Zu Omen or Tekton Lore

Eric use to work for Kimber.

They do have what I consider cones instead of spikes.
I put a platform under mine because the carpet and mat I am useing would not allow the cones (spikes) to go through to the floor.
That is one thing I think Eric should address on his design.

B rodgers

The SET amps have a lot more trancient attack than the high powered digital amp.

And the mids are smooooth. With plenty of detail. But the fact remains that these 98db speakers are born with an SET in mind.

I think it might be a step in the right direction.
Just sayin.

I've ordered my Lore's and they should arrive in the next week or so. He says 5 day turnover but I don't think that's going to happen.
My previous speaker was a Monitor Audio RS6. A VERY highly reviewed speaker with just cause. They were fantastic speakers. When the Lore's arrive I will give my initial impressions compaired to the MA RS6's.
And as they break in.
I'm fortunate enough to have a fully treated music room so I can give a rough review to there full potential and there weekness.
Eric assured me that they would out performe the Zu Essence or Soul Superfly.
I know, the guy building and selling the speakers is not the best place to get an un-biased opinion.
But I have never heard anything neg. about the Lore from people who have heard them.
We will see.
On paper they out perform the Omen and the Soul.
For $850. I couldn't pass it up.
I'll keep you posted.
John

Gpowered.
When you mention the Modified Eminence, what are the mods?
Eric also mentions the Eminence being slightly modified.
Thanks.
John

I've read from a SuperFly owner that the SF doesn't image as pin point as he would like.
That being said, you may have to go higher in the Zu line to match the excellence of the Lore.
And at an insane price point ($850).
I've heard some crazy expensive speakers that don't come close to this starter priced speaker.
I'm amazed at what I'm hearing.
I would also like to state that this isn't tunnel vision talking.

B rodgers.
You've given me hope in my speaker choise.
It's always good to know that a floor staning speaker can put a smile on the face of a Maggie owners face.
It's always a challange to compete with the soundstage of Maggies, and to know you were happy make me happy.
Eric told me that mine will be shipping on Wed..
I'll keep the post going with my initial impressions.
John

Mine should be arriving tomorrow.
I'll post my first impressions then.

I don't know about the Omen Def's, but I don't think the Omen has any dampening material inside the cabnet.
That's one of the reasons I looked at the Lore.
And the fact that Eric addresses the phase timing at such a low price point.
I also like the front porting over the bottom porting.
I might eat all my words once I heard the Omens, but on paper the lore should be a more refined speaker.
I was really wanting the SuperFly when I started my quest, but at twice the price at holiday pricing it was a no brainer.
I'll give the eye candy to the Zu speakers though.
Gpowered loves his white paint but I chose the basic black because of cost restrictions. There a little disapointing after owning some beautiful rosenut speakers.
It's not Erics fault, I chose what I chose. And I don't want to imply that the fit and finnish is sub par. There done well. Maybe I can just buy a pair of boxes in a wood finnish in the future from Eric and just transfer all the hardware over. Who knows.

Ok, heres a short summary of my first impessions of the Lore's.
I will give a better review after break in.

Right out of the box they were very dark and compressed sounding. So I put some heavy hitting music (Tool) on and called a freind of mine to tell him how I think I made a mistake.
I was on the phone for about an hour and my friend assured me that new speakers need burn in.
In my mind, I couldn't see the speaker changing THAT much.

My previous speakers were Monitor Audio RS6's. That were very open and ballanced.
So I went back into my music room and set in the sweet spot and the differance was night and day.

So for the rest of the afternoon I was measuring the placement and laser aliegning the tow-in and yada yada.
After everything was perfect I sat down and listened to many CD's from Jazz to Rock to solo piano.

The soundstage was very wide and deep. The imaging was very pin point. They imaged much better than my RS6's.
The Lores disappeared like no other speaker I've heard.

The tonal ballance was beautiful. The Lores handled everything I threw at them and done it right.
They were delicate when they needed to be, and they were forceful and aggressive when called upon.
The bass is very full with out being obtrusive.
The male vocals never went into the bass department. That's a very good thing.
Well, thats all for now. I'm more than just a little stoked about these speakers. Eric's not getting them back.

