I note that the ZEN ZSM Signature Monoblocks are not on the product pages, but they are still listed in the catalog. Are they officially discontinued or an exotic product produced only once in a while?

You got a great pair of amps there Mark. And at a great price.

Beowulf, at this point I'd have to say, between the two, I'd chose the Zu "Souls" but the Omegas are the newest speakers in the house and need more break in, I think. I've done more listening with the Zu's since it was the only speaker I had while waiting for my HR-1s to be built....these are the ones I'd choose if only allowed 1 pair.

The Omegas on some recordings are still a bit too good with the treble...a little hot but it is getting better with break in.  The Zu's were horrible before the extremely long break in they required.  They were so bad that I would only listen to them about an hour a day and listen with headphones most of the time...for about a month. But after break in and proper placement and adjustment of the space between the floor and the Zu's ports with spikes...the Zu's were wonderful doing that disappearing act in my listening room paired with the Torii MK IV.  Now the Zu's and Omegas are both doing duty in the den with my ZSM Mono Blocks and at this point, I wouldn't want to part with either. I've written about all three pairs of speakers in the "Spinning Now" thread where I live most of the time. Read the reviews for all the Audio jargon but I would recommend either as a relatively affordable speaker to pair with a low  wpc tube Amp...preferably a Decware.  Mark.

PS...I've added pics.  the Omegas have a 7' Alnico Driver and the Zus a 10".  The Omega pic is my actual speaker, the Soul is a stock photo with my finish.

blank it. Save up for the HR-1s. Your amp deserves them.

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That's pretty much what Steve said.

I honestly think the DirectStream would be in my shopping cart before the HR-1 though. It all depends on how I can figure out to afford all this, and how my room sounds after designing and building diffusers (took a big step towards the diffuser project today - contacted a CNC router shop to help me make the jig I need)

IMHO, I love the accuracy of the MG-944, but I still think the M-T-M design just doesn't jibe with my world view on imaging. I think I need simpler speakers to get where I want to be.

Thanks Mark for the impressions.  The finish on your Omegas is beautiful as well.  I have a pair of Omega RS7 ferrite "vintage" drivers in Walnut, but my cabinets are the Super 3 (I believe from the pic you have the deeper 3XRS cabinets).  I thought it a safe bet to go with the ferrite drivers as I have the Taboo MK II at 6 watts and they are more efficient than the alnicos, but not as refined according to Louis ... so if the ferrites sound pretty darn good to me as it is ~ I can't help thinking what the alnicos would sound like  

How do you feel the alnicos are pairing with the low watt mono blocks?  At the time I felt that they may not get loud enough for movies (which my setup does double duty as).  But now that I have a preamp in front of the Taboo it really opened up the sound stage and has enough gain to drive the Taboo's  required 2.5v for max output and right now for music I have the dial set on my preamp to only about 45-60% (rarely above 55%) and for movies from 65% - 85% (rarely above 80% though) whereas before (without the preamp) I was clipping it while watching movies which was a bit frustrating ... but now I have plenty of volume for all my needs with the efficiency of the ferrite drivers combined with a preamp ~ so now I can't help wondering if the Taboo has enough juice to drive the alnicos.

Nothing is off the shelf with Omega and Louis designs his own drivers, etc. and I feel they make a nice speaker for the money.  Nothing's perfect of course (especially at their price range), but I compared a lot of speakers and found them one of the best I'd heard for the money.  

I'm looking forward to learning/hearing more about Omega's upcoming Paramount line which I believe are using a new 8" driver designed by Louis to which I've heard there may be a trade up plan within the works for current Omega owners, so that is also pretty cool as well.

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I am in the same boat, I was using Vienna Acoustic prior to my single driver foray.  And I have found there's something special to me about crossoverless single/concentric drivers where the sound is emanating from a single point source = very cool!  In fact, maybe too cool as now when I listen to multi-driver speakers I find myself noticing the different frequency ranges within the sound spectrum (between the tweeter and mid range drivers) and they are not as coherent compared to single driver speakers which I find annoying (I've heard from other single driver owners who hear the same phenomena, although this supposedly goes away after a while of listening back to multi-drivers).

I doubt I would have the coin for a pair of HR-1s anytime soon, so I'm always looking for good performing speakers in the $2000 or below range that would work with low watt amps (such as the Super Zen and Taboo) and the Zu Souls were always on my short list, not to mention very cool looking, but the Omegas aren't too far behind in the looks department.

Thanks Mark!  I felt I may have been pushing it, so it's nice to hear real world results from someone.  Sometimes on the Omega/AudioCircle forum owners can get a little excited and lead to some conclusions that there would be no problems for low watt amps to drive the alnicos.

The thing about the Taboo is although it's 6 watts, it needs a higher output source or preamp to really shine.  I have found out through trial and error (while music tends to be loud enough with just the source directly into the Taboo) it just did not have enough juice for movies ... it was especially the quiet dialog scenes where it ran out of steam (which seems odd as explosions and action scenes were fine).  Now with the C220 preamp everything is actually quite awesome, with very little downsides to it so I'm pretty happy.

Your post leads me to believe that I think the ferrite drivers are the right choice for me ~ as me being on a limited budget this is an all around system that does double duty and I'm quite content with the volume and headroom I have/need when neccessary.

On the other hand the Zu Soul's being at 99dB I have no doubts I would have plenty of headroom.  With that being said I think I'm ok with my Omega speaker choice ... for now.