Going on 10 years ago I contacted Louis about being a dealer for Omega up here in Canada. He not only gave me his line but also gave me the exclusive for Canada which lasted 6 years. All from a guy who was essentially a complete stranger. As our relationship grew I got more involved in Omega including doing several websites for him. In the 8 years I was in business a friendship grew out of our business relationship which remains to this day. A real friendship can weather disagreements, and ours has, Louis being easy to get along with, me being high maintenance. Part of the reason I shut down Minimalist Audio was because I hit on hard financial times and wasn't able to bring in newer product. Louis made the wise decision to put on CDF Audio in Montreal. He also let me know his intentions and didn't do it behind my back. To this day Louis is one of the best friends I have.
I ended up selling almost all my gear off with the exception of the TPA3116 amp I put together, Schiit Modi 2 DAC, Tripp Lite line conditioner, and a bit of cabling. Earlier this year I was hankering for some speakers and contacted Louis to see if he would make a trade for some of my wood art which I had on hand. He said I didn't need to send him anything. He would build me a set - free. After I came out of shock, we settled on a set of CAMs, which I have been wanting since they came out, but never could afford them. They showed up the other day and they are absolutely gorgeous in the the EKO Mahogany (can't tell it from real wood). My intentions are to set them up in the living room on bookshelves as a "lifestyle" system and not man cave style, but issues with an air conditioning unit in that part of the living room has temporarily put that project on hold. Wanting to hear the speakers I set them up on my sons desktop, powered by his 8w/ch Firestone Big Joe V1.3 gainclone and was able to hear them as a near field desktop speaker.
Superb imaging is a foregone conclusion with ANY Omega I have heard and have raved about the 3D qualities of Omega speakers for years, so I won't belabour the point other than to say the CAM's imaging is superb. Being very familiar with the SAMs (with admittedly different upline gear) I find the CAMs faster and more detailed than I remember the SAMs, but not with quite the presentation weight of the SAMs (for obvious cabinet size reasons). What blew me away was the inner detail the CAMs are able to extract from a recording without sounding tinkly or sibilant like so many speakers that sound detailed, but aren't. If the CAMs were a picture, the colours would be rich, beautifully saturated, and with clear image focus.
The CAMs work well on my son's large desktop, imaging beautifully with a big soundstage, but when I moved back away from the desktop, the speakers took on another character - more meat on the bones as the bass wave was able to build before reaching my ears. Also some of the tightest bass I recall hearing from a bass reflex cabinet. Admittedly my son's upline gear is far short of the level of the CAMs and the CAMs have almost zero time on them, so if these speakers sound this insanely good with his humble front end, what must they sound like with more serious gear in front of them and fully broken in. Hopefully more to come.
Thank you Louis. I am utterly humbled by your generosity.