Have a great day.
John

I'm not sure there broke in yet. I have an impression that traveling from Utah to Florida in a cardboard box surrounded by styrofoam builds a static charge that dissapates quickly.
I am using a stereophile burn in disc that will speed up the break in period.
I've tilted the speakers back about 2 deg. and have them towed in about 5 deg. My golden triangle is a little over 6 feet.
The treble is good. Not to glary or to rolled off. But I'm sure the caps that are used on the tweeters will take time to burn in.
I tilted the speaker back to compensate for the tweeter being below the driver. It worked out great.
I do not have grills.

The finnish is Satin Black. It's not a pretty speaker but the fit and finnish as been stated before is top notch.
I'm using an Almarro A318B amp with an Emotiva ERC-1 Cd player w/MAC UltraSilver+ IC's.
My speaker cables are JW Audio Cryo Nova.
My power cords are MAC HC Soundpipes.
It's not exotic, but it sounds great in a fully treated room.

Well, I've got over 100 hrs and these things are scary.
The depth and invisability of the speaker is hallucinatory.
I was listening last night after mid-night when the AC is as clean as it's going to get and it was spooky to say the least. Imaging was so linear. I've never been that engaged in music before. The bass is so articulate that in my small room (10X13) it is a non issue. Still full and deep, but soooo good. I've emailed Eric and let him know what a gem he has with the Lore's.
A audiophile freind of mine came over and brought his Sony XA5400 CD player and I suddenly realized I need a better front end. My other speakers didn't even come close to these. The cross over less speaker has way more bennifits than I thought possible.

Well said Gpowered.

I'm pretty sure the hum will show up at 8 db louder.
If the hum got quieter as you turned the volume down I would say there would be no issue. But if it's there with the volume turned down, that's will be an issue.

Cwazz, I don't normaly say things like this. But you have proved yourself worthy.... You're an ideot!

Sukihock.
Give Eric a call and lock in a price. Then buy them when you get the cash.
He's a real nice person and I'm sure he'll lock the price in for you.

The biggest differance that I've been able to read about is that the Lore has cabinet dampening, 30hz bass responce, Phase control and a tweeter that is second to none.
I don't know if it sound will be better or not. On paper and price, it has an edge.

The Omen has 34hz bass responce. I doubt if one could hear the difference.
And the price difference is the real edge.

Mlg, I think Gpowered got his in white. He sent me a photo and they look real sweet.
For the price point, I don't think you'll be selling them any time soon after you hear them. They are quite good.
I'll PM you about some cables. Welcome to the Lore club.
Looking forward to your impressions.

The Almarro A318B is a high current SET that produces SET mids with very strong bass. The highs are pristine.
It has 18 watts per channel.
I bought it after reading a 6Moons review that comapred it to amps costing upward of over $10,000.
I've never regreted my purchase.
It does rock, jazz, solo and everything in between.
I just bought a NAD C-565BEE cd player that has gotten some very inpressive reviews. I'm looking to upgrade from my Emotiva ERC-1. A freind brought over a Sony XA5400 cd player and we hooked it up in my system. It cold smoked the Emotiva, so naturally I had to get a better front end.
A Audiogoner posted in one of the Sony 5400 threads that he liked the NAD just as much as the Sony. And the NAD is much less, so I'm going to audition it this weekend.
The Lore speaker responded very well with the better front end.
So for now, my amp and my lores have a place in my music room for quite a while.

Your Manley's should be a great amp for the Lore.

I've emailed the poster of the NAD cd player to ask him to give me a in-depth review of the differances of the Sony and the NAD and he was almost stating the NAD was his favorite.
That's what prompted me to buy the NAD.
Gooddomino, email me and I'll forward you his response.
I'm sure he wont mind.

I think it may be something else opening up in your system.
The wire Speltz uses has very little dielectric on them and the dielectric is what the burn in is about.
Dielectric is the insulation around the wire and acts like a capacitor. Storing energy and releasing it. The burn in attempts to allow the signal to pass without the effects of the dielectric but never really does.
I know about these things because I also manufacture a cable very similar.
If you have 300 hrs on your entire system, maybe it's something other than the cables opening up.

I also want to make note that my last statement was in no way shilling. I was just establishing credibility to the comment I made.

All in due time.

I noticed that I can't enter the website either. It says the DNS is not responding.

