ZU OMEN speakers 12ohms??

Hi Zman. I had a friend come over who sent his Superflys back for a refund and he preferred my Omen Defs. I did not do a comparison myself nor have I heard the Omens, but he did prefer them and I am loving mine. Having said that, I was using a bett amp, a larger room, and a better DAC than he was so I am not sure which was the key to the improvement that he noted. He stated that the soundstage was larger, more dynamic, more live sounding (I forgot which audiophile term to use there:)).

Having said that, with the return policy, you don't have much to lose and when I called Zu to ask the same question that you are asking, they just told me to order both and they would take back the loser......I decided against that and am content with the Omens.

Thank you Morganc.
Sounds like a new concideration.
I haven't thought of the Defs.
Cheers

Zmanastronomy
Have you tried a pair of the Zu's yet? You can't bet the deal Zu offers for trying their speakers, remember you can buy the Omens cheaper from Music Direct in Chicago than from Zu and with the same return policy in place. The answer to your question...which speakers have I compared them to well I'm "Old School" I like the Klipsch Heresy's and La Scala's. Lately I've been using a Class A solid state amp, but I've also got a VTL ST85 that really sounds nice with the Zu's. As for a pre I usually use a Placette passive. By the way the room treatment looks pretty cool what exactly is that product, and was it easy to find?

I picked up a pair of Tekton Design Lore's. I'm very pleased with them so far.
As far as the room treatments, one of my freinds has an air/heat business and I got them through him. The stuffs call Duct Board. The black kind like I use is a mold treated duct board. After a few hurricanes (Florida) the Gov. made use use a mold treated duct board and it just so happens to be black. So I cut them to legth and spay painted the edges to match the rest and the look pretty good and do a great job for room treatments.
I have $150 in the whole room. Thats bass traps too. But I got everything at cost.

So if I wanted to go the tube route, I could get a pair of Omens and drive them easily with a small 20 watt or so tube integrated without strain? My elite receiver has 110 watts per channel.

Absolutely, 20 watts will be more than enough.

Zman
Good luck with your new speakers I'm sure they will be very pleasing.I'm not familiar with the Lore's I'll have to give them a listen soon. The more gear I listen to less seems like more, taking the crossovers out of the design just seems to make more sense, and the simpler Class A circuits that seem to becoming more popular really sound amazing i.e. Nelson Pass's First Watt stuff is just to good. Thanks for the info on the room treatment I will give it a try.

I've had my omens for 5 months or so ... and I do like them a lot.. a bit on the bright side but then agaim the room they are in is fairly large with high ceilings. I run them through an Audio Refinement Pre-2DSP with a Multi 3 amp (125WPC). I'm considering trying the tube route to see if I can warm up the sound a tad ... although if the difference it not HUGE, I more than likely will stick with my current setup.

Drift, the differance will be a huge one for the pos.
Choose your tube amp wisely. There is a lot of info here on AG about tube amps. Spend some hours reading before you make your decision.
I wish you the best in luck.
John

Drift,

There is a long thread on audiocircle you may want to check out wherein a lot of owners chime in on what they are using to drive their Omens with. Some great information there--its in the 'cheap and cheerful' section.

The best solid state I've experienced with my Soul Superflys is a Redgum RGi120 integrated which I suspect would sound fantastic on the Omens. very fast, transparant and super musical.

Excellent choices for the Omens that I have enjoyed ( and none are bright at all as I am sensitive to the brightness) include:
1. Miniwatt EL84
2. Melody I2A3
3. Shuguang 300b from Grant Fidelity
4. First Watt F3 ( I have a Rawson clone and love it)
5. Virtue audio Sensation

I have a very bright room.....and I found that placement and the DAC choice where also very important for toning down the highs.....and now my brightness is non existent ( I use a Tranquility DAC).

Hope this helps.

how would a nad 356 amp be with these omens

It took me about a month to configure my Dennis Had Inspire SE amp (KT-150 w/ ~12 wpc) to sound 'right' with the Zu Omens. The bass was really woolly as supplied, and there was just no control in the lower registers - and seemingly very little power. For speakers with a sensitivity of 97 dB/W I was expecting to rattle the windows with 12 wpc.

After a few exchanges with Dennis via email, it became apparent that I needed to change the output taps from the transformer to a different impedance winding. This did require removing the bottom cover and resoldering a couple leads. I'm no stranger to a soldering iron, so this took all of about 2 minutes even for a relative novice. Since then, it's been a different world altogether. The power is thunderous and the bass is deep and solid. I just wanted to post this in case anyone ever ran into this down the road. With a 12 ohm speaker you need to change the output tap (or have Dennis do it to start with) to the high impedance tap for best results. He called the other tap the 9-16 ohm tap.

After an extended period with the Sophia Baby on Omens I finally determined the loudness did not have enough weight which I knew the Omens should support. Limited dynamic range might be another way to say it. The clarity was there, but a lot of the emotion was lost.

I moved the tubes to driving a mini-Lore set (omg - the Sophia extracts more weight and clarity out of the 8-inch mini-Lores than the 10-inch Omens) and relegated the Krell integrated to Omens duty. Available headroom brought the Omens closer to their ultimate capability. I have a hard time deciding whether I prefer the smaller room, smaller driver with tubes or the larger room, larger driver with ss. Very similar presentations due to the common wideband design.

Listening to Rene Marie's "Experiment in Truth" through the Krell/Omen combo - after seeing her club performance on Monday this week - the recorded tunes do impart a lot of the likeness of "being there".