I did in fact remove "Cat eye" circuitry when I had the Dared. I also fiddled with NFB and other parameters before selling it off to the next customer (in pretty much stock form). Dared is a strange bird, it uses only one half of both signal triodes, has deep global negative feedback that makes the sound "anemic", uses all kinds of HF interstage filtering, mine also had "soft" start implemented by using delayed omron relay that would give loud "pop" when engaging. Having analyzed, modified, built and re-built various amps and pre-amps I wouldn't be able to dream up the circuitry like that. It sounded good, surprisingly enough.

djdonis January 22, 2013 06:31

Yup, they were handed down to me by Poultrygeist, and just like him I'm driving my Omens with 2a3c amp which seems to be a really good match.

djdonis December 12, 2011 20:21

Break-in is a significant process on any new speaker. Patience...

djdonis December 12, 2011 17:25

I bought my Omens used, from fellow audiophile, who had them for almost a year. They came fully broken in.

Just pop in IsoTek CD and let them cook for a week. When I replaced two Fostex drivers on my Tektons (child accident) it took me ~100 hrs of constant playing to mellow them out...

djdonis December 12, 2011 14:50

Monolithic Sound PS-1 with H-1b is replacing the Rotel.
Was looking forward to selling my gold Technics and getting VPI, Basis or Clearaudio to replace it. After doing some research decided to hang on to Technics.

djdonis December 11, 2011 23:05