romaz
1000+ Head-Fier
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- Jan 19, 2013
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I appreciate you taking the time to reply, Romaz, thanks. With a young baby now I'm not able to listen to my loungeroom hifi much, and am spending much more time in my home office but do tire of headphones listening - it was never really my thing and I much prefer speakers. As you'd know, speaker listening with family around or late at night is challenging, as with the low volumes required dynamics are often lost, and it swiftly becomes pointless to continue. What I was trying to build is a nearfield setup similar to yours, but I do not have a DAVE (only a TT) so was planning to use a small Pass Labs XA30.5 (30 Watts Class A) to run from the TT and drive an appropriate speaker. I was thinking the Omega SAM monitor was a good candidate and stumbled on your posts here doing a search on them.
I don't have a hugely deep desk. I can pull it out from the wall and standmount speakers behind it, though, which may work. I used to do this with monitors when I was mixing music at home years ago. Or I could get a deeper desk, not sure which way would yield better results. What cabinet dimensions did you settle on?
So I was thinking of Hugo TT > Pass Labs XA30.5 > Omega SAM's on inert stands.
That should be a very enjoyable near field system, and I can resort to headphones if I must at certain times. I am yet to hear some Utopia's but I would like to, if they have similar qualities to my HE1K's but with the dynamic driver qualities the planars lack.
It's funny you mention the Voxative 9.87's. Paired with high quality SET amps (like their 845's) they are stunningly good speakers. Among the best I've heard, as long as you don't need high SPL bass slam and low end extension (they're rolling off below ~40Hz). They now have an additional supplementary dipole bass 'system' to fix that, however.
Robb Watt's hasn't divulged specifics other than to say what he uses for speakers are an 'old german' pair. But anyone who's gone to Munich high-end or similar, knows what the German's can and have done with 1-way's and horns before, which render mids and treble better than basically everything I've heard elsewhere. Voxative and Cessaro come to mind.
It seems we not only have similar audio sensibilities but also similar life circumstances although instead of a young baby, I have a high school aged son that needs peace and quiet as he studies and a wife who prefers to go to bed much earlier than I do and so for these reasons, my smaller system in my home office gets much more use.
You're in excellent shape with your TT and your XA30.5. According to Louis Chochos, Nelson Pass himself is an Omega customer and whether it be a First Watt or Pass Labs, I believe you will find good synergy with any of the Omegas. These are Louis' preferred solid state amps. Interestingly, they are also Holger Adler's preferred solid state amps for his Voxativs.
You won't need as large a desk as you might imagine to accommodate the Omega Alnicos. If depth or width are an issue, you can go taller if necessary but you will need a minimum of 8 inches of width to fit the Alnico driver into an enclosure. You can opt for one of Omega's smaller ferrite drivers and having owned the smaller Super 3i, I believe you will love them but there is a magical quality to the Alnico magnet that you will not want to miss and so I would suggest you do all you can to accommodate this driver. Audio Note UK incorporates Alnico magnets in their higher end speaker lines beginning at $30k per pair. Voxativ charges $10k for the Alnico option for the 9.87s. To be able to own Alnico drivers for under $2k is unheard of.
The key to maintaining dynamics at low listening levels is a good tuneful subwoofer, not a boomy sub that does one note bass but something fast and tight. Although it isn't advertised, Louis can build you just such a sub using one of his 8 inch drivers for well under $1k that pairs very well with his Alnicos (I used to own one of these) and can provide nice fill down to 28Hz. If you're not heavily into organ music as I am, you may find this sub to be perfectly adequate.
Should you decide one day to move away from your TT and your XA30.5, with the Omega Alnicos, not only can a single DAVE replace them both but I believe you will find that It can do so magnificently.