1 1/2 way is a correct description of the Zu and Tekton speakers. A near full range main driver with a tweeter for help on the top end.

Looking forward to making a set for you.

Well it’s been over two months since I took possession of my Lore’s.
I initially bought them to step into and try a FRD type speaker at a low cost.

I’ve been playing with placement and platforms and just recently got the speakers in the perfect spot to perform at their highest level in my room.

Though it started out as a test to see if the FRD type speaker was the way for me to go, I don’t see replacing the Lore anywhere in the near future.
Once placement was established, the Lore does it all. The bass is the most tuneful bass I’ve experienced in any speaker.
The mids are perfect. The highs are very well extended and seamless with the driver. The soundstage is very wide and very deep.
The imaging is the best of any speaker thus far I’ve ever heard.
The front porting makes it difficult to get the bass wrong. Very clean.

I am so struck by these speakers, I’m going to highlight them on my website to point out the price to performance ratio that nothing else that I have ever tried even comes close.
I feel that you cannot find a better speaker at 3x the cost. And that’s conservative.

The dynamics and transient attack is unmatched by anything I’ve tried thus far.
To tell you the truth, I don’t think that my system could have ever reached the point of where it is now if I hadn’t tried the lore speaker.
They are an incredible find, not just because of their price point.
I would recommend these speakers to anyone looking for an upgrade to they’re system. I’d put my name and reputation on them.
Hope this helps someone that might be considering a speaker change to take a listen to them.

John

Light in the bass? I never considered the Lore to be light in the bass. It's not earth shattering bass. It's very ballanced and not dominant. Bass is a personal preferance to most people. Some people just want big bass and everything else is secondary. I like a ballance with a little slam when slam is needed.
Room placement will definatly help out in the bass department.
I'd much rather have clean bass than more bloated bass.
Deeper bass would be nice, but for what it has, it's very clean and to my liking.
Just my opinion.

I'm so glad to see the maturity in this post. It could easily get out of hand and it hasn't.
Thanks guys, I love the input that's going on here.
For what it's worth. As I was looking into the Zu's or Tekton Design line, I talked with Eric (I know it's based on a bias) about the Lore and he said that it will compete with the Essence speaker. Eric has listened to all the Zu speakers and he didn't seem to be a over the top person.
He could have said they compare to the Superflies but he was confident that the Lore was better.
I haven't heard the Zu line up so I'm baseing what i say to what Eric conveyed to me.
I know Zu is making a speaker that is a very good speaker.
But the Lore is without a doubt the best speaker I've heard compared to anything I've ever been able to afford.

I wish I could audition a pair of Superfly's for confirmation.
I trust that Sebrof has as much experiance as any of us and he states that the Omen is a great buy at $1000.
But also states that if he had it to do over he might choose the Lore.

We're over the top for the Lore simply because it's performance is right up there with the best there is on the market.

My Listsning room is small, so I can't put a $30,000 speaker in there to see if it's better or not. It would surely overpower my room.
But for every other speaker that will not over power my room, the lore has outperformed them all by leaps and bounds.
I can only speak from my own experience and a fellow audiophile that has spent time in my room listening.
He has had $30,000 speakers in his system and can't say enough about the performance that the Lore has acheived.

I had my doubts after I ordered the speakers.
I couldn't comprehend how a guitar speaker would be able to do what I was hopeing. I am more than pleased with the results.
Please take what I say as what it is. My oppinion on a product that I didn't have much hope for. I was wrong.

Genjamon, it sounds like you know what your doing.
It's all personal taste. If you like it, who are we to say it's not right.
Have fun.
John

I would say that they have a well balanced bass but not a kick in the chest bass. It's an audiophile type bass. Strong but not bloated. YMMV

Maybe just on the payroll.

Individual taste and expectations have a lot to do with perception. I love the Lore, but I also respect others opinions on them also.
If I had bought the Omen instead of the Lore, Chances are I'd be writing great things about Zu.
The fact that we can have such great speakers at prices that almost anyone can afford is thrilling to me.
Have fun in the hobby.
John

Cwazz, I found that I needed to get the room involved to get the 30hz from the speaker.
For a long time I felt there was a gap in my lower mids and bass.
I moved the speakers closer to the wall behind the speakers and closer to the walls on the side.
I had rear ported speakers before the Lore and can verify that you can't place a front ported speaker in the same place as a rear ported speaker and get the same performance.
I also toed the Lore in quite a bit to help in the depth of the soundstage.
Hope this helps.

