[emac]

I'm one of a very small number of people who own a pair of GR Research's omnidirectional O-3's. Despite their great sound, Danny says they are difficult to sell because the design is unusual. Frankly, if Danny didn't design this speaker, I would have no interest in them whatsoever. Drivers mounted on top of speakers are kinda freaky, IMO. They are used in a 13' x 20' x 8' room along the short wall with about three feet from the side and back walls. More space would be ideal, but these speakers replaced a pair of VMPS floor standers and easily outperformed them. According to Danny, they sound virtually identical to his open baffle designs that use the same drivers (except for the bass, of course).     

Speaking as another one of the few people who own O-3's (as well as a pair of X-Omni's), I really enjoy the sound that they create.  I am also able to get them at least 3' from anything and that's where the design has the chance to shine.  I have had a number of other types of speakers in the room, and none of them can create the size and depth of the soundstage, which the O-3's do very naturally and easily.  It's also great to be able to sit off axis and hear basically the same thing I would if I were sitting in the sweat spot.  The main problem I see with them is the definite need to get them away from the walls, which means that they don't work in every room.  But they work very well for me, and unless I move, I won't be getting rid of them any time soon.

[mcgsxr]

http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/mirage_omni60.htm

There's a link to the mains I am using now, with sub support.  Although not true omni's, they certainly project a difuse, airy soundstage.

They were a nice compromise vs the OB speakers I ran for years.  The OB's were better for sure, but used up way more floor space, and as more family members started to come down to the listening space, I had to give up something.

The Shahinians are one omni I have always wanted to hear, but have never seen locally.

[Russell Dawkins]

The old Design Acoustics D-12 (1974) by Roy Allison is pretty nearly omni. I think it's 11 wide range drivers with a woofer on the bottom.

[jarcher]

I heard these Danish omi directional speakers (or perhaps just "omni-sound") at the 2012 Capital Audiofest, the Davone Mojo:







Many good write ups on them in the hifi press.

I thought they sounded fantastic - but perhaps that was as much the great Woo Audio gear it was connected to and the super MA recordings albums.   Still - for such a small desktop speakers they work great on side tables and would seem to have a very high WAF.  Pity they are - imho - overpriced at $2,300 a pair!

Best value in similar speakers to me seems to be second hand Ohm Walshs, which are very cheap.

[rascal]

I like to hear the Omnis at shows they typically sound great  for first 10-15 min but afterward--I cannot put a finger on it.. it is as if I prefer more clarity and  focus than diffuse enveloping sound . My personal preference that is all (not to mention placement- which would be impossible in my living room of my apartment). Others may continue to like it. I would not mind using them for Home Theater movies.

[Rclark]

I haven't heard Omni's but logic seems to me that unless you can afford them in high end form like MBL then just get some planars or electrostatics.

[dB Cooper]

Russell D: I didn't realize Roy Allison designed the DA-12! Sure about that? Allison Acoustics opened its doors right about then. I owned Allison Four bookshelfs and CD8's (top-woofer tower). Regret selling them. Allison literature used to refer to their product as "omnidirectional in the forward hemisphere". They were high-WAF for omnis, being designed for placement against the wall. Sadly, an attempt a few years back to re-launch the brand (priced further up the high-end than the originals) eventually failed.


It is hard to do an omni well, I believe, and as mentioned before, they like a well-treated room to support precise imaging, a common beef about omnis. They are generally not for those who want to be able to point at the third violin player. I am a fan of good ones- if I want to sit somewhere else in the room, or have people over, I don't want everybody in the room to hear something completely different. I am willing to make the tradeoffs.

Took a quick look at the MBL website; if WAF is the slightest consideration for you, you can cross them off your list right now 

[JLM]

A great percentage of the frequencies likely are radiating straight up.

It's worth noting that actual music sources (a person playing a violin in your living room) are not omnipolar.

If you did have an omnipolar source: get it away from the floor and ceiling the same way you get it away from the walls.

You raise a good point: just how is any given performance actually recorded/mixed?  Omni mikes?  Simple miking, which method?  Multiple mikes, still omni mikes?  Close miked, how would that sound without discrete imaging?  A mix a mikes?  Haven't even gotten into the mixing.  That's why I go back to forward facing monitors in nearfield setup (the way it was engineered) for playback.

[navin]

AJ is going all technical on us, when in fact most people could care less.
Most of the designs that use these names (omni, bipole, dipole. ob) sound different than box speakers with front firing drivers and that really is the point.

But AJ is right. Over the years I have tried all sorts of reflecting speakers. From OB Panels to the Ohm to the DBX soundfield to the Bose 901 and a bunch of DIY experiments. All of them were part Omni. I have not heard Siegfried's OB but suspect it may be partly Omni too. The primary concept of an Omni is that in a concert hall we hear reflected sound so why not at home. Well in a concert hall all the instruments are radiating differently and reproducing this at home is not easy. Besides at home we listen to recordings and we have no way telling what processing was done in the studio. What we listen to in a concert hall is a Production. What we listen to at home is a Reproduction. We should be mighty pleased if the later even resembles the former.

