Alnico HempCone Driver Report

stevenkelby · « **Reply #20 on:** 16 Mar 2008, 10:32 am »

Jerome/Louis, Do you know how many hours these had on them when Jerome got them, and have they changed much during break in?

In short, do they have the same swings during break in as the standard drivers?

Can't wait to get mine!

jsaliga · « **Reply #21 on:** 17 Mar 2008, 12:11 pm »

Hi Steve,

I don't know precisely how many hours were on the drivers before Louis sent them to me. My understanding is very few.

The character of the drivers have not changed at all that I have noticed over the course of the two weeks that I have been listening to them.

--Jerome

stevenkelby · « **Reply #22 on:** 17 Mar 2008, 12:56 pm »

Thanks Jerome.

So it sounds like they do not have the same crazy swings as the standard drivers. That's good news! I was kind of looking forward to the "journey of the hemps" but I'm willing to give that up!

I wonder why the difference. I know more than just the magnet was changed but I guess the reason for the difference in burn in is just one of life's mysteries. I'll find out about any possible burn in for myself soon enough!

jsaliga · « **Reply #23 on:** 17 Mar 2008, 05:10 pm »

I simply don't know if these drivers will have similar break-in swings or not and noted that in my report. I know that my standard drivers had well over 200 hours on them before they acted up and went through a swing that lasted about 20 to 30 hours before settling in again and then were fine after that. I only have about 80 or 90 hours on the alnico drivers so it may be a bit too early to tell. So far so good: they sound wonderful.

--Jerome

Alwayswantmore · « **Reply #24 on:** 18 Mar 2008, 02:26 am »

Quote from: jsaliga on 17 Mar 2008, 05:10 pm

I simply don't know if these drivers will have similar break-in swings or not and noted that in my report. I know that my standard drivers had well over 200 hours on them before they acted up and went through a swing that lasted about 20 to 30 hours before settling in again and then were fine after that. I only have about 80 or 90 hours on the alnico drivers so it may be a bit too early to tell. So far so good: they sound wonderful.

--Jerome

Do you consider the $900 or so upgrade cost from current ferrite hemps a no brainer? Given current stock ferrite hemps and a modest budget, in your opinion would money be better invested in a Hemp sub or an upgrade to alnico drivers? Tough questions I know, but your thought are appreciated. Kent

R Browne · « **Reply #25 on:** 18 Mar 2008, 03:51 am »

I don't know about you but for me purity and refinement of tone wins out over deeper bass any day. Personally I would seriously look at the new alnico drivers. But that's me.

After speaking with Louis today about his speakers and the alnico drivers I'm looking forward to his future offerings. I'd say that there's a pair of Omegas in my future.

Alwayswantmore · « **Reply #26 on:** 18 Mar 2008, 09:42 pm »

Quote from: R Browne on 18 Mar 2008, 03:51 am

I don't know about you but for me purity and refinement of tone wins out over deeper bass any day. Personally I would seriously look at the new alnico drivers. But that's me.

After speaking with Louis today about his speakers and the alnico drivers I'm looking forward to his future offerings. I'd say that there's a pair of Omegas in my future.

Me too (on the mids and highs). The Sig 30 to .2 upgrade is a no brainer. Definitely better and a great value. I'm just trying to get a feel for whether or not the alnicos fit into the same category -- not just different, but actually BETTER in almost every way (like the RWA .2 upgrade)! I really wanted a Deep Hemp, getting purchases past the wife is a challenge, especially with a new house and down market

jsaliga · « **Reply #27 on:** 19 Mar 2008, 01:51 pm »

Thankfully I wasn't faced with that choice. It is easy to argue that purity of tone wins out over deeper bass, but it is another thing entirely to experience, say, Beethoven's 5th Symphony or Grieg's Piano Concerto No. 1 with properly extended bottom end. The music is much closer to a live performance with the sub than without. Trust me when I tell you that once you have heard first hand what the DeepHemp does for music, you just won't want to settle for anything less.

So if you want my opinion, going with just the alnico drivers and leaving out the DeepHemp is possibly a bigger compromise to the overall sound than buying the standard drivers with the DeepHemp. I'm sure there will be those who disagree, but there it is. Let's not pretend that the standard drivers are bad. There are a lot of folks, myself included, who were very satisfied with their overall performance. But I have a strong preference for the alnico drivers. If it is at all possible to do both the alnicos and the DeepHemp, then by all means I highly recommend that you do both. Talk to Louis about it. If you are planning to budget a main speaker purchase now and then maybe later adding the sub, then definitely get the alnico's now and add the DeepHemp later. But if you're going to adopt that strategy then be sure you follow up and get the sub later. You might think that the alnicos go low enough for you, and perhaps they might. But hearing music with the DeepHemp adds tremendously to the listening experience, it is a musical sub and brings more to the table than merely bottom end thump. Alternatively you can get the standard drivers now with the DeepHemp and upgrade the drivers later to the alnicos. This actually makes less sense to me. The standard drivers can take quite a while to break-in, in my case it was about 350 hours or so. If you were thinking of upgrading relatively soon (within a few months) then it makes much better sense to get the alnico drivers out of the gate and add the sub later.

