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Super 8 Alnico XRS Arrived


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Wanting a pair of speakers that could be driven from my 8w/ch Woo Audio WA5 headphone amp I came across the Omega speaker line. Looked interesting given the "old school" high efficiency full range driver approach backed up by solid reviews and the fact there was an Aussie distributor (Audio Addiction) made them all the more attractive.

A a few emails to James from Audio Addiction sealed the deal. James was extremely helpful and it was refreshing to deal with someone who clearly has a passion for music rather than just another sale. It appeared the Omega Super 8 Alnico XRS was best suited to my needs So the order was placed early October. Fast forward a approx 8 weeks and they were finally in my hands.

Two large cardboard boxes arrived on my doorstep in less than pristine condition. Thankfully these are well packaged with multiple layers of polystyrene otherwise they would not survived the trip across the pond.

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Oh and look, they've got balls! :P

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Now comes the hard part. Working out a good spot for them....Here

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....or here

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As for sound quality the first thing I noticed was these are much more efficient than my previous 6.5" monitors. First impressions were to be quite honest a bit disappointing. These speakers apparently have a bit of a rep. for taking you on a roller coaster ride during burn-in and straight out of the box sounded quite horrible to the point where I thought these were wired out of phase. The imaging was all over the place, bass non-existent and had a strange hole in the mid range where certain vocals were almost inaudible [Karaoke style] I was actually laughing out allowed hearing this thinking man have i made a big mistake!

However....

Upon playing the first side of Lennard Cohen's "Songs For The Road" things began to change. It was truly remarkable what 20mins did to the sound of these having never been a huge believer of so called burn in. The sound stage began to snap into focus and everything started to come together. I have never heard such point imaging from ANY other speaker regardless of price. It was quite breathtaking.

I have now clocked up approx 10 hours and things keep getting better. I am amazed at what a full range driver can achieve, mid range to treble is so realistic and natural it sounds more like a super expensive 3-way (actually no, better than this) To my ears there is absolutely no treble roll off and no sense that anything in the upper register is missing.

Bass is also tight and musical however at this point still sounds a touch lean for my tastes but will hopefully improve as time goes on. Upper mid range is also slightly sibilant with emphasis on "Ssssss" sounds.

Overall however im really amazed at what I am hearing. In my opinion these dispel the old myth that high efficiency full range speakers and low watt amps dont rock. I have thrown almost every musical genre at these and they don't seem phased at all.

I wouldn't call these "audiophile" (whatever that means) as they don't seem to surgically dissect music as some other speakers do instead the music just flows out of them. I am having a lot of fun re-discovering my music collection again. Very addictive stuff!

Looking forward to the journey ahead....

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I got my Hoyt-Bedford Type 2s today. Having been the owner of Type 1s, I knew what to expect, sound-wise.

It looks like your Super 8s are in a small(ish) room like mine. I find things improve a lot with the use of KRG Ergo for room correction.

BTW, speaking pedantically, I don't know whether you can call them 'full rangers' as they have a whizzer cone in the middle...but I'll leave that someone else to argue out.

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Currently there spaced approx 2.5 meters apart (center to center) and are about 2.8 meters from my chair. I find the sweet spot is where the drivers are angled directly at you. How about you?

And yeah full ranges they are aren't but what they do cover is pretty damn cool....

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Mine are about the same. When I pull them out from the wall about a metre with only a slight tow-in I get an incredible holographic image. Sounds just hover and instruments separate into layers throughout. When closer to the wall I toe in more, the image isn't nearly as deep but a I get slightly more bass (the Type 1's are rear porter stand mounts).

This is a bad thread for me, feeling very tempted by both the 8's and Bronal's Type 2 's...

Edited by houdinifangs
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Nice speakers :)

Are they Nurf Balls :)

Yep 2 nurf balls are included so that you can have a few games of indoor cricket while waiting for these babies to break in :)

Seriously though there intended to be jammed up the ports if you find bass a little overwhelming. Personally I cannot see that happening in my case however im now wondering if bass will improve if I place both speakers on wood plinths as the carpet and underlay is pretty thick somewhat restricting the ports ability to breathe.

What do you think?

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My Type 2s are 2 metres apart - that's all I can manage in my room.

Matching plinths are available. Mine came at no extra cost. They have spikes into the carpet and the speakers stand on spikes (in cups) on the plinths.

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Yep 2 nurf balls are included so that you can have a few games of indoor cricket while waiting for these babies to break in :)

Seriously though there intended to be jammed up the ports if you find bass a little overwhelming. Personally I cannot see that happening in my case however im now wondering if bass will improve if I place both speakers on wood plinths as the carpet and underlay is pretty thick somewhat restricting the ports ability to breathe.

What do you think?

Good idea. Omega can supply a plinth in the matching veneer. Be interested to hear how it goes. I have very thick carpet too so if I upgrade to a floorstanding model I will need to figure this out as well...

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  • 1 month later...


  • 2 weeks later...

