will
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A few thoughts:
1) On this page, Bilyeaux and CAJames point to love for their Omegas with the particular low power amps they have...neither Taboos.
2) Dr3wman brought (to me legitimate to this discussion) his thought process of being torn between Omegas and HR-2s for the coming Torii V, seeming to lean toward HR2s but concerns about price.
Probably already part of the deliberations, but I would add the future possibility of wanting a low power amp one day, and assuming all else is conceptually well with the Omega choice, a more efficient speaker offering broader possibilities in different settings. With my upgraded HR-1s, in my relatively large space, and with the tube preferences I have developed with my the Torii IV... The Torii is just a little too close to the distortion edge for my deep listening sessions. Good enough, but irritating to sit down to listen and love it, and then find I was setting the gains just a hair high (no remote here), pushing it over its threshold for some notes on some recordings. This does not happen except in my late night, dark room, immersion listening, and even then, not at theoretically dangerous dB levels. I do prefer the amp with OB3s, and always have over OA3s. I also prefer the sonically complete and dynamic, but less forceful 4 volt AZ-1, AZ-11, and RGN 1064 rectifiers, particularly mesh plates for fine delicacy. And finally, I generally prefer slightly lower key, more textured and less forceful and focussed ECC88 types (usually ECC189 variants) over E88CC types. Together these lower the headroom of the Torii some.
3) Brad commented that (for his particular room and preferences) using a Taboo with Omegas did not work out for a broad range of music. And based on this experience, that having either a "fleawatt" amp or single driver speakers like Omegas would not happen again.... And that the power of the Torii V with updated HR-1s was really good for him.
4) Lon then commented on how good HR-1s are for him with his low watt Taboo (both mentioned in recent posts, including Brad's) and brought up how important matching speaker and amp together was to the final sound qualities.
And relative to my comments earlier, unlike my room and listening, Lon generally can use his low power amps just fine in his settings and for his listening levels with HR-1s. And he prefers lower power Decware amp's sound over earlier Toriis he had, in part no doubt due to how they work with his HR-1s and system/rooms.
Supporting Lon's pointer toward care in speaker matching, the amp is clearly important, and it goes without saying that all the rest, room, power, cables, pres, frontends, whatever... everything participates in how each part works/sounds... right? So no sound experience can be only about speakers... or just about the amp. Everything influences everything, and how everything mixes can create a magical place, or not...
In summary, to me, Brad, in post #13, talking about a less than ideal experiences with his Taboo, the "fleawatt" reference he had with his particular Omegas, and in his room...was real and relevant. I also thought of CAJames and Bilyeaux's love of their particular low power amps and Omegas as totally relevant. In the same post warning about potential issues with low power and smaller single drivers, Brad brought up his HR-1s and Torii being really good for him making him happy! Yet Lon's talk about his Taboo with HR-1s being a different and good experience for him, and pointing to how much synergy matters... this seemed to upset Brad, seemingly because Lon had not heard Omegas. But in context, personally, I felt like Lon's comment was relevant and a natural addition to the way the discussion was going. I am not suggesting that going far "off-topic" is good, but broader info and comparisons within this "thread" will hopefully help us in understanding individual things, and the complexity of mixing things... with luck helping us more easily experience the beauty! And after all, for lots of folks, Omegas and Heresys are often a lot about using lower power amps, so amps play into it, going back to how this thread began.
As usual, it all points to variations based on lots of things, but just combining the Omega line, and the Decware line, this makes for a lot of mixing options, and not just using the more low power Decware amps. As Dr3wman suggests, he might end up matching his Torii with Omegas. Finally, seems to me that within each line there are family resemblances, but also individual qualities, and how they match up is bound to vary, even a fair bit. And this is only looking at speakers and amps, important, but really only partial players in creating a complete musical experience.
Toxic talk introduced into these discussions is really saddening and frustrating for me. I love to talk and read and hear about ways to find the compelling sweetness of a great musical experience, an area of life that is healing for me, not toxic. And making it toxic is not about the beauty of a moving musical experience, it is about something else. For me this defiles some pretty sacred ground... the beauty of natural and complete sound, of sharing ways to get it, and if treated with the respect and care it deserves, making the forum feel friendly, inviting, giving, approachable and usable!
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