[KR...]

Quote:

Source is Meridian 588 cdp. IC is vdh d-102 III (got some First Ultimates on order). Amp is srm-007t.

 

[eeyssjr]

OK guys, i just took delivery of some Stax Omega 2 Refernece Headphones and Valve energiser too!

FMy initial impressions are definitely similar, if not exactly the same as TerriblySorry.

Seeing as i have the only UK demo pair, they did not come with instructions. i am racking my brains to figure out the adjustable earpads.

TerriblySorry, can you help me out????

I find that on one side, the earpad can rotate INDEPENDANTLY of the easrpiece (the bit that the wire goes into), and on the other channel, the earpiece and earpad rotate, but this time joined together. Which is correct. Surely one is wrong, not suprising for a demo pair. They are clearly broken on not constructed right as they are now. i just need to know what they are supposed to do, before i force something to rotate i shouldn't.

At the moment, the wire that goes into the earpiece can end up on top of the earpiece instaed of down the bottom. Which not only looks stupid, but is uncompfortable. HELP??!!

 

[TerriblySorry]

eeyssjr,

The instructions supplied with the factory-sealed kit are minimal at best. There's certainly nothing there about the rotating earpieces. The leather pads are fixed to their respective earpieces on my kit. The pads do not have independent motion. If you check the cups you'll see that internally they have an irregular shape. The thickest part of the cup goes at the back of the ear.

As far as I can tell, the headband isn't adjustable. To get a good fit, I wiggle the headband forwards/backwards a bit until it feels like it wont fall off. Rotating the earpieces doesn't do anything for me, but if I push them as far forward as they'll go without by earlobes bending, I get a good fit. You'll need to ensure that the leather pads are pressed firmly against your head all around their circumference. If there's the slightest gap, the bass goes boomy, and you start getting reverb off the pad interiors.

Watch out for perspiration. There's a warning about not using the kit if you get too sweaty - they suggest putting some lint cloth between your head and the pads. Despite this, I've found the pads fit better (i.e. they stop sliding around) when my skin is slightly sticky.

 

[eeyssjr]

OK, thanks alot TerriblySorry.

This means there must be somehting wrong with this pair. When i arrange the earpiece in which the pas and earpiece are stuck together, as u say i correct, if i orientate so that the fat bit is at the back and thin at the front, the wire ends up at like 9pm on the earpiece (ie: stuicking out the back). With the other one, things are even worse, cos the earpad moves separately.

i will have to talk to the supplier.

BTW, did you get that funny little blue notice with the headphones about the air pressure and strange noises occuring? How funny. Clearly a japanese persons attempt at English. I had to read it 3 times to make sense of it.

Thanks for the quick reply

 

[TerriblySorry]

Sounds like you got a real beat-up pair.

My little piece of paper's pink. Guess mine's a baby girl.

 

[templeboy]

Congratulations on the new toy!

Although I posted my quick conclusion months ago that Omega is not for me due to the similar reasons listed by Tomcat, I must say that this is a product you either love it to death or don't prefer it, but never dislike it!

I had been blew off twice w/ headphone gears. One is RKV headphone amp, the other is Grado RS-1. Non-headphone gears? McIntosh MR67 tuner and Accuphase DP-75V CDP. You got picture: I love lush, textured sound w/ tons of ambient and quick, naural edges. On the other hand, no "fat" and excessively warm sound please. That's why I prefer RKV over Melos Mastrae and Cary 300SEI. The latters are bit too rich in my tubed front ends although they may just be the ticket if your tuner or CDP is SS.

 

[Maiolica]

Hi TerriblySorry
You say that the headband doesn’t seem to be adjustable, well it is. You need to bend the two steel headbands to suit your head, by bending the bands independently its possible to get just about a perfect fit for any head! And they do take a long time before they sound at their best – and the 007t takes even longer, if that’s what you are using.

eeyssjr mentions the warning about the funny noise, well my first pair of Omegas suffered from this particular problem all the time before the right hand cable fell out of its housing after one week of use! The replacement set have not suffered this strange noise at all in over two years of use.

