A few years ago, they were selling the Saskia turntable, made of slate and idler-driven. The Saskia was conceived of and built by Win Tinnon of North Carolina, based on his love for the Lenco; no part of it was made by OMA. Win built every one of them from the ground up. Now they are selling this new direct drive. It is the product of years of work by Richard Krebs, who lives in New Zealand, not Pennsylvania. Richard is collaborating with OMA to market his product in the US, although in this case it seems OMA has a lot to do with the cast iron plinth. OMA themselves admit that the tonearm is built by Frank Schroeder, who to my knowledge lives in Germany. OMA was not the first to think of shedding the chassis of the SP10 Mk3 and mounting the motor/platter assembly directly into a high mass plinth. For this, credit Steve Dobbins and/or some others who came before Steve. OMA took the idea and executed it in a slate slab. For that matter, OMA were not the first to use slate for a plinth, although they like to take credit for that idea too. The concept goes back to internet conversations that took place in the early 1990s. I am not saying there is anything wrong with any of this; Richard Krebs, Win Tinnon, and Frank Schroeder cast their lots with OMA of their own free will. OMA market high quality products, and buyers pay a premium for what they sell. I am only arguing about careless use of the word "genius".
If I could afford, I’d purchase 100% Oswald Mills Audio gear
This even without hearing it. The pieces are so beautiful I don’t see how they could not sound fabulous. The Sp10s look like they are built like a tank. I’d even buy their equipment racks. Maybe someday or maybe I’ll purchase something from their sister company Fleetwood sound.
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Who the *&$£ is Oswald Mills? Do they know anything about engineering? Or it just more bling? Beware. They make speakers, amps, the whole gamut. Experts at everything. I recommend full scientific tests (on the turntable, not on Oswald). And great care when considering punting big money on bling. There is far too much bling in today's turntables. And far too little plain, honest, down to earth good engineering. Not everything new is better. Note. Fremer likes it. |
Meanwhile those huge and beautiful $280k OMA Imperia horn speakers just received The Golden Ear Award from The Absolute Sound Magazine (2021). What are you gonna say now? P.S. OMA K3 turntable is on the cover of Stereophile (issue 478) , I hope you can buy and read. Regarding its unusual design I do not see any single negative comment on their instagram, so I think their marketing strategy is just right, people love it, except for some old audiogonners as usual. Interesting part in their press release about OMA new DD motor: "We hope to offer a stand alone version of our motor in the future to replace Neumann cutting lathe motors (Lyrec, Panasonic SP-02) for record cutting engineers. This motor, comprising a huge 25mm main bearing spindle riding in a pressurized oil column with an inverted bearing is accurate to molecular tolerances. The design of K3’s mechanicals is the work of a team led by Richard Krebs in New Zealand, the worlds foremost authority on direct drive turntable technology... Bucknell University’s Engineering and Physics departments did extensive FEA and other analysis of the platter and chassis design (and gave OMA their award for most innovative product of 2019.). " read more. |
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