tube monoblocks.  I first tried a Rega Brio-R - that bested the Cary/AES and came close to sounding better than the Line Magnetic.  Really surprisingly good synergy with the Omegas. Right now, I'm running the aforementioned Puccini Settanta, and it easily sounds better (to me) than the Line Magnetic and right now I'm not missing tubes at all.

This is probably more reflective of the quality of the tube amps I have on hand than anything else, but I have no problem saying that SS amps sound very, very good with my Omegas and offer a lot of listening pleasure.  I probably will try a Decware amp at some point and that will probably swing me right back to tubes!

[macdane]

right now I'm not missing tubes at all

As much as it surprises me to say so, that's how I'm feeling. By any account, George Wright's 2A3 mono blocks were no slouch, but I literally don't miss anything other than the idea of them (they'd been my main amps for maybe 20 years).

[RDavidson]

I decided to dust off my old NAD 3020B and hook it up to my (new to me) wide baffle Super 3 HO monitors. I have to say this amp still surprises me every time. I'm only streaming subscription Spotify through it too! This should sound OK at best, but it is quite satisfying. It gets tone right as well as a fair amount of the stuff that audiophiles care about. On the cheap, I wholeheartedly recommend iterations of the old 3020 with Omegas. Get it recapped and you're good to go for many many years. The tone controls are fun to play with too! Why not?

[macdane]

I decided to dust off my old NAD 3020B and hook it up to my (new to me) wide baffle Super 3 HO monitors.

This intrigues me because I have the Omega Super 3S speakers and a friend has the newer NAD D3020v2 ... we've kicked around the idea of putting them together to see what happens but haven't tried it yet. If it works well, this could be a killer low-budget rig. Anyone tried this with the newer D3020?

Dane

[RDavidson]

I'm sure the new 3020D in either v1 or v2 likely sounds much more modern than the old 3020 and they really only share likeness in their model number designation. They both have gotten basically universal praise too. I think a long while back when the 3020D came out, folks were saying the match with Omegas was very nice. Makes sense as class D amps (in general) don't seem to have much varying sonic character whether playing at fractions of a watt or near their rated output limit.

[AvsFan]

I own some Schiit products for use in a second system.  I don’t think it would do justice to your Omegas.

You can’t have too many tubes.  The best system I ever put together (which I am still trying to emulate) was a California Audio Labs Alpha tube DAC, Audible Illusions IID tube preamp, Gary Dahl built direct coupled 45 SET with Magnequest DS-050s.

The Dennis Had amps need a fairly high gain preamp.  There are a number of Omega owners using a Dennis Had tube preamp and amp combo.  The combined price is about $3k or so new.  They are not old fashioned and overly warm.  They are modern sounding and respond well to tube changes.

I understand what you are saying. However I have heard that the Freya+ is REALLY good. And I will be running two different systems off of it. It has three different modes so I can run it in passive when listening to the Omega's on the tube amp and engage tubes when listening to my SS Cherries and ZU's. I think it will give me a lot of flexibility.

[seikosha]

AVS i saw some of your pics where you have your Omegas on top of your Zus.  If that’s how you are currently listening to them do yourself a favor and get them on stands closer to the floor.  You’ll be rewarded with a fuller sound.

[roscoe65]

I understand what you are saying. However I have heard that the Freya+ is REALLY good. And I will be running two different systems off of it. It has three different modes so I can run it in passive when listening to the Omega's on the tube amp and engage tubes when listening to my SS Cherries and ZU's. I think it will give me a lot of flexibility.

It is unfortunate that we must buy most components sound-unheard.  I used to enjoy hanging around audio stores, listening to equipment I couldn’t afford but developing my experience with nice equipment and refining the type of sound I like.

I want to like Schiit equipment.  I own three pieces but each falls short in presenting music with a dimensionality I have come to expect from my tube equipment and some well-executed solid state.

