[Louis O]

Hi,

Vsac turned out to be an awesome show. I had a great time and met a lot of very nice people. Many thanks to Doc from Bottlehead and Ron Welborne for putting together a great show and in a beautiful area of the country. I wish I had more time to spend in Washington State.

Also, sorry for my lack of posts leading up to the show. Getting ready for it was pretty hectic and also looks like I have to move the shop as the building is going retail.

The show was great, really set up well and easy to find all the rooms. Also the craftsmen rooms were really cool. Lots of great amps and speakers and the attention to detail was excellent. The turn out was great too, many people attended.

The room was good, but a little on the bright side. we managed to get some really good sound. I brought the Super 3, Bipole and Grande 6/8.
Most of the time was switching between the Super 3 and the Bipole. These were really sounding great. Bass was very good and the bipoles had a huge soundstage and imaging was also excellent. The bipoles sounded very dynamic and smooth with great bass. Mostly all the people who heard them couldn't believe the bass output coming from 4.5" drivers. The soundstage on the bipoles was very deep and the sound was not at all forward. Placing them wasn't to hard at all. I had them about 5 feet from the back wall and about 7 feet apart. These speakers do need toe in. During the listening all the instruments were in the right places and not at all blurry. I did have the chance to hear them with the Decware Selects as well. I hooked them up in 4 ohm Bipole and the amps sounded fantastic. They had a beautiful midrange and more than enough power. I was very happy to hear how well they matched.

I also had the chance to hear all the speakers with the Sun Audio amps (2A3 SET and 2A3 PP). they are distributed by Two Bald Guys Audio and Harry and Ken are great. The amps are a great match with the speakers and have a smooth and powerful sound. I couln't believe how loud these 2A3 amps are.

Grande 6s were sounding very good on 20" Skylan stands and about 4 feet away from the rear wall and 7 feet apart. Very dynamic and I did try them with the bybee filters and these do work very well, but not on the Bipoles. They do smooth the upper mids out very well. George and Kara of deHavilland really liked the Grande 6s.

Many thanks to Tom of Hudson Audio, my room partner for bringing the electronics and Hudson cables and Noel from skylan for the Rack and speaker stands.

The system was :

Opera M500 300B monoblocks KR 300B tubes
Opera Ref preamp
Opera Ref CD with 6H30 output tubes
Eurolab Turntable
Morch DP-6 arm
Alaerts cartridge
Phonomax  phono pre amp

Many thanks,
Louis

[Bwanagreg]

Louis,

Sounds like a great show. I have been meaning to post on the Bybee's with my TS-1's. Readers Digest Condensed version: get them. As you mention they really do smooth things out, especially the upper mids I would say, and add a great deal of depth to the sound. Be careful to break them in at least 20-30 hours before forming an opinion - initially they were pretty bright.

Do you think you'll be offereing Bybee's as an upgrade option? Mine are the plug and play Cryotweaks version that supposedly gets you 80-90% of the performance of soldering them to the driver.

Anyway, good luck with your move!

[Brad]

Thanks for the update!

Good to hear the bipoles are a match for the Zen Select

[myoung]

Some nice comments from the 6 moons site, calling the Omegas "champagne on a beer budget sparklers" and noting that the Super 3s "kicked harder than anyone not present would believe." Also promised is a mini-report on the speakers.

Very cool. Congratulations, Louis.

Mike Young
Carrollton, TX

[Mark B. James]

I had the pleasure of attending VSAC this weekend and got to hear the Omega Bipoles on Saturday and the Grande 6's and Sunday. They both sounded great.  Everyone in the room was blown away by the dynamics of the Grande 6's.  On Bela Fleck's "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo, "  I could really feel the force of Vic's bass and Futureman's synth kick drum in my chest.  The low end extension and power was surprising.  Good snap, good imaging.  Although this was someone else's cd, I'm a big Bela Fleck fan and I've used Flight of the Cosmic Hippo as my test cd on a lot of auditions and know what it sounds like.  The Grande 6's sounded really good.

The Bipoles also sounded great, but I'm having a hard time remembering the details (I heard a lot of systems that day).  I seem to recall a very spacious, room-filling, pleasant sound.  

It was good to see a room sounding so good without $10k monoblocks and $2500 drivers (Josh Stippich had a setup using phenomenally expensive PHY drivers).  I think you're delivering great product at the right price point.

Congrats on a good show.  That would be great if you hooked up with Two Bald Guys Audio in the Pac NW - as they had what I thought was the best sounding system at the show.

Cheers.

