Zu Omen or Tekton Lore

Well, I would say I've listened to some pretty heavy rock on the Lores with quite a bit of pleasure. My first night's listening session was with a live Ween concert at concert levels, and I was FULLY rocking out on it. Some of my heaviest bass music is probably my Soul Coughing albums. They have some really intense synthesized bass going on, and especially on Ruby Vroom, it's really high quality as well (upright bass for that stuff). I would never say the Lores were "confused" on any of this material in the bass region.

Your biggest risk with heavy rock, in my experience, is that it's been recorded/mixed using "modern" techniques that quash all the dynamics. If this is the case, the Lores will sound loud but compressed, as that's exactly what the recording is offering. Sometimes that's listenable, other times not. YMMV I could see strong potential for heavy metal to be unlistenable if it was recorded/mixed badly - think modern Metallica. On the other hand, some more underground heavy metal is actually extremely very technically demanding, and I bet some of those recordings paid attention to quality. Not being a heavy metal buff, I can't suggest a good example there.

Bottom line, the Lores will completely rock if the source material and amplification is up to the challenge.

I recently received my Lore speakers connected to the Triode trv-845se integrated amplifier.

First, the Lore's were very well packed. Detailed set of unpacking instructions from Tekton helped ensure no damage upon opening.

I tend to listen to Jazz, both instrumental and vocals.

Initially I connected a sub-woofer to the speakers to strengthen what I would describe as weak and laid back bass. But after about 10 hours I noticed improvement in bass to the point that I disconnected the sub-woofer.

I've listened to different source material with the Lore's and am very happy with the purchase. The speakers present an airy, detailed presentation with good bass.

My other speakers are Daber Audio Monitor 3, Paradigm Monitor 7 v4 and Energy RC30. All the speakers have their own way of presenting the music. I would put the Lore's at the top of the list with the Daber Audio Monitor 3's (a good match with my Primaluna Dialogue Two integrated amp).

Have you also tried the Lore with your Primaluna amp? I would be curious about the pairing.

Hi Genjamon, in fact I did connect the Lore’s to the Primaluna Dialogue Two after posting my last remarks. I wanted to compare the Tekton Lore with the Daber Audio Monitor 3 speakers using the Primaluna Amp.

Overall the Daber Audio Monitor 3 is a better speaker. It presents clearer detail in mid’s and high’s. And the bass is controlled and balanced. Its presentation is more forward and engaging than the Lore’s. It also plays better at lower volume due to stronger bass.

There are times I want a speaker to be laid back. I believe the Lore’s are very good for this. Its mid’s and high’s are presented somewhat equally with the bass in the background.

When I connected the Lore’s to the Primaluna amp the mid’s and high’s are clear, just not as good as the Daber Audio Monitor 3.

The bass with the Lore’s, although good, sounds a little lean. Bass isn’t strong enough at low volume to my liking or for certain types of music, such as rock. One advantage I have with the Primaluna Amp is I have a Pioneer GR-777 Equalizer connected to it. So I chose “heavy” to boost the bass. This improved the overall sound at low volume. The Lore speakers sounded better. With jazz and vocals stronger bass isn’t always preferred by me, so I can fine-tune the sound of the Equalizer or turn it off completely.

Its obvious to me the Lore’s are perfectly capable of playing decent bass. It all comes down to matching the speakers to your equipment. There is just so much tube swapping you can do to a tube amp to get the “right” sound to your taste or to match equipment. That’s why I bought the Equalizer. I wish tube manufacturers would put more emphasis installing defeat-able tone controls.

A big advantage of the Lore is its 98db efficiency. I do not have any experience with horn speakers. But I believe anybody considering the Lore’s for low powered amps would be very happy with these speakers.

I enjoy reading posts on this forum but have only posted a handful of times. When I saw a steady stream of negative comments about Zu by one poster in particular, I was anxious to get Zu's side of the story. I alerted them to this thread and here is their reply.

Disclaimer: I own Soul Superfly speakers.

There seem to be a few misconceptions revealed in this thread, so here are some facts to stabilize the banter:

1. FOR THE RECORD

If there’s any notable inspiration behind our loudspeakers it’s Henry Olsen whose 1934 design for RCA set the template for full range driver loudspeakers of high efficiency.

2. ABOUT OUR FULL RANGE DRIVER. It’s made by Zu AND Eminence, with a few parts coming from other suppliers. It has many things finished by Eminence: the voice coil, the charging of the magnet, the riveting of the yoke / magnet / frame assembly, lay-up of the primary cone, the former assembly. Zu adds its own features to the platform by using modern materials to gain improvements to bandwidth, power handling, power transfer, etc. A quick check to measure the Thiele/Small electromechanical parameters, or even the weight of the driver will suffice to prove our Zu driver is not an Eminence B-102, which does use the same cone profile, voice coil diameter and frame.

Zu does much of the final assembly in-house; driver frame finish, phase plug assembly lay-up final cone processing and driver lay-up, final QC, batching, matching and burn-in. it’s a hands-on process that includes the hand removal of the center dust cap using an Xacto knife.

4. ABOUT OUR TWEETER. One forum posting quotes an ‘inverted tweeter”! We’re sorry to disappoint but there is nothing inverted here. We use the Eminence APT tweeter driver.

5. INCIDENTAL POINTS

We don’t mind that the Lore weighs more than the Omen.

Phase accuracy in a bass-reflex loudspeaker is phase accurate noise – if that’s important to you, no problem.

Any more info required, just ask us – we enjoy a good chat.

Cheers

Simon Matanle
Sales & Marketing Director
Zu Audio
simon@zuaudio.com