[beowulf]

Ok folks...thanks for all your comments re the omega's and the Decware..I will try to keep hold of it and try it with some high effecientcy speakers here in the Uk first before I take a plunge in the sea of O ...remember I got stung this way with a pair of Zu Omen...catch ca laters amigo's

Make sure to bring your amp when you go looking for speakers.  Another thought is try it out on one of Tannoy's more efficient designs (they should be plentiful in your neck of the woods).  The Tannoy Glennair are 95dB @ 8Ω, so they should be easy for that amp to drive ... they cost about 4.5 times more than the Super 3S and twice as much as the Super 6XRS though.

Tannoy builds good speakers, but IMO the bang for the buck lies in the Omega products ... you need a pair of 7F drivers in the Super 3S or Super 3XRS cabinets ... they will rock your world

[Canada Rob]

Mattyboy,

Louis has a pair of Super 6 Alnico Monitors on his "Omega Now" page.  Along with his Super 6 XRS towers the Monitors are top of the line Omega and should be a wonderful match for your Decware.  PM or email Louis for a price on them.  A single driver speaker is going to be the best match for your Decware, and yes, there are getting to be a quite a few brands of single driver speakers out there, but they don't have Omega's efficiency and that is where the rubber meets the road with flea powered amps such as your Decware.
Scrub also "efficient" speakers with crossovers.  All crossovers suck power and cause smearing of the image due to electronic time delay issues not to mention physical time delay issues due to having two or more drivers in the cabinet.  I have been in audio for decades and when I heard my first Omegas, I knew the search for what I was looking for was over.

[DaveC113]

I'd have to respectfully disagree Dave, the Zus get better as the damping factor gets lower. They have a very strong (probably too strong) motor and hence sound lean with solid state. You effectively need a 'loose' (low damping factor) amp to compensate for this and fill the bass out. I found the best for Omen Standards was a 300B SET amp (~8w).

Well... I was just at RMAF and checked out their system this year and talked to the owner.

They are demoing their Druids with a 440 wpc class D amp, which is overkill but the Druids can handle ~200 watts. The sound was NOT "lean" at all. They are very efficient (101 dB) so you could use a low watt SET amp but that's not what these speakers are all about, and you won't get even a small fraction of their potential out of them. I'm happy you like them with a 8 watt amp, but these speakers can fill an auditorium and would be great to have around if you want to invite a few hundred of your closest friends over for a dance party. These things play at concert level SPLs with effortless dynamics.... they aren't as refined as the Omegas but IMO these are speakers for 2 very different audiences. Honestly, I would love to have a pair to use on occasion but there's NO WAY I would pair it with a SET amp unless it was paralleled 845s making over 50 wpc or so...

[Good Times]

I listen at nearfield distances. I'm not trying to fill an auditorium. My average listening SPL is 80dB and late at night.

I've owned Zu Omen standards, Unions, Omen Defs and Druids and tried each with an 8w 300B set amp, 300B PSE 18W, KT120 SE 24W, EL34, EL84, 845, Class A (SS) 65W, AB 125W SS, Bladelius SS, Plinius 200W SS, Red Wine Audio 15w Class D/valve hybrid and Halcro 400w Class D amplifiers.

What else have you heard the Druids with other than the 440w Class D?

I'm not saying they sound anemic with a solid state amp, I'm just saying they will have more body with a valve amp of lower damping factor and it isn't until you hear both that you will hear the difference. Whether you prefer one over the other is purely subjective of course, but you should at least hear alternate amplification options before making judgements imo.