Zu Omen or Tekton Lore

Comments that this speaker is not for those who listen to compressed pop music and that the speaker is desgined to sound like "live music" concerns me some because I do listen to pop music from time-to-time and I don't want to force myself to buy music that only works with a certain type of speaker as I am looking for a speaker that does well with the kinds of music I like.

All the reviews speak highly of these speakers, though. So, just to be clear: Does the speaker call attention to itself or can we expect a good balance between detail, air, soundstage, sparkle and decay?

I know the best thing is to listen to them myself but thanks to anyone who addresses whether these speakers will be altogether too unforgiving except for only the best recorded material.

Even my crappy car speakers will show how fatiguing modern "brickwalled" pop music is.

I've had my Lores for almost two weeks now and they have produced remarkably well with everything I have thrown at them. I listen to an extremely wide array of music; with the exception of pop but unfortunately modern production tactics have leaked into most genres these days. It's one of the reasons why I decided on the Lores and I am extremely satisfied that I did.

I agree. I find the lore's one of the best "all rounders" I've come across. They can be true to sorce. So it will show if the recording is poor but not to the point it's fatiguing. I find they like good valve amplification.

I'm no pro reviewer, so I'm sorry I can't throw all the lingo at you, but I'll respond as I'm guessing you are refering to my post. You do not need "the best recorded material" -- the M-Lores are rather forgiving actually b/c they don't try to give you ultra-detail. I have pretty eclectic taste in music (free jazz, grarage rock, old metal, tropicalia) & no one is ever going to accuse stuff from ESP-Disk or bands like The Oblivians of being hi-fi, yet it all sound good on the Tektons. There's a naturalness to the speakers that makes me think of "live" music. Highly compressed modern pop doesn't sound natural to me on any system, but it sounds particularly poor to me on the Tektons; I think that, more than anything else, its a by-product of hearing the naturalness of non-compressed music on the Tektons & how the compressed stuff doesn't give me that. Could you listen to Lady Gaga and LMFAO on them? Sure. Would I buy them if that's what I listened to most of the time? Probably not. For me, though, the Tektons are just insanely good speakers for the price. I currently own four sets of speakers and, despite being the cheapest ones, I can honestly say the M-Lores provide the most fun listening. As always, of course, YMMV.

Just go me some Pendragons with SiO. Can anyone recommend some bang for the buck speaker wires? I've heard someone recommend Kimber Kable here.