Let me put it another way to put a finer point on the subject....if before the alnico drivers became an option you were planning on buying, say, a pair of MaxHemp speakers and a DeepHemp sub...I don't think the alnico drivers eliminate the need for the sub. I know this stuff costs money. I had to budget my speaker purchase and work with Louis on payment terms. I spent over $11,000 on new gear in the eight months before I even spoke to Louis about speakers for the first time. I earn a good living to be sure, but wads of cash are not exactly falling from a tree in the back yard. I won't fund discretionary purchases like this with plastic. If I don't have the cash on tap then I have to budget for it. I did what I had to do to get it done because I did not want to make any compromises. When the alnicos came along I had nearly three months for my wallet to recover (a tiny bit) from all of my other purchases. I think the alnico drivers are worth every penny of the asking price, and so is everything else I have purchased from Louis.

With that said, only you can determine what your priorities are.

--Jerome

Alwayswantmore · « **Reply #28 on:** 20 Mar 2008, 12:48 am »

Quote from: jsaliga on 19 Mar 2008, 01:51 pm

Thankfully I wasn't faced with that choice. It is easy to argue that purity of tone wins out over deeper bass, but it is another thing entirely to experience, say, Beethoven's 5th Symphony or Grieg's Piano Concerto No. 1 with properly extended bottom end. The music is much closer to a live performance with the sub than without. Trust me when I tell you that once you have heard first hand what the DeepHemp does for music, you just won't want to settle for anything less.

So if you want my opinion, going with just the alnico drivers and leaving out the DeepHemp is possibly a bigger compromise to the overall sound than buying the standard drivers with the DeepHemp. I'm sure there will be those who disagree, but there it is. Let's not pretend that the standard drivers are bad. There are a lot of folks, myself included, who were very satisfied with their overall performance. But I have a strong preference for the alnico drivers. If it is at all possible to do both the alnicos and the DeepHemp, then by all means I highly recommend that you do both. Talk to Louis about it. If you are planning to budget a main speaker purchase now and then maybe later adding the sub, then definitely get the alnico's now and add the DeepHemp later. But if you're going to adopt that strategy then be sure you follow up and get the sub later. You might think that the alnicos go low enough for you, and perhaps they might. But hearing music with the DeepHemp adds tremendously to the listening experience, it is a musical sub and brings more to the table than merely bottom end thump. Alternatively you can get the standard drivers now with the DeepHemp and upgrade the drivers later to the alnicos. This actually makes less sense to me. The standard drivers can take quite a while to break-in, in my case it was about 350 hours or so. If you were thinking of upgrading relatively soon (within a few months) then it makes much better sense to get the alnico drivers out of the gate and add the sub later.

Let me put it another way to put a finer point on the subject....if before the alnico drivers became an option you were planning on buying, say, a pair of MaxHemp speakers and a DeepHemp sub...I don't think the alnico drivers eliminate the need for the sub. I know this stuff costs money. I had to budget my speaker purchase and work with Louis on payment terms. I spent over $11,000 on new gear in the eight months before I even spoke to Louis about speakers for the first time. I earn a good living to be sure, but wads of cash are not exactly falling from a tree in the back yard. I won't fund discretionary purchases like this with plastic. If I don't have the cash on tap then I have to budget for it. I did what I had to do to get it done because I did not want to make any compromises. When the alnicos came along I had nearly three months for my wallet to recover (a tiny bit) from all of my other purchases. I think the alnico drivers are worth every penny of the asking price, and so is everything else I have purchased from Louis.

With that said, only you can determine what your priorities are.

--Jerome

Jerome, thank you for your thoughtful response. BTW. do you use one or two Deep Hemps? And what are the approx dimensions of your listing room? Kent

jsaliga · « **Reply #29 on:** 20 Mar 2008, 01:50 am »

I have one DeepHemp and a pair of MaxHemps. My room is 15' x 14' and IMO one sub is plenty for a room this size.

--Jerome

rodge827 · « **Reply #30 on:** 20 Mar 2008, 03:24 am »

Hi Kent,

I have a pair of Compact Hemp's and dual Deep Hemp sub's, my room is 15.5 x 21 x 8.5. My drivers are the latest Hemp's, and I will be switching to the Alnico Hemp's (thanks to Jerome's positive review of them) when they become available. That said, if the Alnico's where never available I don't feel that I would be missing anything. All of Louis' products and Louis the man are head and shoulders above the rest!!
What ever your decision, YOU WILL BE SATISFIED

, and changes or additions (as funds become available) down the road are always an option.

