[Moot]

This is my first post here, and first-time owner of Omega Audio speakers.
I purchased the Super 6 Alnico Monitors for a few reasons. Firstly, my Polk Audio LSiM 703's blew a tweeter and I needed a backup pair to work with while they were getting fixed; secondly, I wanted a more dedicated monitor speaker, especially something much different than the Polk's; thirdly, how cool are Omega speakers, anyway! Not to mention fewer parts to worry about, no x-over...

So I got my Super 6 Monitors yesterday morning. Since it was -30 I let them sit their boxes for 6 hours while they came up to room temperature. That was a long 6 hours!

Since the Omegas are pretty efficient at 93db I decided to use just one Monarchy Audio SM-70 in stereo, which delivers 25 Watts to each channel. DAC/Pre is Monarchy Audio NM24 and my source is a Mac Mini. I had the amp and DAC powered by Monarchy's AC Regenerator. Audioquest speaker cables, DH Labs interconnects.

Anyway, I'm super happy with this setup with the Polk Audio's, so I had high expectations for the Omega's.
I set them up and hit "Play." Ugh. My first words were "Oh, no..." It sounded like I'd just hooked up a pair of horns! Nothing but treble - it was painful to listen to. But there was a 1/2 octave range that sounded ok. That's when I remembered that these need break-in! I contacted Omega and they suggested 100 hours! So that made me feel a lot better. I kept driving them.

Now I'm at the 12 hour mark. The treble has calmed a bit, but the Omega's now produce a great breadth of the normal frequency range - Graceland fits entirely within these speakers now! There are occasional passages now that "float" in the soundstage for a few moments, but get lost again. I'm starting to get a sense of these speakers.

I'm already impressed with how low these monitors go - I have no measurements right now, but it does the low B of a 5-string bass just beautifully. So far there's no lack of treble extension.

I'll post again tomorrow. I hope to have another 12 hours on them by then. Thanks!

[Moot]

What a difference 10 hours can make! These Omegas are starting to impress me. Between hours 15 and 17 the treble really smoothed out, and suddenly little passages of violins and flutes were floating in my living room. But as the music grew more complex they imaging would fade.

Hour 20: pianos sound uncannily natural, I can easily make out which instrument is the oboe and which is the Enlish horn while the two are playing in unison, and everything in the human vocal range floats out in space most of the time, only falling back during the most busy musical passages.

Hour 22: Just listened to Daft Punk's RAM. Very impressed. Bass extension continues to grow, but no sign of "boxiness" or boominess, very natural roll-off with no port-chuffing (although I doubt I've run more than 5 Watts per channel so far.) Even without my subs turned on I'm not feeling I'm missing much.

I'm feeling way better about these Super 6 Monitors! All evidence points to them just getting better and better, and now that the treble has smoothed out I'm having fun breaking these in.

Now, how do I bi-amp these, again?  ~

[opnly bafld]

Welcome to the world of single drivers and Omega. 

Lin

[JLM]

My 8 inch Fostex full range AlNiCo drivers are said to take 500 hours for full break-in, so enjoy the ride.  (Long break-in is common for extended range drivers.)

[beowulf]

Welcome to the world of single drivers and Omega. 

Lin

+1 and welcome to the forums as well.

[DaveC113]

Great speakers! They will keep getting better over a few hundred hours. Have fun 

[Louis O]

Hi Moot,

Many thanks for your purchase of the Super 6 Monitors and welcome to our forum. Wow it's sure in cold up there this time of the year and waiting for the speakers to come up to temperature was a great move.

Great to hear that the speakers are opening up and as JLM and Dave stated they do need to run in a bit. When designing the driver I wanted to make sure that the break in times would not be so long. It's mostly in the suspension and loosening these parts so the driver will move air and produce bass. Tried to get the suspension parts as compliant as possible.

I'm very interested in your amp as I have heard a lot about them and I'm a big fan of Class A Solid State. Great value too and the build looks first rate.

The break in will be easier with bass heavy music and at a decent volume. This helps the suspension to loosen up. Sometimes you can be taken on the hemp roller coaster. This used to happen a lot more with the old 8" drivers.

Thanks again,
Louis

[Moot]

Thanks for the nice Welcomes, everyone!

