Osborn Loudspeakers Owners & Discussion Thread

[Satanica]

16 hours ago, Whites said:

@bonuss All the comments above are relevant. I had a pair of Epitome tower references that I loved but ended up selling as they were too large for my room. The bass became muddy and not focused at slightly higher volumes.

 

Regardless of speaker IMO room correction under about 300Hz is absolutely mandatory.

[frednork]

4 hours ago, frednork said:

Sounds like a good size for Monuments or Eclipses,

 You dont really need to worry about the amp being too powerful, usually the opposite. The more important issue is how it sounds/matches with the speakers. I dont think they are particularly difficult to run. I used mine with a valve hybrid. Enjoyed them for many years.

Sorry, meant to say epitomes not eclipses. Eclipses are probably a bit small for that size room

[lemarquis]

14 hours ago, bonuss said:

The PMC's are a strange looking animal for sure. I normally sit about 6 meters from the speakers or stand 7 meters on the other side of the kitchen bench or if I am on the dunny then I am 10 meters away with a wall in between lol

 

The Osborns image very well, almost independent of where you are in the room the sound stage is always there. 

[bonuss]

5 hours ago, Eggcup the Dafter said:

What is it that you don't like about your current speakers? Or is this part of a larger change you are planning including the amps?

I think my current system is very good and I am going to keep it. The B+W's are a bit lacking in the lower frequencies (and maybe elsewhere) and hence the sub. I will most likely buy the 880i amp as well as it appears to match Greg's Speakers and maybe some of his silver cables which sound very nice. I really enjoy a special experience when listening to music or movies. The best digital source I have at the moment is my TV so I need a big improvement to source as well. I am finding it hard to find a source that competes with the TV

 

[bonuss]

5 hours ago, Satanica said:

 

Regardless of speaker IMO room correction under about 300Hz is absolutely mandatory.

Thank you for your input and could you please explain what you mean by room correction. I am 62 years old and like a bit of rock but I dont want to blow my walls or windows out with volume. I just like a special experience and enjoy a magical reproduction. I like a bit of bass that sounds like it should. The SVS 4000 sub is very good for its price and complements the lacking B+W's.

Edited March 17, 2021 by bonuss

[MrMojo]

19 minutes ago, bonuss said:

I think my current system is very good and I am going to keep it. The B+W's are a bit lacking in the lower frequencies (and maybe elsewhere) and hence the sub. I will most likely buy the 880i amp as well as it appears to match Greg's Speakers and maybe some of his silver cables which sound very nice. I really enjoy a special experience when listening to music or movies. The best digital source I have at the moment is my TV so I need a big improvement to source as well. I am finding it hard to find a source that competes with the TV

 

 

I am using a pair of Eclipse Reference (older version with Focal Beryllium tweeter) currently and I love them. I would also highly recommend having a listen to Osborn speakers, they are great value and have brilliant performance.

 

By the way, since you are considering the 880i amp, I would recommend to also have a listen to the 800 monoblocks if you can and if its suits you. I was also considering 880i not too long ago and almost bought it but then I thought of also trying the 800 monos before making a decision. The monos are altogether in different league. Far superior in every aspect to the 880i, not that the 880i is bad to begin with. I am not sure to be honest why Greg doesn't use the monos for his demos, they are just sublime.

[bonuss]

35 minutes ago, MrMojo said:

 

I am using a pair of Eclipse Reference (older version with Focal Beryllium tweeter) currently and I love them. I would also highly recommend having a listen to Osborn speakers, they are great value and have brilliant performance.

 

By the way, since you are considering the 880i amp, I would recommend to also have a listen to the 800 monoblocks if you can and if its suits you. I was also considering 880i not too long ago and almost bought it but then I thought of also trying the 800 monos before making a decision. The monos are altogether in different league. Far superior in every aspect to the 880i, not that the 880i is bad to begin with. I am not sure to be honest why Greg doesn't use the monos for his demos, they are just sublime.

 

Thanks Mojo, I will have a listen to the Monoblocks, I like sublime lol  Woops there goes another $10K for the preamp monoblocks  hahahaha

Edited March 17, 2021 by bonuss

[Satanica]

4 hours ago, bonuss said:

Thank you for your input and could you please explain what you mean by room correction. I am 62 years old and like a bit of rock but I dont want to blow my walls or windows out with volume. I just like a special experience and enjoy a magical reproduction. I like a bit of bass that sounds like it should. The SVS 4000 sub is very good for its price and complements the lacking B+W's.

