Zu Omen or Tekton Lore

The Lores are so well balanced I really can't see someone going very wrong.And size wize they don't over whelm.
I disagree on this with Eric spend the extra bucks and get the real deal! You won't be sorry you did. I would never give up the rich bass extension of the Lores for a very slightly smaller speaker.

Wow, this thread has gone really quiet lately! Thought I'd try to bring it back to life a bit with some final thoughts about the Lore vs. Lore-S comparison.

I now have my original Lores back in the house after a couple weeks of giving the Lore-S a try. I really don't have much more to say on the dynamics vs. fullness issue. The Lore is definitely more dynamic than the Lore-S, and it fills a room better. I also think the Lore has a more tactile sound to it, probably part of the greater dynamics, both micro and macro.

The Lore-S has a warmer tone, and fuller sounding instruments on the whole. It seems to give greater dimension to the instruments, while also separating them better than the Lore does, and with greater sound field depth. The high frequencies were certainly there, and with greater nuance and detail, but they were more recessed than with the Lore.

Now that I have the Lore back at home, the sound field does not seem as deep. I hadn't expected this, as I guess it didn't strike me upfront about the Lore-S, but I guess I got used to it while they were here.

Still, the dynamics and room-filling sound of the Lore gives music through it a greater presence in my room, and even though the instruments don't have as much weight or dimension, I love the articulation of the Lore. I guess it's what we all call that "live" sound that they have. The Lore-S had all the details, but they didn't seem to carry the same energy and emotion as with the Lore. The Lore isn't as revealing, probably, but still very revealing, enough for me, but with greater emotion and musical energy.

Keep in mind with all of the above that I'm not a big small band, singer-songwriter, jazz, or classical buff. I listen to a lot of modern alternative, rock, etc stuff. I do listen to some smaller group and acoustic music too. Some of this is actually really well recorded, others of it definitely not. I also listen in a 16X24 room, with some good sized openings to other parts of the house, fairly well treated.

Bands and songs I'm very familiar with and used in my lineup for comparison:

Ani Difranco - What How When Where Why Who
Paul Simon - You're the One, and Hurricane Eye
Ray Lamontagne - You Can Bring Me Flowers
Fiona Apple - Carrion
Bonnie Prince Billy - Wai
Fleet Foxes - Sim Sala Bim
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Bats in the Attic
Soul Coughing - City of Motors, and Down To This
Stevie Ray Vaughan greatest hits - Little Wing
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
Ween (live in Chicago) - Mutilated Lips
Micky Hart (Global Drum Project)
Florence & the Machine
Keller Williams
American Beauty soundtrack

I'm happy to be back with the Lore. I have a tube amp coming to take the place of my Dayens Ampino solid state amp. I wonder if that will help close the gap in dimensionality without sacrificing the presence and emotionality due to dynamics and micro-dynamic articulation I currently have. If not that, I'm interested in trying the new Red Wine Signature 15. I'm also quite interested in what Goramon has shared regarding crossover tweaks and what he and others have noted about dampening. That could also help close the gap while retaining the overall character I like better about the original Lore.

Onward ho!

I forgot one last set of thoughts. I find the placement of the Lore pretty sensitive to very small changes and kind of hard to get the right balance of center fill and soundstage width/depth. When you get it right, it's really good, but it takes work.

I did not find the Lore-S to be nearly as placement sensitive. It sounded mostly the same whether flat or slightly tipped up, and not that different between a couple different positions I had used with the Lore. The differences were not nearly as large as with the Lore in those different spots. Probably relevant for those who don't have as much placement flexibility.

Thanks Genjamon....to continue your discussion about placement to the Pendragons, I have found them to be very sensitive to small changes also and I have just spent much time moving them and yet I still that I need to keep working to get them just right. Their bass can easily overload a room and the soundstage and dynamics all change with each tweak.

I have not tried tipping them up or down as I do not know what size footers that I could use with them. I will have to give Eric a call tomorrow......

Well, I also forgot to mention that I didn't find the Lore-S very sensitive to interconnects or speaker cable swapping, not as much as the Lore is. I have the copper version of Sweet Reveal cables from Tuan over on Audiocircle and some level two Morrow interconnects (silver coated copper) I swapped between, and I also have some litz braided single core copper speaker cables I swapped with some Clear Day shotgun solid core silver cables. Didn't sense a whole lot of difference on the Lore-S, while on the Lore I very much prefer the solid copper interconnects over the Morrow. Haven't yet made up my mind on the speaker cables though, as the litz ones just arrived at the end of the Lore-S audition.