Zu Omen or Tekton Lore

Great review, Zman. I have about 70 hours on mine now and they are really opening up now. Very dynamic and resolution is unbelievable. I am still driving mine with the Deware SE84c SET, but my Quicksilver Mini Mites will be here Wed. for a face off. The system is very revealing, thus any changes I make in the chain (speaker cable, IC's, powercords), all seems to make a substantial difference in tone and overall sound. Moreso than any other speaker I've owned and that includes some that are 5-10x the price. That says allot! For any of you considering a well known conventional brand up to $10K, I would seriously look at the Lore!! This is coming from someone that has been down those roads and this purchase has me missing none of the loudspeakers I've ever owned before.

The Lore's strengths are:

Very balanced and seamless design
Superb mid range - vocals sound great!
Good lower end - but more in class of qaulity, rather than quantity although it isn't deficient
Very musical
Great tonal shading - now this one that is a must for me! As with most speakers, this is easier accomplished with a good tube front end
Value - truly off the charts!

The Lore's weaknesses are:

I will have to get back to you on this one... I honestly can't think of anything that I am "missing," other than perhaps to see what these do with more power

Cpapace - Eric did tell me that he had one scheduled, and I believe it was with Stereophile. But you do understand how this industry works, right? If not, here’s something for you to consider:

Reviews are fun to read and have their value in some cases when the “flavor” or intent of the designer is revealed somewhat accurately, but most reviews are "paid for" and there are other industry strongholds in place to consider. One usually has to spend money on advertising his/her product in a magazine before the mag will even think of reviewing them. So then, if someone is pumping advertising revenue into your account, are you going to trash them and give them a bad review on anything? Take a look at most reviews today and you will see my point. The reviewer will focus on the positives and the general theme is that the product is fair to excellent value but is not going to take down “the giants.”

They have to protect the big guys - it keeps the industry strong and in good order. Your best bet is to listen to end users like us. Forget the reviews. They all should be subjected to toilet reading... IMO.

Well said Gpowered.

I see these are a front ported design and I can only have my speakers out a maximum of 12-18 inches from the wall. Will the Lore's still sound acceptable in this position? My current speakers are Vandersteen 1C's.

My tube amp passes through hum on the Vandy's...90db efficient...that is readily discernible without the volume turned up. Will the 98 db efficient Lore's just magnify this artifact to distracting levels?

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.