Anyone heard O'Heochas

I've set a budget limit of £2500.

I could live with Shahinian Arcs but not with complete satisfaction so I won't get them. I will listen to Obelisks and maybe start the s/h hunt! I Might still chase Briks.

The Oheochas got a terrible review from Alvin Gold apparently so they probably sound great!

Alex.

I've heard the D2s as I'm a bit of a fashion victim and no doubt they're cool; and probably fairly priced.

Unfortunately they were truly appalling in every other sense of the word. No bass of any description, and a very thin, edgy, midrange. No substance to anything. Perhaps some body could be injected ny some Naim amps but I doubt it. The guys and gals from the firm are really nice but that particular speaker of theirs just doesn't cut it in hi-fi terms. However, as a fashion cum lifestyle object they're great and that may be just as valid in some circumstances, just not mine (the Arcs are the ugliest speakers in the world but God they sound good...)

Steve

So that is depressing news indeed.

Was it the ISO5? Decent amps? Not just Show Blues?

Alex

..I'm not sure I'd trust me but thanks for the vote of confidence Alex!

I don't know about IS05 - I just recognised the speakers from the Alvin Gold review and was keen to hear them because they look so cool (Phillipe Starck would be proud of them!). It was at the Novotell earlier this year so I'd have to consider room problems etc but unfortunately they were so bad that I suspect this would be making excuses for them. I can't remember amps or source but their other, conventional speakers did a much, much better job of making music. nb the sales-girls were very nice (sexist tendencies temporarily emerge)!

I'd be very interested in your comments as to what ultimately vetoed the Shahinian Arcs for you. As you (we) all know by now, these speakers excite fairly polarised opinions and I know you've been checking out a lot of non-Naim gear lately. How did they sound with the Dynavectors? I can certainly wander all around my study without quite the directional 'hot-spot' that I've had with more conventional speakers. I've not heard the Oblelisks but was warned that they may not be quite as 'complete' a speaker as the Arc, especially as regards bass integration. I haven't heard the Hawks but I suspect doing so may be financially ruinous, as Gareth suggests?!

Steve

Alex

I hope that you now see how good the N805S is as you compared them with others speakers that you have auditioned. Well this is just another view from a different angle. May be your system is very good already!!! Relax and enjoy the music and save the cash for other things in life as Christmas is coming(laughs).

Tuan

That's the best advice I've received in a long time.

The N805s are so rubbished by all the flat-earthers that I thought I'd try the competition. It is true that the vaunted Nautilus tweeter is nothing special and the 'flow' port is just marketing drivel but if you set these up right and get a first class system behind them they are capable of near holographic magic. The claim that they are slow is just an untruth.

The trouble is, one only needs to move six inches to destroy the illusion and I do have to work occasionally.

Steve,

The Arcs are very good; I'm not sure they're £2800 good though (shame I arrived after the 40% price hike). They don't have a great 'wow' factor and in a small room the bass seemed a little detached from the rest of the music. But they just get on and play music in an unassuming way which is a big plus. They also work a lot better in a bigger room and the DVs were designed with Shahinians in mind - both good for me. However, Obelisks are apparently much fuller and bigger sounding. FWIW They also look much better. I like that birch ply and the Arcs are the only Shahinians not to use it.

Oheochas may well be crap as you suggest but I doubt it was the ISO5s you heard. I rang up a big London dealer looking for Briks. They didn't have any so we got talking about modern Brik-alikes: The ISO5 and Obelisks was their answer.

I have listened to their D1 Floorstander and was impressed. The bass disappears into the floor a bit instead of out into the room but they passed my Ozric Test very well. I then quizzed the London dealer one more time saying I liked the D1 so what about the ISO5? - Different League entirely they said (and they did mean higher league).

Anyway, we'll see, but Tuan's right, I'm getting bored of all this and I'm not going to spend 1.5K on a sideways move.

Jason

I'm sure you're right - along with Briks, Obelisks ISO5s and my speakers. And Blzebub has threatened to kill me if I don't listen to Epos ES22s - you heard those?

Alex

QUAD ESL 63s plus REL STORM II

Just saw that combination advertised.

Any thoughts?

Jason, it was a well known Shahinian dealer that particularly likes the Arcs (obviously) that (only mildly) dissed the Obelisks but I haven't heard the obelisks and have every reason the believe you're right...can I afford to hear them, though; that's my problem? The price-hike is unfortunate but the Arcs and Obelisks are fairly close in price now, new. I'll end up impecunious if I like the Obelisks more than the Arcs...., but the Arcs have revolutionised my listening habits...oh Gawd, I feel a dem coming on!

Alex - it was the 'lunar-pod' things I heard. Arcs are expensive now but I think are worth it when looking at most of the competition. Furthermore, I found several ex-dem pairs being sold at very reasonable prices when I bought mine (about 6 months ago). One dealer had just sold a s/h pair (albeit about 7 years old - so what?) for £799.