Good Luck,

Rodge

A Very Happy Omega Customer

Louis O · « **Reply #31 on:** 21 Mar 2008, 12:46 am »

Hi Jerome,

many thanks and I do agree with you. Starting out with the alnico will save in the long run. I did send your alnico drivers out with zero hours. I just did a sweep to make sure they were OK. My set here don't have the break in swings at all.

The Deephemp is important to me as well. It adds the foundation of the music and tuned to be fast and musical. I love the combo with the alnico and run the Supers and Max's sealed especially with the sub.

Also some great news is the addition of the 6.5" alnico driver. This is a smaller version of the 8" and will be coming shortly after the first run of 8's. I will have these hopefully in a monitor and mini tower a lot like small versions of Max's and Supers. They will be a great value too and for alnico it's special.

Thanks,
Louis

Adriel · « **Reply #32 on:** 6 Apr 2008, 06:49 am »

Does plugging the ports on an Omega cabinet attribute the characteristics of a sealed design? Such as improved transient response at the cost of reduced efficiency. Or does it remain a ported cabinet design with the port plugged up?

I was an early adopter from 4 years ago. I bought a TS2R demo unit, then switched to a TS3R. I realize the ported design has been from the beginning. But once in a while there's a port-plugging option available, creating greater flexiblity for customers. Taking this one step further, if I would like no port, could I order that?

I guess that is one thing that stands out to me as someone in search of purity. I like to think of having a solid wood panel, instead of a wood panel with a plastic port and cotton sock wedged in-between.

jsaliga · « **Reply #33 on:** 28 Apr 2008, 03:30 pm »

I think it is time to update this thread. I've been busy with work....and enjoying these drivers so much that I sort of lost sight of the goings on around here.

To my ears, jazz and classical can be extremely demanding on a pair of loudspeakers. I haven't been keeping track of how many hours I have on the alnico drivers, but it is probably at least 250 or more. The drivers are so rich and dynamic sounding that I have been listening exclusively to 1950s and 60s hard bop jazz, jazz vocals, and 1940s and 50s popular music vocals cut from the great American song book. The alnicos thus far do not seem to exhibit the swings in sound performance that characterised the break-in behavior of the ferrite magnet drivers. If anything, the bass response has opened up a tad with continued break-in. Other than that, I really haven't noticed any performance swings at all. For the most part they sound the same as they did the day I installed them in my Max Hemp cabinets. That is to say, completely remarkable...the alnicos are a sonic revelation.

I have been pulling out a lot of my choice recordings since installing the alnicos.

Ella Fitzgerald - Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book

Ella Fitzgerald and Judy Garland are probably the two greatest female vocalists of the 20th century. That's not meant to slight the likes of Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Rosemary Clooney, Peggy Lee, or any number of fine female singers from the swing era and pre-rock popular music. Ella Fitzgerald, in particular, seems most deserving of the title of "First Lady of Song." I have the Complete Ella Fitzgerald Song Books in a CD boxed set from Verve. It is expensive and worth every penny. Lately, I have set about buying these on vinyl (talk about expensive!!). Superbly recorded and mastered, this masterpiece sounds amazing.

Bill Evans - Everybody Digs Bill Evans

A must own title for any jazz fan. Available on CD, freshly remastered as part of the Orrin Keepnews series. Also available on a vinyl reissue and a double 45 RPM vinyl audiophile pressing. I have the remastered CD and the vinyl reissue. This is a great recording and a performance by Evans that is one for the ages.

Peggy Lee - Black Coffee

Another great album with crystal clear sonics. Worth tracking down on vinyl if you can find it (it's something of a rare record these days), but if you can't the Verve Master Series edition of this sounds great on CD.

Judy Garland - Alone

I have a first pressing copy of this on Capitol Records in great shape. A lot of folks think of Judy Garland and can't get past The Wizard of Oz. Great movie, to be sure. But she enjoyed a successful career as a recording artist. Her death at age 47 in 1969 was a tragic loss to music and movie fans alike. This album is full of torch songs. The entire album is brilliant, but the standouts are Me and My Shadow, I Got a Right to Sing the Blues, and Mean to Me.

Frank Sinatra - Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim

It was Stan Getz that helped Jobim make Bossa Nova music popular among West Coast jazz fans in the early 1960s. But it was this collaboration with Frank Sinatra in 1967 that brought Bossa Nova into the mainstream of American popular music. I have this on 180g vinyl. The sound is so delicate and soft on this recording that Sinatra once commented that he had not sung so soft since he had laryngitis. This is also a recording that will help you to appreciate the alnico drivers. I think a lesser driver might step on some of the delicate and nuanced sounds of this finely crafted record. Sinatra takes Jobim's signature song, The Girl from Ipanema and makes it his own.