I'm really learning a lot breaking-in these speakers. Their higher efficiency brought to my attention a slight ground-hum in my system. That was actually a little annoying at first but drove me to take care of it (I broke down and ran two, 20-amp lines to the system. Dang, this is a pricey hobby!) But now I'm understanding how having good power helps with background "blackness" and how that contributes to "imaging." I'm also getting a grasp on how poor the wiring was back in '67!

I've got more than 50 hours in on these now and they just continue to improve. Nothing as drastic as the first 20 hours, but they just keep revealing more and more with each listen. I even had one of my more skeptical friends over yesterday. Luckily the Omegas blend in so well with my "decor" that he didn't notice I had different speakers, and we went through some old Motown recordings (he thought we were listening to my new Monarchy NM24 DAC.) And he was impressed! There were several tunes where he could make out lyrics that are buried in his system. Then, suddenly, he says "Hey, what speakers are those?" Yay! I went over the system with him - he hadn't noticed that the subs are out of the system, even (not like there's much in those old Motown recordings below 80Hz.) We were both very impressed with how well the Omegas represent strings, brass and vocals. I find I'm not even listening to the speakers so much now as just the music coming through them. I'm quite happy.

I'm really happy with the Monarchy Audio gear, but especially so with their DAC/tube pre. That was a big improvement over the old Theta Casa Nova I'd been using. The SM-70's are class A, single-ended transistor design that I'm happy with, but I have nothing to compare them to - my last stereo was 15 years ago! I'm running two of them in mono - not that I need the volume, but I like the heat they produce. It's cold up here, and I have to heat the place anyway, right?

Thanks, Louis! These Super 6 Monitors are really growing on me.
 

[Canada Rob]

Hello Moot,

Welcome to the AudioCircle forums.  Sounds like you have some nice solid state gear in front of your new Super 6 Monitors.  My first experience with Omega was on solid state gear too, and that was the turning point for me from 2+way speakers to single driver speakers.  That was years ago.  The next jump for me was when I went to a good (not necessarily expensive) single ended triode tube amp matched with my Omegas.  Today I only listen to my Omegas with either single ended triode or single ended pentode tube amps (flea power, single tube per output).  Omega speakers sound incredible on good solid state gear, but with tubes it is almost indescribable.  You mentioned this is an expensive hobby, and it can be until one reaches what they are after as far as gear goes.  Once that point is reached the ongoing expense should mostly be the music.  Enjoy.

[Moot]

Magic happened today.

Everything opened up right in the middle of Beethoven's 7th symphony, 3rd movement. Suddenly there was a flutist in my living room and I could hear the rosin on the bows of the cellos. Creaking chairs, that weird phasing you get from unison violin vibrato... lovely. It's hard to make a symphony sound natural with a recording - I'd say I've never heard anything close to actually being in front of a full symphonic orchestra - but this was the closest yet. And the Omegas are still breaking in....

And Hi, Canada Rob! I know there will be a tube amp in my future - at this point in my investment scheme it seems inevitable - and that's what the Omegas will be for. My son is coming back home in a few months and I see him ending up with the Monarchy/Polk Audio setup. Not too shabby a system for a 17 year old! His father will have to hobble some thermionic-based amplification system together, as is befitting someone my age.

[Good Times]

Great reading your story and progress! You'll find once you get past about 100hrs that they will settle more, but unlike a lot of speakers they seems to be excellent right out of the box and only get better. Omega really are sticking it to the big guys

[Louis O]

Hi Moot,

Great news and many thanks for sharing the progress. Sounds like they are really opening up now and you should be very close to getting them broken in.
Lots of great tube gear out there and some exceptional values too.

My pleasure and and it's great to hear you are enjoying your new speakers. Thanks for the tip on the DAC/tube pre and I will look into it.


Thanks again,
Louis

[Moot]

Hi, everyone!

Well, it's hour 100-ish! Counting's not my bag, baby.

I'm addicted to these Omegas! I got my Polks back and they only lasted two hours before I put the Super 6's right back in. Yeah, there was more bass, but the Polks were congested sounding, with a confused presentation. The Omegas, by contrast, were fast, precise, and thoroughly enjoyable to listen to. In fact, I don't even notice the speakers anymore - it's just about the music.

