[Audiophile58]

 I have owned Many Loudspeakers such as  YG Carmels , Maggi ,Revel Tekton,,Zu and many others types all have there good and bad points My New Alnico 6 Monitors
with Powered sub when used, Makes this Loudspeaker a Excellent Full range Loudspeaker . IMO I know of no loudspeaker that brings this much realism,prat and fidelity at or near this price point .personally these bettered my $20k YG Carmels in several areas, and that is saying a lot.
Out of the Box No Loudspeaker is at it's best .This being a single driver speaker speaker it  is even more sensitive to changes .The first 20 hours  tight a bit on the dry side .

That was the toughest part. The first say 50  hours to loosen up the surround ,voice coil and spider, after that it just gets better and better.with over 100 hours now fully runin. My brother brought his $30,000
Tenor amplifier to see if it would expose My Alnico speakers,he was Shocked at the purity of the sound .The  realism and timing was spot on.He asked me what was I using         a real expensive crossover in there ? Yes I answered the Best - It is a Crossover less design .Nothing to muck up the original  signal.
I own SET amps and MY other Jas Bravo Modified 2.3 amp  lets you hear Deep into the recording something only a SET amp can do .What a Great combination with these speakers a  you are there realism.    This is One classic Loudspeaker Louis designed .Highly recommended.P.s  If you are in the New England area and want to check them out   let me know.I am in Ma.






 it is a direct feed from the source . Myself surprised of the midbass weight from a 6.5 inch driver
as far as rolled off on top Not one bit if anything very fleshed out with a bit of added depth of realism . that was with the subwoofer off with it on I had to back off  on it .
Only the lower range from low 40 to 20s . Realism  is the key word here with any decent recording  the instrument s like horns have a burnished sound that is very close to Live .

[Jolly]

 Excellent Review Audioman 58!! I can't think of another audio company that offers as much value as Omega and as a bonus Louis is such a pleasure to deal with. A small American company building VERY high quality loudspeakers that are VERY fairly priced is a very much appreciated gem by this music lover/audiophile. I also admire Louis for never being satisfied with his already outstanding products and is always seeking to improve them. I would urge anyone who has not heard the latest Omega products to give them a try and expect to be very pleased!

[rebbi]

Very, very handsome speakers, Audioman. Enjoy! I am tempted to follow your lead!   

How did you break them in? Louis seems to suggest playing a lot of bass heavy music for about 80 to 100 hours.

[beowulf]

Great review and beautiful finish, is that Teak?

[Audiophile58]

Thanks guys for  the support. These are in a very nice finish  Teak veneer it is a very solid speaker.
Everyone that comes over cannot believe such solid midbass can come from a 6 inch driver.
This is not your average driver A typical Scan speak driver is nowhere as solid and the Hemp driver
Is one of the strongest natural materials .and huge Alnico slug. These are made for fidelity not max SPl levels.
They can do 100'db if called upon but  I choose not to though. Voices are as natural as you are there
And these can  Rock and Roll . What  others fail to realize is that at 93 db efficient I have tons of choices
For amplifiers I can use that  Don't break the bank .my friends many have power plants to run there towers .
I had over 5 pair of speaker in a 3 year period . I am finally satisfied. That being said maybe a double driver
Alnico 6 monitor ?

[rebbi]

Tell us more about the sound. How are the highs? How do the highs compare to other speakers you've owned?

[DBC]

Audiophile58 wrote:

Myself surprised of the midbass weight from a 6.5 inch driver, as far as rolled off on top Not one bit if anything very fleshed out with a bit of added depth of realism.

I concur with Audiophile58. I have had my Alnico Monitors for a couple months now and have never had a sense that the top end was lacking. Quite the opposite, everything is there, detailed, clear and very smooth sounding. I've had a bunch of nice speakers over the years and the Alnico Monitors have the most satisfying top end of them all. I would not have believed it if I were not hearing them myself.