So far, if there is any downside to the alnico drivers is that they have me spending more money on music. A lot more, and I find myself going after a lot of audiophile pressings on 180g or 200g vinyl. Here's a short list of the titles that I have bought and am waiting on delivery:

Duke Ellington - Blues in Orbit (200g vinyl)
Nat King Cole - Just One of Those (180g vinyl)
Ella Fitzgerald - Clap Hands (200g vinyl)
Ella Fitzgerald - Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book (180g vinyl)
Ella Fitzgerald - Sings the Cole Porter Song Book (180g vinyl)
Billie Holiday - Lady in Satin (180g vinyl)

...and then some vintage vinyl titles that I probably paid too much for:

Judy Garland - In Person at Carnegie Hall (1st Pressing)
Nat King Cole - At the Sands (sealed 1st pressing)
Frank Sinatra - Songs for Swingin' Lovers (1st Pressing)
Frank Sinatra - Where Are You? (1st Pressing)
Pearl Bailey - St. Louis Blues (sealed)
Rosemary Clooney - Swing Around with Rosie (1st Pressing)
Peggy Lee - Beauty and the Beat (reissue)

Anyway, music is supposed to be what this is all about. I can honestly say that my current setup (especially with analog) is the best I have ever owned, and can't imagine it getting any better. I might try to snag myself a used Esoteric DV-50 if I can find one for the right price that isn't beat up. But if I do it will probably be the last audio component I buy for the forseeable future. I am very pleased with how this entire setup has come together, and appreciate all the help that I have gotten on forums such as this, and from people like Louis.

--Jerome

stevenkelby · « **Reply #34 on:** 28 Apr 2008, 03:51 pm »

I love reading your posts Jerome, but you're a very bad influence!

You posted only 10 minutes ago and I've already ordered 2 LPs you mentioned!

jsaliga · « **Reply #35 on:** 28 Apr 2008, 11:36 pm »

Sometimes I am a bad influence on myself! I post here about some of my favorite recordings and how great they sound on the alnico drivers and then proceed to blow $500 on audiophile vinyl pressings.

--Jerome

Randy · « **Reply #36 on:** 29 Apr 2008, 12:49 am »

jsaliga wrote: "So far, if there is any downside to the alnico drivers is that they have me spending more money on music."

This has been my problem since acquiring a Red Wine 30.2 a couple of months ago. The sounds are so great, and it's just too easy to search and then order on Amazon.com. Takes just a couple of clicks and there goes the $.

You should post your message on the Music Circle. I used to be a big fan of Ella's, and had many of the "song books" on Lp, and some of her later recordings on the Pablo label. Good stuff. When I was a kid, we used to catch her quite often on the Ed Sullivan show. Can you imagine anything like that on network TV in these culturally degraded times? Same can be said for the Sinatra and Garland shows.

jsaliga · « **Reply #37 on:** 29 Apr 2008, 12:44 pm »

Quote from: Randy on 29 Apr 2008, 12:49 am

This has been my problem since acquiring a Red Wine 30.2 a couple of months ago. The sounds are so great, and it's just too easy to search and then order on Amazon.com. Takes just a couple of clicks and there goes the $.

Indeed. In my case the few clicks are for Classic Records, Analog Productions, and Speakers Corner 200g and 180g audiophile vinyl pressings. At about $30 a pop it adds up real fast. I just bought two Duke Ellington titles on 200g vinyl and there went $70 out the door. I know it sounds like I'm complaining but really I'm not. Sure, I wish these flagship vinyl pressings were less expensive. But I bought the entire run of Led Zeppelin's catalog on 200g vinyl and have no regrets. These records sound better and have much less surface noise than the original pressings. So I am happy with the quality and that is why I keep coming back. The splendid sound of the alnico drivers are merely supplying me with an added motive to buy them.

--Jerome

pardales · « **Reply #38 on:** 29 Apr 2008, 12:58 pm »

Quote from: jsaliga on 29 Apr 2008, 12:44 pm

Quote from: Randy on 29 Apr 2008, 12:49 am
This has been my problem since acquiring a Red Wine 30.2 a couple of months ago.

The splendid sound of the alnico drivers are merely supplying me with an added motive to buy them.

--Jerome

That there is as good an endorsement you can give to a speaker (and amp).

bsuhy · « **Reply #39 on:** 3 May 2008, 06:50 pm »

my 8" alnico hemps just arrived today. i will be swapping out the B200s in my A8s tonight!! i cant wait..