I agree with Kevin Gilmore and JohnActon: the Stereophile review was not detailed enough. This is uncharacteristic of Mr Jonathan Scull, who usually is very eloquent. Almost nothing at all was said of how the headphone sounds, with the exception of the short, almost perfunctory, description at the final "Summing Up" section of the review.
The lengthy reviews of the Omega II at HeadWize are far more informative than the Stereophile one. I recall there were two lengthy reviews of this headphone at HeadWize: one by myself and another by Headster. Whilst my review might have been the first full-length review to appear at HeadWize, I felt that Headster's (later) review was the best review of the Omega II that you can find anywhere, because his review described in tremendous detail the sonic character of the headphone in question.
(To be sure, reviews of the Omega II that are more detailed than Stereophile's can be found not only at HeadWize but also in Ultimate Audio Issue 3-#3, Inner Ear Report Issue 11-#3 and Hi Fi News And Record Review. But the two HeadWize reviews are more in-depth than the ones by Ultimate Audio, Inner Ear and Hi Fi News, probably because the ones by the two non-professional reviewers were the result of a labour of love for this headphone.)
It was as if Mr Scull meant his review to be merely an adjunct/compliment to the more detailed reviews found elsewhere. His review filled a specific void, which was that so far no one has actually done a detailed comparison of the tubed 007t and the solid state 717, which are the two usual amps one drives the Omega II with. It was as if he had read reviews found elsewhere, and wrote his own review to fill that void, and didn't bother to talk about the headphone itself because others had already done so.
Either that, or Mr Scull might possibly be uncomfortable reviewing/comparing headphones, because quite possibly he doesn't listen enough to headphones (what with all the high-end loudspeakers he has at his disposal!). It might be possible that he is more comfortable comparing amplifiers and comparing the effects of power supply accessories.
The previous reviewer who tackled headphones for Stereophile was Mr Thomas J Norton. He reviewed high-end headphones such as Orpheus, baby Orpheus, Lambda Signature, Omega I, Lambda Pro and Koss ESP-950 for Stereophile during the mid- to late-90s. I find Mr Norton's reviews of headphones to be far more detailed, helpful and informative than Mr Scull's. Mr Norton left Stereophile to become editor of Stereophile Home Theatre.