Steve

quote:

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it was the 'lunar-pod' things I heard.

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I know. Trouble is they make three lunar-pods - a 2-way not very good one, a 3-way quite good one and a 5-way very good one, apparently.

I was trying to find out how many drivers they had - can you remember an isobarik small pod type thingy sticking out the bottom (you can only admire my grasp of technical jargon since I joined the forum)

Cheers

Alex

Yes. Me.

As I said, I heard the original D1f at a dealer's and I liked it.

Yesterday I got to hear the D1f extra bass/mid version and the D2 pod thingy ISO5 in my own system.

We started with the floorstander. Nice treble, excellent midrange, over-blown bass. Neither three well integrated. I am happy to blame most of this on the room. We tried bunging the ports, they sounded worse. Marginally, I would have preferred to keep the 805s. Nonetheless, beautifully engineered and made, good value for money if you can get them to work which I'm sure is possible.

We decided to switch to ISO5s. I went to the CDP and pressed 'play' so I heard the pods first of all from behind. Like this they sounded great. From infront they sounded wonderful. Room filling sound. Coherent and musical. Sweet soft-dome treble. Gripping iso-bass.

Also they look fantasticofunky. Much better than in photos and more dinky. A lot of engineering and finishing for your money.

Are they perfect? No. Bass could still be better. They are not the most subtle speakers I've heard. They 'ring' just a tiny bit.

Compared to the opposition? There isn't any that I've heard apart from Shahinian Arcs. They are an interesting contrast since they do very similar omni-directional, room filling stuff but in different ways. The Arcs have an assuredness which comes from an old and tested design. The Oheochas have a new kid on the block approach which I like - really fun and funky but not fatiguing. The Arcs look like they were made by me. The Iso-pods look like they were made by a whacky former automotive designer with a passion for music. Which is what they were.

The Okeykokeys will be a talking/laughing point. Anyone considering an omni-directional approach with a sweet spot as big as your room and a budget under 3K go listen to these and Arcs. If you can stretch to Obelisks then you probably should, but the soon to be released active pods could be worth a listen.

Alex

For what it's worth, I worked with Aonghus O'heocha in Rover Group. About 10-11 years ago we co-developed the cylinder head ports that were later used on the K-VVC and KV-6 engines in the MG-F, Rover 75 & Freelander. We later both worked in Marketing Strategy before taking voluntary at the same time soon after the BMW-inflicted disastrous PR at the Rover 75 launch. I remember him saying that he wanted to use his redundancy money and apply for a grant to set up a speaker company for computer systems in his native Ireland...but when his hi-fi speakers first came out, I was gobsmacked. He knew I was interested hi-fi, but never, ever discussed the subject.

Aongus seems to have been rather secretive.

So the pods look just like a bit of a Rover? I guess they'll fall apart in a few weeks. Sound rather good in the meantime.

Alex

Yeah, yeah, yeah...I should have known I was going to get the jibes about my previous corporate allegience. Actually, Aonghus was (is?) a really nice bloke, but managed to rub a lot of engineers (not me, though) the wrong way for reasons I couldn't understand. Maybe it was because of his height (6ft 6in)???? Or the fact that his trousers were always a certain height above his shoes (the "hotas" factors as we called it then in Rover, a sure sign of incipient boffin-dom). A hotas facor of 0.5 inches would put you in boffin brain land. I wonder what the average hotas is like in Salisbury? More than Rover I expect....

P

See for yourself. That's Aonghus O'heocha sitting closest to the camera. Picture from Dec. 2001 "Hi-Fi News" article on the Hammersmith show.

Cheers

Rana

I seemed to touch a nerve by mentioning your 'previous corporate allegience'. I'm sure you did your best to improve the Company.

BTW Aonghus (who from now on I will abbreviate to Angus) looks bored shitless.

And, seeing as your in the know, with a trouser factor like that, how does Angus get hold of all these legendary sales girls with the smiling, green eyes. Our venerable moderator thinks they all come from Birmingham!

Alex

No nerves touched at all! I get this everyday at work....If I had a £1 for every MG-F problem that gets blamed on me personally, I would have enough for a Naim CDS, tri-amped NAP 500's etc. Well, make that £100, MG-Fs never sold that well, and I never did like driving them. (However you are right, the boys at Rover did amazingly with the piece of string they were given. For example the level of investment that British Aerospace allowed Rover in the whole MG-F was the same as that BMW incurred in the dashboard of the Mark III 3-Series). I'm trying to think of an analogy between the NAP 250 and Krell KSA 50, but it does not work sonically (horrible thought...let's hope Krell never buy up Naim). As for the green-eyed girls...Mr. O'heocha always did have them swooning, although he was too tall to notice. OK, enough of this, I've gone off topic and I guess I'm gonna be in trouble with an old mate.