Zu Omen or Tekton Lore

And is there anyone in the Chicagoland area with some Lores? I'd love to get a listen. Would even schlep over some amps to see how they sound with different amplification....

Jedinite24-

Glad to give you my reviews next week. I asked Eric about my receiver and the Lores and he said it will sound fantastic. He said a lot of his testing has been with a 30W amp so my 50W Outlaw should "rock out" (in Eric's words)..

We shall see!

I agree with Sebrof - hearing a few songs in a foreign room with foreign equipment isn't enough for a full comparison. Furthermore, this was way back in October. That said, I do remember comparing the Soul Superfly system to other systems at RMAF. It was not in my top 5 systems, and I recall coming home to my system and feeling it was definitely in the top 5. The only affordable system that was in the top 5 other than my system at home was the Odyssey complete system - $5500 for everything except source. It rocked, had finesse, soundstage depth/width/height, etc. I'm committed to high efficiency, otherwise I probably would have bought that system and sold off my current one. What I was hearing last night was very much in line with what I liked about those Odyssey Lorelei's driven by the Odyssey electronics. Dynamics, space, tone, etc.

Not that the Lorelei's and Lores can be said to be exactly the same or should even be directly compared - I'm just saying the main attributes that wowed me about the Odyssey system have been introduced to my home system through the Lores.

Comparison to Hornshoppe Horns? Well, last night's listening showed the Horns to be lean and less spatially resolving in comparison. They're great for what they are, but the Lores are a whole other animal. Lores could play louder with greater ease and scale - the dynamics were more substantial. They Horns image well, but the soundstage is greatly expanded with the Lores, in width, height, and depth. There is also greater tone and micro-resolution, most notably with guitar. Then again, I WAS listening to a live Ween concert, so you better believe guitar was where a lot of the action was. In terms of dynamics, percussion was also much more resolved as a result of better dynamic ability. As a former drummer, this was a great result for me.

Ok, guys. Don't take what I'm saying here too far too fast. I just listened to one DVD for a couple hours very early into the burn-in period. I really like what I'm hearing, but I'm no fan-boy, and I'm willing to offer criticism as much as note what I like. I haven't heard Omens, and I'm not trying to make that comparison here. All I can say about my LIMITED experience with the Soul Superfly is that they were "interesting", but did not wow me at RMAF. Lorelei's did then, and Lores are right now, in my room, in my system. Who knows how the Superfly's would do in my room/system, but I'm not that interested to find out given what I was hearing last night. Let's see how the Lores fare with a load of my other music.

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

04-08-11: Sebrof "No, he did not say that. He said he heard a couple of songs on the Superflys in a hotel room.
Easy, tiger."

I realize you own Omens and Tekton speakers. Please do not take any of what I am about to say as negative. I am sure there are many happy Zu owners out there that will read what I am about to say, and perceive as negative or become discontent with their purchase. This is not my intent! At the end of day all that matters is sound quality / design execution, and all of us know personally whether we made the right choice or not. Not one of us has made the right move every time – I have surely been on both sides.

With that said, I am hoping to hear the Zu line for myself at some point so I can make my own judgment once and for all, but I have some inside information that tells me the Lore transcends every speaker in the Zu line up, all the way up to the Essence. I cannot state this as conclusive, but research and plain common sense, along knowing how good the Lore’s are first hand compared to what else I have owned, I believe I have strong indication.

The fact is, Eric helped Zu design some of its offerings - he gets my nod for aptitude when it comes to engineering and speaker building. Does Zu have this level of talent in design and engineering of a loudspeaker? I am not sure.

It sounds like you may have fallen into pricing deceptions by believing the Lore should compare only to $1K-$1,500 loudspeakers. I wouldn’t get hung up pricing – not in this case. Eric does not advertise, and he has less overhead, therefore he can sell a loudspeaker for allot less if he chooses to. He has disclosed that he is hoping to really get his business off the ground with this new Lore model, which reasonably explains why he packed so much into a lower priced offering.

You have seen the list of speakers I have owned, have you not? It is no fluke – this speaker is really that good.

Contrary to Omen, the Lore:

• cabinet is tuned for phase accuracy and damped properly. It weighs more as a result.
• has no strange modification of an already well designed Eminence driver – the whizzer is not cut out with a utility knife and modified with a phase plug for an undisclosed reason – it may enhance some areas but what else is it doing??? Is this why Zu speakers measure so poorly?
• doesn’t have an inverted tweeter housing with no function other than looks (it is not a horn, so what is it)???
• tweeter is better – I have seen the tweeter that Zu uses in the Omen and it is inferior to the Audax Super Tweeter