[rebbi]

I concur with Audiophile58. I have had my Alnico Monitors for a couple months now and have never had a sense that the top end was lacking. Quite the opposite, everything is there, detailed, clear and very smooth sounding. I've had a bunch of nice speakers over the years and the Alnico Monitors have the most satisfying top end of them all. I would not have believed it if I were not hearing them myself.

DBC,
Thanks. I guess lots of us are so used to the idea that without a specialized tweeter you can't get a decent high end. The web site says that the alnico's extend up to 20 kHz, but I wonder how many db down that is...

[seikosha]

Hi Rebbi,

The highs on my RS5 Omegas are very good.  I'd say that in comparison to some other very expensive multiway speakers I've had, you could say that the Omegas were just not quite as good at the very top.  I'm talking about 12k and up.  The Omegas are very very close, but maybe just a hair not as good.  If you don't have a test cd to realize how high these highs are, you should get one as you'll realize that there's not a lot of music up there.

Now when you think about how much better the Omegas sound from about 60 - 12k you start to realize that it's kind of pointless to worry about how they do at the very top or very bottom.

That said, I think that's why more manufacturers don't create single driver speakers.  When people think about speakers, they always want to know how they perform at the extremes.  They want to see a graph that extends as far as possible in both directions which is kind of odd because really, that's not where most of the music is.  Who cares if a conventional speaker may arguably do the highs better when the midrange,coherency, imaging, soundstaging etc is worse.

[dspringham]

I'm enjoying Super Alnico Monitors as well and have been pleasantly surprised with the high end. In comparison to some other "much more expensive" two or three ways I own (or have owned) I honestly don't feel like I'm missing much without a dedicated tweeter. Sure, there may be a slight sense of the lack of the "subliminal airiness", those high frequencies produced by my Harbeth SHL5's with their super tweeter or the Von Schweikert UniiField 3 with their ribbons. Lets face it, as we age our sensitivity to those frequencies are becoming more and more diminished.

I think the highs from the Alnico may not be quite as sophisticated as the dedicated designs but I'm really enjoying the naturalness and coherency and those qualities trump extension as as far as I'm concerned. For the kind of music I enjoy (female vocal, small jazz group, acoustic) it's all there in the presence zone.

Going from memory and comparing to the Zu Audio designs I've owned (Druid IV '08 and Soul Superfly) the Super Alnico's bring it without the need for a supplemental tweeter. Of course all of this was before the Zu Radian tweeter which is a major step up.

The only time you may feel "high end" deprived is upon direct ABXing with very high quality (tweeter itself and crossover network) designs. One thing you will never have to worry about with the Super Alnico is an "over zealous hi-fi sounding" top end. Once again "naturalness" is the operative word here.

Happy listening!

Dave

[rebbi]

Do any of you folks with the Alnico Monitors listen to orchestral music or rock and roll? How do they fare with that kind of music? My record collection has a little bit of everything: Steely Dan, James Taylor, movie soundtracks, jazz, some classical...

[dspringham]

Rebbi,

Have no fear of throwing any musical genre at the Alnico's. Although I'm not a real classical fan, I do indeed enjoy rock/pop such a Knopfler, Clapton, Sting etc., however I tend to favour "well produced and recorded" material and normally listen at "reasonable" levels. These speakers will truly reflect what is on the source. They will not smooth over poor quality recordings.

I find most of the Mark Knopfler stuff to be very well recorded (Sailing to Philadelphia is one of my fav's). His voice reproduction (not to mention the guitar tone) through the Alnico's is truly amazing. All of the rich resonance, "gravel" and inflection that makes his sound unique is there in all it's glory. The vocal presence is what I value and the coherence over the full range is a highlight. With exemplary SET amplification (such as your Audio Note 300b) the tone and presence is "spooky". I enjoyed this type of presence with the Harbeth SHL-5's (outstanding midrange actually) but found them a bit too challenging for low power SET

I do supplement the low end with a Gallo Acoustics sealed sub which I find works extremely well and integrates without a hitch. With this combo I feel that the reproduction is honestly full range. The speakers will play as loud (and clean) as I would ever need and often power them with a Hypex ncore NC400 amplifier which has turned out to be a surprisingly good combination for both low level, late evening intimate sessions with Chet Baker or rockin' out with Dave Grohl  and the soundtrack from "Sound City".

