2019-10-01 Robb Report

Genius at Work

112 OCTOBER 2019

Genius at Work

7 LEFT

The Man with the Horns

CEO Jonathan Weiss stands aside a woofer used in

OMA’s premier Imperia loudspeaker. The four-way

Imperia is a horn-loaded system featuring wooden

conical horns—made from local hardwoods—that

have straight walls, which, unlike curved walls, do

not deform sound waves. The ease with which these

horns reproduce live concert levels, as well as the most

subtle sonic details at low volume, is uncanny.

5 RIGHT

Roundup

Roped and tied, the baffle (or panel onto which speaker

drivers that make the sound are mounted) is not quite

complete. Extraneous pieces of flashing resulting from the

casting process will be trimmed and the entire surface

made smooth. Visible in the center are the holes through

which the loudspeaker’s special transducers emit their sound.

6 BELOW

Jukebox Heroes

The OMA Ironic was born in part because of a rare cache of

15-inch woofers used in certain jukeboxes from the 1930s.

Weiss has collected and restored 20 examples, and so only

10 pairs of the Ironic can be made. The speaker is remarkably

efficient, requiring a mere watt of power to produce at least

104 dB of output across the majority of its frequency range.

G2G_Oct_GAW.indd 112 8/30/19 5:52 PM

112 OCTOBER 2019

Genius at Work

7 LEFT

The Man with the Horns

CEO Jonathan Weiss stands aside a woofer used in

OMA’s premier Imperia loudspeaker. The four-way

Imperia is a horn-loaded system featuring wooden

conical horns—made from local hardwoods—that

have straight walls, which, unlike curved walls, do

not deform sound waves. The ease with which these

horns reproduce live concert levels, as well as the most

subtle sonic details at low volume, is uncanny.

5 RIGHT

Roundup

Roped and tied, the baffle (or panel onto which speaker

drivers that make the sound are mounted) is not quite

complete. Extraneous pieces of flashing resulting from the

casting process will be trimmed and the entire surface

made smooth. Visible in the center are the holes through

which the loudspeaker’s special transducers emit their sound.

6 BELOW

Jukebox Heroes

The OMA Ironic was born in part because of a rare cache of

15-inch woofers used in certain jukeboxes from the 1930s.

Weiss has collected and restored 20 examples, and so only

10 pairs of the Ironic can be made. The speaker is remarkably

efficient, requiring a mere watt of power to produce at least

104 dB of output across the majority of its frequency range.