My Bigfoot’s Mulitbit is ok, but lags behind my Chord Mojo in musicality and inner detail.  The Saga (v.1 with tube) is ok, but the tube doesn’t seem to add anything (including gain) and seems to muddy the sound a bit.  In contrast, my ca. 1987 Super Revelation Dual Mono preamp ($400 new, $300 a couple of years ago) runs circles around it in every possible way.  It is quiet even with its high gain and both the line and phono stages present a huge, holographic soundstage.  It really sounds like an Audible Illusions Modulus 2D I owned in the 1990’s.  The Freya is reputed to be better still than the Saga, but I doubt it is that much better, regardless of system flexibility.

Most audio manufacturers tend to have a house sound.  My feeling is the Omega and Schiit house sounds are not precisely in alignment.

[guillaume bougard]

try this and prepare to be pleasantly surprised

https://audioengineusa.com/shop/amplifiers/n22-desktop-audio-amplifier/

[effluviography]

I agree with Roscoe, my experience with Schiit has been underwhelming. I want to like their stuff, but haven't kept anything in my systems for any amount of time. I haven't purchased their most expensive stuff though (but my experience with the cheaper stuff didn't instill a lot of confidence).

Using Decware amps, Marantz DACs and Omega or Blumenstein Speakers.

I like hearing the recommendations for the Solid State Amps as I only have one and am curious about others for my office setup.

[AvsFan]

It is unfortunate that we must buy most components sound-unheard.  I used to enjoy hanging around audio stores, listening to equipment I couldn’t afford but developing my experience with nice equipment and refining the type of sound I like.

I want to like Schiit equipment.  I own three pieces but each falls short in presenting music with a dimensionality I have come to expect from my tube equipment and some well-executed solid state.

My Bigfoot’s Mulitbit is ok, but lags behind my Chord Mojo in musicality and inner detail.  The Saga (v.1 with tube) is ok, but the tube doesn’t seem to add anything (including gain) and seems to muddy the sound a bit.  In contrast, my ca. 1987 Super Revelation Dual Mono preamp ($400 new, $300 a couple of years ago) runs circles around it in every possible way.  It is quiet even with its high gain and both the line and phono stages present a huge, holographic soundstage.  It really sounds like an Audible Illusions Modulus 2D I owned in the 1990’s.  The Freya is reputed to be better still than the Saga, but I doubt it is that much better, regardless of system flexibility.

Most audio manufacturers tend to have a house sound.  My feeling is the Omega and Schiit house sounds are not precisely in alignment.

Schiit has underwhelmed me too. I have owned 2 products in the past. Saga and Modi MB. Neither stuck around too long. But I recently purchased the Modius simply to just "get" me by until my new, much more expensive DAC was done. And I have no doubt that the other DAC was better, but man, the Modius is impressive for $500, let alone $199. I'm keeping it. And the Freya+ is impressing people that didn't like the original Freya. There are some real impressive reviews on the newer Freya+. Schiit redesigned it from the ground up. It seems that they got their schiit together and have hit some home runs lately. So lets not pass judgement on it yet. I'll have it in my system soon enough with some Eaton 45 monoblocks. I plan on switching between the Freya+ and PineTree Audio passive I have just to get a feel for how good it really is or if it has synergy with the Omega's.

[Les Lammers]

I own some Schiit products for use in a second system.  I don’t think it would do justice to your Omegas.

You can’t have too many tubes.  The best system I ever put together (which I am still trying to emulate) was a California Audio Labs Alpha tube DAC, Audible Illusions IID tube preamp, Gary Dahl built direct coupled 45 SET with Magnequest DS-050s.

The Dennis Had amps need a fairly high gain preamp.  There are a number of Omega owners using a Dennis Had tube preamp and amp combo.  The combined price is about $3k or so new.  They are not old fashioned and overly warm.  They are modern sounding and respond well to tube changes.

There is a Gary Dahl in Sarasota, FL that works on tube gear. Was he the builder?

[roscoe65]

It may be, but wasn't then.  This was back in the 90's in the Oregon Triode Society.  I think he and Lynn Olsen still have a website for nutshell hifi.

He may have retired to Florida, but I wouldn't know about that.