Omnis do offer great spatial sense. Superb for orchestral or solo pieces played in a small-mid concert hall. Which is why they struggle to reproduce Led Zeppelin or ACDC unless they are "unplugged".

That said yes they do need some distance from walls so that we get the good delay. Sure wife's and girlfriends would be upset if they tripped over the electrical cables we use for speaker wire but if omnis reproduced all concert sound accurately we might tolerate the WAF.

[lowtech]

I have not heard Siegfried's OB but suspect it may be partly Omni too.

A number of folks swear by the Pluto omni's and some have even gone from (Quad) electrostatics (to them).

[opnly bafld]

1) But AJ is right.

2) Omnis do offer great spatial sense. Superb for orchestral or solo pieces played in a small-mid concert hall. Which is why they struggle to reproduce Led Zeppelin or ACDC unless they are "unplugged".

1) You lost me there.

2) In your opinion, others may enjoy the sound more.

[S Clark]

The old Design Acoustics D-12 (1974) by Roy Allison is pretty nearly omni. I think it's 11 wide range drivers with a woofer on the bottom.

I still have a pair used in HT.  They have a 10" woofer on bottom, a 5" scanspeak mid on top, and 9 tweeters on the various side facets. The 12th facet holds a port.  They are very omnidirectional and still excellent on orchestral music. The original designer was George Sijoles (sp?), not affiliated w/Roy Allison. I bought them in 1976. When George sold out to Audio Technica, they discontinues them due to the expense of the cabinet.
Scott

[stereocilia]

I don't spend enough time that far off axis (behind or beside the speakers) for an omni-directional radiation to make sense, and if I did then the stereo illusion wouldn't work very well.  Also, sound radiated all over the place gets colored and delayed by the room boundaries.   Okay, so putting them really far from room boundaries so the reflected sound adds spaciousness instead of coloration helps, but then every recording still has more of your room's own signature than you would get from a front-radiating design.  To me, this imparts a same-ness to every recording that I do not prefer.  I could see a case for a uniform frequency balance for 180 degrees...but omnipolar?  I'm not convinced.

[navin]

1) You lost me there.

2) In your opinion, others may enjoy the sound more.

Omni's produce more reflected sound that typical monopole speakers. The reflected sound mimics concert halls and not so much large open air stadiums. So, in my view, they are usually better at replicating the Lang Lang at the Stern Auditroum (Carnegie Hall) than say Mettalica at Bader Field.

[JerryLove]

Omni's produce more reflected sound that typical monopole speakers. The reflected sound mimics concert halls and not so much large open air stadiums. So, in my view, they are usually better at replicating the Lang Lang at the Stern Auditroum (Carnegie Hall) than say Mettalica at Bader Field.

Wouldn't reflected sound imitate "whatever room they happen to be in at the time"?

I've said before, if good headphones give you a musician on a stage in a club; good omnis give you a musician on a stage in a club in your family room.

[navin]

Wouldn't reflected sound imitate "whatever room they happen to be in at the time"?

I've said before, if good headphones give you a musician on a stage in a club; good omnis give you a musician on a stage in a club in your family room.

Exactly. Reflected sound is useful when we are talking clubs or concert halls (usually used for blues, jazz, and classical); today's rock bands usually play in open air stadiums. After all Iron maiden in a small club would peal the paint from the walls. LOL.

There is little reflected sound there. So the omnis will be producing more reflected sound than there is in reality. This was the point i was trying to make. Again here we are only discussing live music. Studio albums would be dependant on the processing done in the studio. In fact most live music is also processed before being cut to disc.

It does get complicated so in the end the only true statement we can make is that maybe Omnis work better with some recordings and not so well with others. It may just happen that many of the recordings that Omnis don't normally work well with are rock, metal, and other such genres.

[opnly bafld]

navin, I think you missed JLs point and you don't seem to have understood a single thing I have posted.   

Signed,
Communication Breakdown

[navin]

navin, I think you missed JLs point and you don't seem to have understood a single thing I have posted.   

Signed,
Communication Breakdown

Sir, I believe what JL was trying to say is that Omnis imitate the room they are in.

However my argument is that if the room they are in resembles a club or hall (as far as general reflections go) then the reproduction would resemble the original recording. But if the original recording was in a more anechoic space like an open air field then the Omnis might reproduce a spatial presence that does not match the original recording,

I am sorry to have not understood you. Could you please clarify your point of view?

[JerryLove]

Omni's *add* the room they are in to the existing recording.

You get all the reflections of the recording, then the reflections of your room added in.

It's not necessarily unpleasent. In theory it would make a near-field or an-echoic recording of a violin sound like a violin in your room rather than next to your ear. But whether preferred or unpreferred, it is a difference from the original recording.

They don't imitate or not imitate the original recording. The reflections in the original are still there. The room is then added on top of them.

[harley52]

Has anyone seen/heard the DIY's from Parts Express that are the line source with the 18 mids and 72 tweeters. Cabinets come assembled, all for $1980. I may try that my self. But, I'd have to find someone to do the veneer.