As you have noticed the ear-pads can swivel. Well the pad mounting is attached to a rotating disc by some tiny screws that are not normally accessible. In my first set, the bottom screw near the cable entry point was only binding by the skin of its teeth (in fact it was possible to pull the ear-pad slightly away from its mount – as I didn’t know better at the time I thought this was normal). The last thread could hold no longer and one day as I lifted the headphones, the parts separated and the cable fell out – now supported only by three incredibly thin silver cables which promptly snapped.


I have to respond to Tomcat. It must be a matter of taste but I have heard no dynamic headphone that can match the base of the Omegas. I also have Grado RS1s with EarMax Pro OTL valve headphone amp and really there is no comparison, and as for lushness the Omegas are utterly smooth and rich, making even the RS1s sound hard, bright and fatiguing. Had the Omegas and 007t that you listened to been sufficiently run in? I found the 007t took at least a couple of months before it even started to give an impression of what it was capable of. Finally these headphones, probably more than any other item in hifi, require a synergetic match from a front end. If they sound musically uninviting, its probably because they are too much of an open window into a front end that needs to be euphonically enhanced, which they will just not do. I’m not saying your particular front end isn’t good – just the one you demoed with was clearly not an appropriate synergetic match.

Love Maiolica

 

[Tomcat]

"I have to respond to Tomcat."

Maiolica,

It seems I have to respond to Maiolica.

I could only audition the Omega II / 007 tube amp system with the source the Swiss-German Stax distributor provided at the recent "High-End" exhibit in Frankfurt. And I must admit, the CDP wasn't all that great. I guess it was something from Onkyo. Nothing to be impressed by.

But as far as tonal balance is concerned, CDPs seem to be rather similar. The very good ones will have more solid bass and less obtrusive treble, but tonal differences do not seem to be as big as with headphones (or speakers). And the utter lack of bass extension and slam is something that I have perceived every time I tried electrostatic headphones.

I don't know the Grado RS 1. They might be the smoothest and most forgiving headphone in the Grado line, but my favourite headphones might be even warmer and more forgiving: I like the new 250 Ohm versions of the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (closed) and DT 990 Pro (open), in that order. From the descriptions of the Grados RS headphones, I'd infer that the Beyers reach deeper and have more impact. To my ears, the Beyers have more pronounced and natural bass than the Omega II from probably any source. And I would think this to be conventional wisdom: Dynamic speakers have an easier time handling bass than electrostatic ones. There just is no such thing as an electrostatic woofer.

I don't subscribe to the idea of "euphonic distortion" or "revealing components". If a new component sounds worse, my instincts would be to blame this component. For damaging the integrity of my musical signal in a way that has psychoacoustic relevance. I would say that the better component is the more neutral one, but at the same time, I would regard the more enjoyable and emotionally involving component as the more neutral one.

I think, musical homogenousness and its emotional effect are qualities to be lost in a system, not to be gained. The question is not what sonic quality to add with a new component but what kind of signal degradation to choose. I believe every component is degrading the signal and thus my musical enjoyment. That's why I don't understand how a better and more neutral and less distorting component could sound worse. If I introduced the perfectly neutral and transparent component in my system, it would be possible to hear better what kind of distortions are caused by the other, less than perfect components, I presume. But at the same time, there would be zero additional degradation of the musical signal and therefore, there ought to be more enjoyment. When I choose components I almost always prefer warm to cold, homogenous to detailed, musical to analytical. I just want to have fun with my hi-fi gear.

And if you enjoy Omega IIs, Maiolica, that's fine with me. I would have a hard time arguing against it, anyways, since I claim subjective pleasure to be the ultimate criterion.

Peace!

 

[Maiolica]

From Tomcat: ‘…the CDP wasn't all that great. I guess it was something from Onkyo’.

Maiolica rests her case – curtsies and leaves the building.

 

[headster]

Just thought I chime in for a moment. Having owned an Omega IIs for nearly 6 months, I can attest to the fact that these 'phones do not lack any bass response. In fact, their bass is the fastest, deepest, tautest and most accurate among some of these: ER4S, HP-1, RS-1 and HD600.

Due to Omega's highly sensitive to associate equipments (CDP, Amp, Cables and etc..), most folks really never heard how these wonderful 'phones conveyed the musical true. Unlike all 'phones mentioned above, the Omega IIs beg to be paired with only equipments of the highest standard. Yeap!...the Onkyo didn't cut it.