The Second Coming

Mr Omiga Audio was kindly chauffeured by Robbo to sultry South East London on Wednesday. Jason Hector was also in attendance. We tried a range of cables: mains, IC and speaker and a box.

We listened to the system as is for about half an hour (WT Record Player, DVXX2, DVP75; Densen 400XS; DVL100 pre; DVHX1.2 power and Neat Ultimatum MF9s), playing a range of things from OTT Hallucinogen in Dub to BB King via Joe Satriani.

Initial impressions were a little disappointing: mains cable - slight improvement; IC - slight improvement, but did it hinder the 'band playing together' factor? The first major improvement arrived with the speaker cable which surprised me a little since I'd tried a different length of the same cable a few days before with mixed results.

We then tried pretty much the full works and, as a full cable loom, the results were extremely impressive (maybe RG's right about the 'cable everything or don't bother' philosophy).

What was so impressive was the fact that we achieved increased dynamics, scale, speed, weight, soundstage etc without any sacrifice of timing, flow and integration. So often super-cables murder the flat earth values on the alter of round earth virtues. Not these!

My hi-fi is not an assembly of boxes plugged into a ring main. I've treated the room, experimented with a range of supports and happily alighted on Hutter, I'm a huge fan of Dynavector amps and carts and Well Tempered decks. I also like Shahinians which would give me a full house Pear Audio-wise but I'm thrilled to have got the MF9s. They play all the music I like which includes most of what we played on Wednesday, and Classical.

The cabling in place is cheap but well considered and synergisitc with the kit: 10mm T&E spurs, hard-wired Eupens, Mogami Mic Cable I/Cs and Isolda speaker cable. There is no doubt at all that a full Omiga loom would bring significant benefits which may not be attainable by any other means. It would cost about 3K which sounds a lot, is a lot, but not, perhaps, in a full system context.

What else could I do with 3K? - Upgrade the deck, or the pre or bi-amp with another 1.2. I know CD's limitations but a 400XS is enough for me. My hunch is that the money would be best spent on Omiga cables. The deck and pre would increase vinyl performance hugely (the P300 phono stage onboard the L300 is really magical) but as an all-round system improvement I think the cables would have the edge. The 400XS sounded analogue and, from me, there's no higher praise.

So, thanks Tone for trekking round and thanks Robbo too; we seem to share many musical tastes and it was a pleasure to meet.

Alex

 

Thanks to Alex for the invite to listen to his system and his kind hospitality, it was a pleasure to meet both Alex and Jason and was a very enjoyable few hours.

The first part or our day involved a visit to a guy in deepest Surrey who had an uber expensive, uber round earth system. we were then subjected to a barrage of Diana Krall and Japanese drumming test discs which after a while very nearly finished me off!

We then set off for Alex's and after fighting our way into the big smoke, it was a great to be able to sit down and listen to a system that could actually play music. What a contrast between the two systems. Listening to Alex's system as is, I was immediately struck by the energy, drive and fun factor his system possesess without that rip your ears off brightness/edginess that many FE systems possess (at least IME). This meant that you could listen to any type of music at high volumes for long periods without fatigue - something I find to be a pre-requisite requirement. Perhaps there could have been a fraction more detail, but who cares about detail when the music was as much fun as this.

The Densen is certainly a very good player, but before any tone-ification, the Well Tempered deck was the star of the show for me. Also, the big Neats filled Alex's huge listening space superbly with none of the slow bass I have been known to accuse some ultimatum models of. I was impressed.

Playing around with the cables didnt really bring about significant improvements until the speaker cables were changed and then things began to incrementally improve until the full monty OA setup was in place. I have to say that the system was seriously good with the full cabling setup, the system improved in all the areas Alex mentioned and most impressively, the Densen began to rival the Well Tempered deck and became very analogue sounding.

Was OA treatment worth the £3K cost? I dont know. However I am not sure how else you could achieve these kinds of improvements. What I do know is that I had a big grin on my face when we were banging out the Ozrics at full blast.

Overall then, I was very impressed with the sound Alex has managed to achieve in his fantastic listening area. His system makes great music, and it was a pleasure to meet more forum members. What could be better?

Cheers Robbo

PS. Of course, Alex is always welcome to pay a return visit to hear my system and publically dissect it to return the compliment

 

I too would like to thank Alex, for a great musical experiance
Both Robbo & myself had whitnessed both ends of the Hifi spectrum that day, from total ultra hifi to musical communication, both in there own way getting towards the top of each respective 'trees' if you like, but poles apart in sound, though none the less valid to each of the owners
Its the second time, I've heard Alex's system now, though this time with the Neats dominating the affair in some style.
Alex system is purely about musical communication which it does with great ease & effortlessness.
Its ability to play at 'proper volume levels' unfatiguingly and involving, whilst be able to do this for long periods, without stress or reaching for the volume down button.
Very few systems I've heard have this ability even vastly more expensive ones.
The MF9's do Alex's room justice, filling it with quality sounds.
The TT deserves a good mention (not that I like Well Tempered or anything ), great solid fun, and a groovy sound that you just don't get from most of the TT's on the market.
The guys above have covered the swops and results.
There was a lot of equipment used in the finial set up, 4 power leads, power conditioner, 2 pairs of i/c's and speakers cable.
Just as we left the system was returned to its orginal status for that final last session, did it make a difference ? Their faces spoke a thousand words.
Again good to tie up with Alex, and meet Jason, I feel we all learnt a lot that afternoon, especialy about music and how we indivdualy like our 'brew' thanks Mr O.

 

It was good to meet Robbo and of course experience Tone in full swing ;->

Everyone has already mentioned the sort of results we saw when the cables were added and I would pretty much agree. Individually the changes weren't huge and sometimes seemed slightly detrimental in some areas, positive in others but once we got the mains, IC and speaker cable into the system we saw a real improvemenmt in dynamics and detail and in this case that meant more music! I do wonder if there is a risk of fatigue with the final result but I think that was just the result of trying to improve on what is a very well balanced system whose mains, IC's and speakeer cable complement the boxes very well at relatively low cost ... oh and playing it at some serious volumes.

Anyway, like all of these things the best bit was meeting new people and share some great music.

Cheers

Jason