 

Room correction has nothing to do with blowing anything out.

In fact in general the opposite and it is independent of volume.

Here's an article named Room Correction 101 from the brand\company miniDSP.

https://www.minidsp.com/applications/digital-room-correction/drc-basics

There are many technologies which are mainly digital and the link I provided is simply one of them.

[MrMojo]

3 hours ago, bonuss said:

 

Thanks Mojo, I will have a listen to the Monoblocks, I like sublime lol  Woops there goes another $10K for the preamp monoblocks  hahahaha

Yes the matching Consonance preamp is pretty expensive. I actually use the 800 monos with a Meridian 502 preamp and I don’t feel like it’s missing anything. I had a chance to try the Linear 1 preamp in my system and I didn’t find it better than the Meridian pre.
 

I personally think that 800 monos is excellent itself just as amplification and would still work well with any decent preamp.

[bonuss]

2 hours ago, MrMojo said:

Yes the matching Consonance preamp is pretty expensive. I actually use the 800 monos with a Meridian 502 preamp and I don’t feel like it’s missing anything. I had a chance to try the Linear 1 preamp in my system and I didn’t find it better than the Meridian pre.
 

I personally think that 800 monos is excellent itself just as amplification and would still work well with any decent preamp.

Thanks Mojo, I could try my preamp with the monoblocks as it is pretty good and save $5k . Great info. Do you use any of gregs rca cables between your preamp and the Monoblocks? If not which brand or type do you use? I have eichman rca leads and speaker cables

Edited March 17, 2021 by bonuss

[Jventer]

8 hours ago, bonuss said:

Thanks Mojo, I could try my preamp with the monoblocks as it is pretty good and save $5k . Great info. Do you use any of gregs rca cables between your preamp and the Monoblocks? If not which brand or type do you use? I have eichman rca leads and speaker cables

I do what Greg did at many shows and at demos at his home, run direcly from Audio Aero cd/dac/pre into Consonance 845's. Used to use all of his cables and interconnects.  but use plain power cords.

I have, what I believe are better interconnects - XLO. A person that knows the Osborn gear well has advised that at one stage he used Morrows, but in that case needs to go higher than level 3. I once tried the Morrows level 4 and  did not like it.

IMO the price of new interconnects and speaker cables of many brands are madness. If you want to play around with cables would suggest you see what you can get here for a good price. Just remember that his speakers is designed for biwiring. Having said all of that, I would suggest that your Eicmanns are OK.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Jventer
Typo

[aussievintage]

3 minutes ago, Jventer said:

Just remember that his speakers is designed for biwiring.

 

I prefer them bi-amped.  Bi-wiring does little for me on it's own.  I really like the low 125Hz crossover (in the Eclipse anyway) and find it allows good control of the bass.

[MrMojo]

8 hours ago, bonuss said:

Thanks Mojo, I could try my preamp with the monoblocks as it is pretty good and save $5k . Great info. Do you use any of gregs rca cables between your preamp and the Monoblocks? If not which brand or type do you use? I have eichman rca leads and speaker cables

 

I have a pair of Osborn rca cable that I use between my source (Linn Akurate) and the pre. I find its performance satisfactory, transparent and open sounding. I also use rca interconnects made with Canare GS-6 cable, which is again a great cable for very little money. Slightly warmer tone compared to Osborn. As you can probably guess, I am not really a cable person. I don't believe in expensive 'hifi' cables. But I would recommend using a well made decent quality/priced cable. You will need to try a few and find the one that gives you the best tonal balance. 

 

 

[Jventer]

@bonuss It is posted elsewhere and I have mentioned you in that post, but a fantastic Osborn based system has come up for sale in Caboolture.

I would strongly suggest checking it out.

https://www.facebook.com/commerce/listing/315764530123417/?media_id=4&ref=share_attachment

 

[muriwai]

I couldn’t get that link to work?