Many years ago I did own the Ref 3A de Capo-i's and enjoyed them very much, however I found that even with their stated high efficiency and supposedly tube friendly Z curve that they had no where near the amplifier latitude that the Super Alnico offers. I remember driving with a Prima Luna Prologue One integrated and found I was driving them into clipping on heavy low frequency passages - granted I listened at higher SPL's back then as compared to now (and no sub). I have yet to overdrive my Eddie Vaughn custom EL83/EL84 (approx 1.5 watts) with the Alnico's  - I think their stated efficiency rating is under spec'd.

I still have my reference Daedalus DA-Rma monitors and will pop them into the system from time to time for a change of pace, but for the moment I am thoroughly  enjoying the Omega Super Alnico monitors.

Cheers,
Dave

[Canada Rob]

Hi Rebbi,

Everything I've played on my Decware Super Zen/Super Alnico Monitor system has sounded terrific.  Classical, Baroque, Choral, Celtic, Jazz, Pop, and Vocals all sound terrific and reproduced with ease.  However, a poor recording will immediately show up, as will more compression vs less compression in a recording.  A truly good system will give you "warts and all" and this one is no exception.

Also, these speakers are large but will disappear like a mini monitor in a huge 3D soundstage.  Even on 1.5 watts the system is capable of going too loud for my comfort.

[FireGuy]

Hi Rebbi,

"warts and all"

[rebbi]

Hi Rebbi,

Everything I've played on my Decware Super Zen/Super Alnico Monitor system has sounded terrific.  Classical, Baroque, Choral, Celtic, Jazz, Pop, and Vocals all sound terrific and reproduced with ease.  However, a poor recording will immediately show up, as will more compression vs less compression in a recording.  A truly good system will give you "warts and all" and this one is no exception.

Also, these speakers are large but will disappear like a mini monitor in a huge 3D soundstage.  Even on 1.5 watts the system is capable of going too loud for my comfort.

Rob,

Thanks for the insights.

As a dealer, you may have some perspective on the following question.

I have a pair of Osiris speaker stands. They are 24", one piece, heavy metal, welded construction. They've been out of production for many years now. They have two pillars, each of which I have filled with playground sand. They are extremely heavy and have massive, brass spikes.

Now, they are a bit tall for the Alnico monitors and their top plate is probably a bit smaller than ideal. On the other hand, I think that their height might be mitigated by the fact that my listening room is a guest bedroom and I sit perched on a daybed which is certainly higher than the average sofa or chair. So my guess is that the center of the driver would probably be fairly close to even with my ears when everything is taken into consideration.

I think that if I had to buy a new pair of those Skylan stands at close to $600, it would throw my budget over the edge. Given what I have described here, how do you think I would do with the stands I have? I know it's kind of an impossible question to answer long-distance, but what's your gut tell you?

Thanks!

[Canada Rob]

Hi Rebbi,

Being you already have the stands, it's a no brainer to try them IMO.  I had my Alnico Monitors on 24" stands briefly before I received my Skylans and they sounded good.

[rfprice]

Hi Audiophile58,

I am in CT and I think I might like to take you up on your offer to come here them, if we are not too far away. Does your offer still stand?

[Audiophile58]

RF Price  I sent you a email.

Anyone wanted to come over for a jam session just drop me a name ,tel number ,thanks Paul.

[abby normal]

lordy i wish i lived closer to you so i could hear my music on those things, a bucket list item is to be able to hear my music on an SET with a loudspeaker such as the omega. if anybody is familiar with harry zimmerman's big band [50s outfit, he was dinah shore's music director] and his stereo recording "band with a beat" - THAT would be primo music to hear on such a system.