JP:
The Omega Super 3s are used in a bedroom system and have been powered with a Marantz 2240 vintage receiver. The system needs to be easy to use and a receiver made the most sense. Also, my logic was that high efficiency, single driver speakers were made to be driven with tube amps and a vintage receiver would bring me closer to that sound than most current receivers.
I was pretty happy with the sound, especially with vocals ... until I was listening to some 50's era Sinatra (A Swingin' Affair) and the brass fanfare that is part of a lot of swing music sounded overly offensive and cartoonish. I moved the Omegas to a different system (Musical Fidelity A300 and CD PRE24) and it made quite a difference. But a 250 wpc amp paired with a high efficiency monitor doesn't quite make sense. Accordingly, I have an ARCAM AVR 200 on order and I will report back.
In speaking with Louis Conchos (Omega's owner), he felt that in the solid state realm, smaller integrated amps like the NAD C320BEE would do the trick nicely with both the Super 3s and the Grande 6s.
If you go over to the Audio Asylum, there are also quite a few folks pairing the high efficiency speakers with the all in one digital amp units from JVC and other micro/executive systems' manufacturers ... they just throw out the supplied speakers.
A few different views to consider.
Regards, Rich