[lemarquis]

https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_161603016207512&key=416b0e142670ceb8f9f66a8c84ef71c1&libId=kme6ms1101000bib000DLnstds9bn&loc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.stereo.net.au%2Fforums%2Ftopic%2F341861-complete-high-end-system-for-sale-on-facebook%2F&v=1&out=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcommerce%2Flisting%2F315764530123417%2F%3Fmedia_id%3D4%26ref%3Dshare_attachment&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.stereo.net.au%2Fforums%2Ftopic%2F341670-osborn-loudspeakers%2Fpage%2F2%2F%3Ftab%3Dcomments&title=Complete high end system for sale on facebook - Great Deals%2C Bargains%2C Specials Alerts - StereoNET&txt=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcommerce%2Flisting%2F315764530123417%2F%3Fmedia_id%3D4%26amp%3Bref%3Dshare_attachment

[muriwai]

[lemarquis]

Link works. You need to log in to FB.

[bonuss]

9 hours ago, MrMojo said:

 

I have a pair of Osborn rca cable that I use between my source (Linn Akurate) and the pre. I find its performance satisfactory, transparent and open sounding. I also use rca interconnects made with Canare GS-6 cable, which is again a great cable for very little money. Slightly warmer tone compared to Osborn. As you can probably guess, I am not really a cable person. I don't believe in expensive 'hifi' cables. But I would recommend using a well made decent quality/priced cable. You will need to try a few and find the one that gives you the best tonal balance. 

 

 

Thank you Mojo and others for all your help with this

[bonuss]

11 hours ago, aussievintage said:

 

I prefer them bi-amped.  Bi-wiring does little for me on it's own.  I really like the low 125Hz crossover (in the Eclipse anyway) and find it allows good control of the bass.

It looks as if I will buy the 2 monoblocks and my existing Eichmann speaker cable will allow the bi amping

[bonuss]

11 hours ago, MrMojo said:

 

I have a pair of Osborn rca cable that I use between my source (Linn Akurate) and the pre. I find its performance satisfactory, transparent and open sounding. I also use rca interconnects made with Canare GS-6 cable, which is again a great cable for very little money. Slightly warmer tone compared to Osborn. As you can probably guess, I am not really a cable person. I don't believe in expensive 'hifi' cables. But I would recommend using a well made decent quality/priced cable. You will need to try a few and find the one that gives you the best tonal balance. 

 

 

I had a look at the Linn Akurate and at $14K it would want to be good and probably is . I dont have HDMI input on my dac and that is something that would improve things from my laptop to the dac. USB input is a bit lacking.

 

[andyr]

12 hours ago, aussievintage said:

 

I prefer them bi-amped.  Bi-wiring does little for me on it's own.

 

You bi-amp your Osborns using their passive XO, av???

 

12 hours ago, aussievintage said:

 

I really like the low 125Hz crossover (in the Eclipse anyway) and find it allows good control of the bass.

 

 

Sorry but I can't understand why the - presumably passive? - woofer/mid XO at 125Hz would give you better bass control than, say, an XO @ 200Hz ... or even 250Hz?

 

Andy

 

[aussievintage]

1 hour ago, andyr said:

You bi-amp your Osborns using their passive XO, av???

 

They are designed with  pairs of terminals and two jumpers between them.  Remove the jumpers and feed each pair of terminals from different amps.  I thought this was fairly normal - don't understand your confusion. 

 

No way I am going to futz around with active crossovers, let alone digital crossovers as I believe you do.  My main system is absolutely pure analogue valve from cartridge to speaker (except for the bass/sub) and staying that way

 

1 hour ago, andyr said:

Sorry but I can't understand why the - presumably passive? - woofer/mid XO at 125Hz would give you better bass control than, say, an XO @ 200Hz ... or even 250Hz?

 

 I just find in practice, the speakers behaving like a 2-way system on one amp, with the bass/sub driver providing the supplementary lower end, controllable by the second amp, to result in a very nice listening situation.   Sort of like a sub-woofer with a small 2-way bookshelf speaker system, but much better, and in stereo. 

[JohnL]

14 hours ago, aussievintage said:

 

I prefer them bi-amped.  Bi-wiring does little for me on it's own.  I really like the low 125Hz crossover (in the Eclipse anyway) and find it allows good control of the bass.

 

Passive bi amping is a waste of money.

 

Much better bang for buck just buying a better amp.

[bonuss]

49 minutes ago, JohnL said:

 

Passive bi amping is a waste of money.

 

Much better bang for buck just buying a better amp.

Excuse my lack of knowledge but could you explain passive bi amping?