I would still like a bit more bass, but that seems to be my amps right now more than the Omegas. My Monarchy's are class A, zero feedback. I ran them with an Akitika GT-101 class a/b and there was a nice bottom in there, but of course I lost the "focus" of the class A. So now I'm on a quest for a kick-ass tube amp kit.

I'm looking forward to the next 100 hours!

[Moot]

Tube amp kit found! For a variety of reasons I've gone with the Bottleheads "Stereoamour." I'm going to build it as the integrated amp that it is, but I'm going to add a power amp "in" so I can run it as a (duh!) power amp. 3.5 Wpc using 2A3s. It won't ship for a couple of weeks, but it'll be fun.

[Moot]

January 23, 2014 - I now have over 250 hours in on these Super 6's, but all of that was on solid-state amps. But I just completed a Bottlehead Stereomour kit earlier today, which is a 3.5 Watt-per-side SET amp based on the 2A3 tube. CanadaRob is always exotolling the virtues of Omega speakers with SET amps. Boy, is he right!

Now the Super 6's have come into their own! Too bright? Not at all. Not enough bass? Not anymore.
Liquid? Transparent? Natural? Effortless? Damn straight!

Even as I try to write this post I keep getting distracted by the quality of this set-up. And I haven't even tried the new Psvane tubes I have right here.

It just keeps getting better! This is a very rewarding hobby.

[Guy 13]

Tube amp kit found! For a variety of reasons I've gone with the Bottleheads "Stereoamour." I'm going to build it as the integrated amp that it is, but I'm going to add a power amp "in" so I can run it as a (duh!) power amp. 3.5 Wpc using 2A3s. It won't ship for a couple of weeks, but it'll be fun.

Hi Moot and all Audio Circle members.
Lucky you, no wonder my nick name is Guy 13
and I was really born on a Friday 13th. (1948)
That's the amplifier I've been dreaming of for some time,
but still cannot afford.
I bought from Louis the Omega 7F that I will get one day...
Your post might motivate me to rob a bank in order to get the money to buy the Stereomour.

Guy 13

[Moot]

It's 3:30am and I can't stop listening to my music... That's a good sign.

Guy 13 - do it! You know ya' wanna'! I was lucky and got in on a 15% off "Black Friday" deal.

One other great thing about this Omega/Stereomour combo is that it tops out about 15% louder than I usually listen to music - 95dB at one meter, according to my iPhone at stereo-center. I've always found that tubes sound best right near full volume, so this is perfect.

...I can hear the contra-bass in the string section now! OMG! 

[Guy 13]

It's 3:30am and I can't stop listening to my music... That's a good sign.

Guy 13 - do it! You know ya' wanna'! I was lucky and got in on a 15% off "Black Friday" deal.

One other great thing about this Omega/Stereomour combo is that it tops out about 15% louder than I usually listen to music - 95dB at one meter, according to my iPhone at stereo-center. I've always found that tubes sound best right near full volume, so this is perfect.

...I can hear the contra-bass in the string section now! OMG! 

Hi Moot and all Audio Circle members.
Well Moot, you've done it.
You were not able to sleep because of the good sound of your
combo Stereomour - Omega.
Well, now it's me that cannot sleep, but for a different reason.
I am dreaming of your combo.
Well, I will listen to my combo iPod - Sennheiser HD-650.
P i f f f f f f.....
 
Guy 13

[Moot]

This is a higher order of magnitude of sound quality. Clearest azur skies... Deepest blue-black seas... Heaven's trumpets and Hell's trombones...

I need sleep, but I can't tear myself away from this Omega/Stereomour combination. While playing Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories" I had to get up and put my hand on the sub just to prove to myself it was off! These are stunning speakers. My SS amps just weren't doing them justice.

Thanks, Louis, these are lifetime keepers. I don't think I could be happier!

[jorgen]

moot; wow, you have now made my expectations grow even higher than they were before. even if my set up will be a little different from yours, its pretty close i think. decware minitori and 3 xrs with 7" alnico hopefully will keep up at night as well, i guess everything will arrive in a month or so..
its really nice to hear that you are so satisfied.

feels like swimming for the very first time?