MBJ

[Bill Baker]

Greetings Louis,
  My opinion on the Bybee Quantum Purifiers? An excellent choice. I just hooked up with Jack Bybee to purchase my first order. I am now going to offer them as options in some of our new ventures. For the more expensive speakers ($5k up) they will be standard and will have a Bybee on each driver and the Special Edition amps will have the option of utilizing them in the B+ voltage and output.
  I was going to mention this to you as I did run them with your speakers. I installed them at the end of the speaker cable at the + input of the Super 3. Really smoothed things out.
  I can imagine these pieces would work exceptionally well with your speakers and being a signle driver, it doesn't run the price out of reach and with no x-over, installation is a snap.
  I'm glad to hear the show went well. I just got off the phone with Dan of ModWright and he also stated the show was very good this year. I would have loved to attend but with the sick young family member and the  Benefit going on, I could not make the trip across country. Being in NY, Washington was out of the question. Maybe I need to put something similar together in Nothern NY??

 Wishing you the BEST!!

[Baldtwo]

Greetings from the rainy Pacific NW!

Hi Louis and Mark-
Thanks for the kind words about Two Bald Guys.  The show was a blast-- our first as participants and attendees.  I'm hooked! Vegas, here we come!  Louis and Tom had the best room (once we set up the Sun 2A3 with the Super 3BPC!) and I couldn't get enough of the wonderful sound they had.  After a tasty Chinese dinner on Saturday night and auditions and listening until the wee hours, I had to have Louis's speakers. So, as of midnight or so on Saturday,  we're now official Omega Dealer.  Thanks Louis!  For me, the Super 3BPC is the closest dynamic speaker I've heard to my beloved original Quad ESLs, and I've owned LOTS of speakers and gear.  Tried virtually all of the single driver speakers I could find from about '97-2000 with a custom 300B SE amp and finally gave up.  Louis's are the best, by far.  Forget about Lowthers, Diatones, vintage Telefunken and Altec etc... These babies are natural, musical, dynamic,sweet and smooth.  Best of all, they only need a few watts!  Can't wait to get our pair for our showroom/ livingroom.  Great work Louis, and keep the faith.

Harry Z aka "BaldTwo"

[Louis O]

Hi Bwanagreg,

Thanks and Tommy and I had a great time. The Bybee we tried were the cryotweaks versions and they do sound fantastic. I tried them on all the speakers and they make a great upgrade. The Bipoles are the only ones that they didn't work well on. The sound of these are so smooth that the bybee's made them a little dull sounding. I would like to offer them and I put in an e-mail to see how much they would be. If the price is good I will try to offer them.

Thanks and I did find a new shop. I don't know when I will make the move, but I hope the transition will be smooth.

Hi Brad,

Many thanks and I was really happy to have the opportunity to try the Zen with this system. I hooked the bipoles in 4 ohm and the sound was fantastic. The power in 4 ohm was very good and filled the room very easily. The amps sure sound great. Really happy about the combination. I forgot the owners name, but I wish to thanks him for letting me borrow the Zen.

Hi Mike,

6 moons really liked the speakers. I met a couple of the reviewers and looks like they will be doing a review of the Grande 6 and Skylan stand as a combination. Should be out in December. They were pretty surprised how the 4.5" driver in the Super 3 made good bass.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for attending VSAC and stopping by the room to hear the speakers.
I'm verry happy you liked the Grande 6s. I'm a big Bela Fleck fan as well and "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo" is a great track to audition with. Lots of deep bass and dynamics.

The dipoles have a similar sound and have a deep and wide soundstage. I'm really happy I met Harry and Kent from Two Bald Guys Audio. They had a fanstastic sounding room and the Sun amps are great. I was also very impressed with the Devore speakers. The standmount 3 ways sounded great. I know how hard it is design a great 3 way and these got it nailed.

Hi Bill,

I can't agree more. The Bybees are really good and worth the money. They should work great on your amps. One guy I met had a bunch of them in his amps and raved about them.

I did the same thing at the show. I placed one on the + input and heard the same thing. They worked great on the top end. Your right with single drivers I would think they would work the best, especially with no cross over in the way.
I met Dan at the show and he had some great gear in his room too. Sorry you couldn't make it and I hope all is well at home.
I think it would be a great idea to put something together in N.Y.

Thanks again Bill and best wishes

Hi Harry,

It was a pleasure meeting you and Kent and I had a blast too. It was so much fun at the show I wish we had another day. I also would have liked to see more of the area as this was my first trip to the Pacific Northwest. Very beautiful.
The Sun/Super 3BPC combo was wonderful and I'm still amazed  how much power and dynamics the Sun 2A3 has. Awesome amp. I can't wait to get one for the shop. I can't thank you enough for the compliments and taking on the speakers. I'm really happy we met and everything worked out great.

Many Thanks,
Louis