John

I might add that if given more time with the Lore, you could have very well tweeked out a better sound from it also.

Let the games begin.

Jdoris.
I think it might be because it was a insulting post toward the person selling the item. I was disappionted when I saw the post. I had nothing to do with the deletion, but since these posts are regulated, it's easy to see why it was deleted.

Glad to hear you took the effort to get the room involved.
It makes a huge difference.

I used a bag of lead and sand on top of the Lore's to eliminate cabinet resonance. The imaging was much improved over not having the bags on.
Just a thought until you can do the cabinet tweek.

Genjamon, I knew there was a serious listener in there.8;)

I don't think he will bring it down to the introductory price again.
He sells returns for that price now.
The Lore is too popular.

I decided to pick up a really good sub to augment the lower end of the Lore. The Lore has great bass, but lets face it, from 40hz down they roll off pretty quik.
The sub I got has a room correction EQ to correct for room accoustics and give a flat FR to 26hz.
Well, I figured that if I had to help the Lore in the bottom end, I could pick up a killer monitor that would perform with the Lore sonicaly.
One thing I haven't been able to get passed is the looks of the Lore. In satin black it is butt ugly.
With the kind of money I have in my system I want a nice piece of furniture to look at.
That's it! Just going in a different direction with my system. The lore sounds great, but if I have to augment them in the lower end, I might as well get a great monitor that will completely disappear.

I have two monitors to start with. The first is the Onix Reference 1. The second is a very lively monitor, the Triangle Titus 202.
I'm pretty sure that the Onix will fill the bill, but the Triangle is such a lively speaker that I just have to try it. If they don't work, I'll sell them and try something else.

Cpapace, I don't understand the comment you made. Could you explain. Maybe I've missed something.

I want to make clear that the Lore is a stunning speaker to 40hz. It's not hype on my behalf. But for $1000 used, I'm sure I can find something out there that comes close with a little eye appeal.
And with a sub as bottom end.
It could be that I will look around and test different speakers and come back to a used pair of Lores with some wood veneer. The sonics aren't the issue.
It's just time for a change.
I do want to say that everything that has been said about the Lore is true... Except the 30hz thing.

Well said Sebrof. Very good observation.

Room reinforcement happens in every room. But pushing your speakers closer to the front wall and corners are a compromise. Every wall is a support for bass. But you give up quality to get quantity in doing so.
Bloated bass and you loose the depth of your soundstage.
Thier are serious listeners and cassual listaeners.
A casual listener normaly has his system in the livingroom with a home theater right in the middle of his speakers.
With the furniture placed here and there.
For them, the pushing a speaker back to get bass is ok and works fine.
The serious listener usually has a music room devoted to his system. With room treatments and minimum furniture.
Laser towing and to the inth measuring to get everything as good as possible.
For this person, pushing the speaker closer to the wall is just not an option. He wants the purity of the speaker and will sacrifice bass for it.
Now, if that person wants more bass, the sub-woofer is the answer.
The right sub-woofer I might add.
For some reason their are a lot of people that look down thier nose at a sub-woofer. In fact, they might think thier better than the person that uses a sub because he can push his speaker closer to the wall and not have to use a sub.
The fact is, a sub-woofer is a fantastic tool. It allows me complete control over my bass and I keep the clean bass and deep soundstage that is very important to me.
I am a no comprimise listener that would rather use a tool than to comprimise quality.
The Lore done a lot of things right, but once you've had 20hz clean bass response, the pushing the speaker to the wall just wont do.
This is my rant.

I had 18watts per channel driving them very loud.

If I could make a profit and try something interesting, I'd sell my pronounced best speaker too!!!
I thought GP done a great review of the Pendragon. And his comments on the Lore were spot on.
So give him a break, his zest for something good and zeal to share with others is a bennifit to all.
Gpowered, I hope you aren't discouraged by anyone.
I might sell my Corvette if a Ferrari came along at a great price.

It's an idiot with a foriegn accent!