1999 Classe Omega Stereo Experiences

lloydelee21 said:

I also think that a few mods to some great older gear is another good move. I have noticed in big Class A SS amps that the older ones are still fantastic...but the treble is perhaps not as refined as sometimes see today...D'Agostino is a great example of where SS treble has gotten to. But I imagine some of the older greats with a few mods could certainly carry forward the bass, dynamics and Mids of old...with an improved treble and refinement to make it more competitive and incredible value for money.

Click to expand...

Well, it was in the upper frequency region that my Classe DR-3 (true class A mono's) had a certain reputation. I can still remember a relatively recent review of mono Classe amps, in which the author claimed that the initial DR based amps were excellent, except for the unrefined top end.

He, and others who followed the same reputable scripture ... were wrong.

When I first got these amps into my system, they sounded bright beyond what my ears could handle, to the point in which I figured that the "reviewers" were very much justified, and perhaps I'd made a mistake in purchasing 'em. But I soon realized that much of the brightness was based on artifacts that were beyond the amps control, such as poorly chosen power & interconnect cables, compromised connection qualities, digital or analog sources that compromised high frequency content, amongst other items.

After about 6 months of system changes, including a total reconstruction of power allocation / grounding, environmental and electronic isolation, it became apparent that these amps had a talent in the upper frequencies that I've rarely heard. Super extended, they can be delicate, or they can be revealing, they can be both at the same time, but most important, they have the ability to convey the power of certain instruments at the upper frequencies that's I've found rare. For example, a hard struck cymbal can be a difficult thing for a system to reproduce properly, most of the initial impact/power is lost. But not in my system. Conversely, they tend to make current amps sound a little too soft, hazy and dynamically challenged in the upper frequencies.

Therefore, I'm not so certain that many of the older designs which had reputations regarding their upper freq. content ... were correct. I'll provide another example ...

My Alphason HR100mcs was once considered (and still is by many) a top arm choice, but it came with a reputation of while having superb detail retrieval, it had an overly lean and clinical, perhaps a touch bright, tonal balance. This was considered somewhat of a constant HR100 reputation (esp the early models that had no internal damping); based on many reviews and opinions shared by users & reviewers at that time. And it was true, to a degree, especially if you didn't understand this particular arms proprietary idiosyncrasies and synergistic requirements. However, once you learn those items, and adjust accordingly, although it retains a lean tonal balance, it's amazing detail retrieval, lack of overall grain, quickness, dynamic power, solid dimensional capability, and more importantly; it's amazing control and grip at the frequency extremes suddenly offset all those prior perceived weaknesses.

So, I retain amps that had a reputation of brightness, and an arm that had a reputation of being too clinical ... yet within my system ... they proved just the opposite.

tb1

Classe Omega

You asked for opinions and that was mine. I owned several Classe amps, preamps(DR series),cd transports and dac before the Omega series, I also owned the Omega SACD player. I was just disappointed in the sound. I found it too analytical, no emotion(remember, this is my opinion). Some of that may have been due to the interconnects, cables,PC's. I think they were Transparent Reference XL's. The speakers were Wilson W/P 7's. From that I moved to Lamm ML 2.1's, then to MBL 9008's and now I have the Soulution 700's, 720,745,750, Brinkmann front end, Kubala Sosna Elation interconnects, speaker cable,PC's. The speaker's are YG Anat III Professional Signature Edition.

Now, having said all that, if you like the sound, that is all that matters. The company was great, the stuff was well built.

I can understand how someone might consider newer Classe gear lifeless, but I've never heard ANYONE claim that about the older DR series. In fact, they had the exact opposite reputation.

tb1

To complete my system in a contemporary way, I paired the

Classe Audio Omega

Stereo AMP to my Avalon Osiris System.

All the detail to the Amp can be seen here:


Important for the Avalon Osiris is the capability to deliver current down to 1ohm,
some other amps I have tried so far had definitely bigger problems to do so.

Fortunately the Omega was a bargain and is in the used market a hidden gem for power cosuming critical speakers.

Comparing the quality of the chassis, the 2x 2500va transformers, there 180.000 üf capacity, the weight of 120kg, with current amplifiers models, you will be fast in the 70 to 100k region of actual portfolio amps

I definitely enjoy this Amp!