Just following up on this with an update.
First, I want to say that Mike (the actual builder) at Omega is a great guy. He really went
far out of his way to help and, whatever you think of his amps, his customer service has been excellent.
I sent the Obsidian back to Omega at Mike's request so he could test it. Everything was to spec except that one of the preamp tubes that was supposed to be 7025 was a 12AX7B. He tested the amp and said it is working as intended. He then recorded several videos for me comparing it to several amps that are similar to ones I own. He used these amps for the comparison:
- Wizard MTL clone
- Diezel Synergy preamp into a 2/90/2 power amp
- JMP 2204 reissue w/ Jose mod
- Obsidian (of course)
He used guitars in standard tuning, drop D, and drop C# and even wired up a 4x12 with Chinese V30's just like my Friedman cab to try and get as close to my exact setup as possible. (This really surprised me and was far beyond what I'd ever expect from customer support.)
I listened to the clips through my Apollo Twin X Quad into my Yamaha HS8 studio monitors w/ the HS8S subwoofer.
In his clips, the Obsidian sounded great. Not going to lie. I didn't hear any of the upper-mid clank I heard in the room. He even put the Obsidian to my exact settings. It sounded very dark and thick. Frankly, it sounded most similar to the Wizard MTL clone.
All of this is to say, I have no idea why the Obsidian sounded like shit here in the room. Just something about my cab maybe? Perhaps it was the Power Station I was running it into? (I did try it w/o the Power Station; same sound.) Maybe cables and guitars? No idea.
So he asked what I wanted to do. He would send the Obsidian back to me or I could return it, but I'd pay a restocking fee and have to cover the original shipping costs.
I mentioned to Mike that I had been listening to a ton of clips of the Obsidian and the Granophyre. I shared this one with him, which I felt was best. It compares the amps with totally flat EQ's, then compares them with the EQ tweaked to this guitarist's taste.
I told him that I had preferred the Granophyre here, and in every other clip I'd heard. In fact, I told him I could pick the Granophyre out in every comparison video I could find. He said that while people seem to perceive them as the same amp (i.e., that the Obsidian is the Granophyre plus a clean channel), they are totally different amps. He said the Obsidian is based on an Soldano SLO-100 with some Peavy 5150 influence. That's the "American" sound they're referencing in the marketing materials. The Granophyre is a totally different circuit based on a Marshall (he didn't say which one) and other "classic European amps." He said the Granophyre would probably be a better fit for me since I'm a self-described "Marshall Guy."
One hole in this story is why the sales guy, Paul, didn't suggest this. I told him in my discussion with him that I was a "Marshall Guy" and that is why he recommended EL34's in my Obsidian. I wonder why he didn't just suggest the Granophyre. Mike said EL34's in the Obsidian are not his favorite and recommended 5881's or KT77's if I stuck with the Obsidian.
So, Mike said he'd make me a deal. He said he couldn't sell the Obsidian as new anymore but they could use it as a demo amp. He said he'd wave the restocking fee and all shipping costs if I wanted to switch to a Granophyre. Only catch is that the wait is a month or so. So I decided to switch to the Granophyre. At Mike's suggestion, we are loading it with 6CA7's, which is great because I am a fan of those tubes.
I asked him if it was cool if we chose a new aesthetic for this amp that borrowed from my favorite amp ever: my '87 Jubilee. He said that would be very cool and he could give it a more vintage Marshall vibe with gray tolex (they don't stock the Marshall silver one), a cloth front panel like a Jubilee/JCM800, silver piping, all silver HiFi knobs, and a red jewel light. He even said he'd load it with preamp tubes to give more of a vintage vibe.
So now I'm waiting for that amp to be built. We'll see how it goes. I hope it will be more to my taste. Good news is that by then I'll have my other speaker cabinets (they're in storage in Arizona) so I'll have more options to test the amp out with.
Also, interestingly, Mike said they voice the amps around a Celestion Creamback H75 speaker. This fascinated me because Omega makes their own cabs loaded with custom Eminence speakers. Also, while V30's are generally the speaker of choice for higher gain players, Mike said he doesn't like them except the old Marshall and Mesa versions (which I have in my old Jubilee cab that I'll get back from storage in February). So I'm planning to try the amp out with my Suhr oversized 2x12 loaded with H75's and my Carstens cab loaded with a 90w Alnico Cream and a 100w Weber Blue Dog to see what that yields.
More updates to come.