I ended up going for the WLM Diva stand mounts which I'm eagerly waiting for. I was looking at a couple of ex-demo Super 8 XRS's that audio addiction has for sale (they're actually located up in Brisbane last time I checked).

The feedback I got from Tubular was that he was still thinking about how he could get more bass extension, but then I got the impression that he hadn't had time to fiddle around with room position or plinths yet. They probably also needed more time to burn in so that the bass would fully extend. I'm sure they'd also love a few more watts.

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Yeah apologies everone for the thread neglect. Had a PM exchange with Randle the other day and what he posted above was basically correct. Firstly let me just say that I love these speakers. Are they perfect, well no but if your looking for oh my god imaging and a overall beautiful tone then these are worthy of a listen. Reason why I havent been keen on further impressions is quite frankly I haven had a chance to play with them a great deal (couple of hours max a week) so am thinking they still need more time to settle down. As Randle mentioned I would like a smidge more bass extension and weight but thats a personal thing and could also be my amp is not quite up to the task. That said the bass is improving so think it will improve over time. Also bear in mind im a bit of a bass head and prefer a bit of a bass tilted system (which is why I like my Shure SE530 and Audeze LCD2 headphones so much)

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Also bear in mind im a bit of a bass head and prefer a bit of a bass tilted system (which is why I like my Shure SE530 and Audeze LCD2 headphones so much)

probably why you're not missing the extended highs that disappear on these full range driver types!.. :hiccup

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Yeah apologies everone for the thread neglect. Had a PM exchange with Randle the other day and what he posted above was basically correct. Firstly let me just say that I love these speakers. Are they perfect, well no but if your looking for oh my god imaging and a overall beautiful tone then these are worthy of a listen. Reason why I havent been keen on further impressions is quite frankly I haven had a chance to play with them a great deal (couple of hours max a week) so am thinking they still need more time to settle down. As Randle mentioned I would like a smidge more bass extension and weight but thats a personal thing and could also be my amp is not quite up to the task. That said the bass is improving so think it will improve over time. Also bear in mind im a bit of a bass head and prefer a bit of a bass tilted system (which is why I like my Shure SE530 and Audeze LCD2 headphones so much)

I am currently using three class A amps with my Type 2s - Melody H300B (SE 8.8 wpc), Melody M2A (PP 18 wpc) and an F5 clone (SE SS 25 wpc). Of the three, the F5 is the best overall perfomer but it has only 15dB gain and needs an hour to come on song. The H300B is very sweet sounding but can be a little glamorous on some CDs. The M2A is probably the most useable - but a little dark. My conclusion on bass? The F5 and M2A deliver the best bass because they have larger power supplies that allow the dynamics to come through. My advice would be to look for a PP valve amp in the 20wpc range.

Edited by bronal
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probably why you're not missing the extended highs that disappear on these full range driver types!.. :hiccup

Haha...yeah knew that would be mentioned :P It is true im not into that "Hi-Fi" presentation with that in your face treble presentation that some speakers do so well.

Thanks bronal for posting your impressions regarding amp selection. Its funny as my old speakers which were a 2-way monitor using 1x 6.5" Scan Speak woofer and a Dynaudio Esotsar tweeter used to rock on this amp and they were quite inefficient. Im probably making this into more of an issue than it actually is and certainly dont want people to think thsese are bass light power hungary speakers cos' there not. At worst they probably just need a few more hours on them of possibly a bit of tube rolling to find there best. Another thought just crossed my mind, my old speakers were in another location so I might now be sitting in position where the low frequincies are not playing well with my room.

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It is true im not into that "Hi-Fi" presentation with that in your face treble presentation that some speakers do so well.

i wouldn't say i was into an 'in your face' presentation either - but if the detail is there I do want to hear it! :hiccup

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I reckon you would be surprised at just how good the top end really is. Personally I was stunned a full ranger could achieve such great extension.

oh they are good, i know but they are MUCH stronger in the areas of sound stage and imaging though.... treble is a no contest against something like my auditor m's.

PS - if you've got some spare dough, check out the Nelson Pass in the classifieds..... yum

Edited by jcjuice
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I reckon you would be surprised at just how good the top end really is. Personally I was stunned a full ranger could achieve such great extension.

I think overall coherence of the sound is probably something associate with single driver speaker like this one. I think the design behind the omega speaker is very similar to Tannoy's dual concentric speakers and I like to check it out to see how it stack up against the tannoys.

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I think overall coherence of the sound is probably something associate with single driver speaker like this one. I think the design behind the omega speaker is very similar to Tannoy's dual concentric speakers and I like to check it out to see how it stack up against the tannoys.

Quite different I think you'd find. The Tannoys are on a completely different scale, although the HB's/Omega's may be faster and more focused...

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I think overall coherence of the sound is probably something associate with single driver speaker like this one. I think the design behind the omega speaker is very similar to Tannoy's dual concentric speakers and I like to check it out to see how it stack up against the tannoys.

actually the wlm diva's are more like the tannoy design.... they have dual concentric drivers as well.

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